{"id":455602,"date":"2020-12-16T11:00:52","date_gmt":"2020-12-16T09:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=455602"},"modified":"2020-12-15T11:28:06","modified_gmt":"2020-12-15T09:28:06","slug":"5-books-bill-gates-thinks-you-should-be-reading-right-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/lifestyle\/455602\/5-books-bill-gates-thinks-you-should-be-reading-right-now\/","title":{"rendered":"5 books Bill Gates thinks you should be reading right now"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Microsoft founder and billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates has published a list of five of his favourite books on his reading list in 2020.<\/p>\n<p>In a <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gatesnotes.com\/About-Bill-Gates\/Holiday-Books-2020\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">blog post<\/a><\/strong> detailing the books, Gates said that he turned to books from a variety of different genres to help get him through a difficult year.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This year, sometimes I chose to go deeper on a difficult subject, like the injustices that underlie this year\u2019s Black Lives Matter protests.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Other times I needed a change of pace, something lighter at the end of the day. As a result, I read a wide range of books, and a lot of excellent ones.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/zxlx8aZJ6mE\" width=\"640\" height=\"430\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gatesnotes.com\/Books\/The-New-Jim-Crow\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness<\/strong><\/a><\/em><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gatesnotes.com\/Books\/The-New-Jim-Crow\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">,\u00a0<\/a><\/em><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gatesnotes.com\/Books\/The-New-Jim-Crow\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">by Michelle Alexander<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Like many white people, I\u2019ve tried to deepen my understanding of systemic racism in recent months,&#8221; said Gates.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Alexander\u2019s book offers an eye-opening look into how the criminal justice system unfairly targets communities of colour, and especially Black communities.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It\u2019s especially good at explaining the history and the numbers behind mass incarceration. I was familiar with some of the data, but Alexander really helps put it in context.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I finished the book more convinced than ever that we need a more just approach to sentencing and more investment in communities of colour.&#8221;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gatesnotes.com\/Books\/Range\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World<\/strong><\/a><\/em><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gatesnotes.com\/Books\/Range\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">,<\/a><\/em><strong><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gatesnotes.com\/Books\/Range\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u00a0<\/a><\/em><\/strong><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gatesnotes.com\/Books\/Range\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">by David Epstein<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I started following Epstein\u2019s work after watching his fantastic 2014 TED talk on sports performance.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;In this fascinating book, he argues that although the world seems to demand more and more specialization\u2014in your career, for example\u2014what we actually need is more people &#8216;who start broad and embrace diverse experiences and perspectives while they progress&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p>His examples run from Roger Federer to Charles Darwin to Cold War-era experts on Soviet affairs, said Gates.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think his ideas even help explain some of Microsoft\u2019s success, because we hired people who had real breadth within their field and across domains. If you\u2019re a generalist who has ever felt overshadowed by your specialist colleagues, this book is for you.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gatesnotes.com\/Books\/The-Splendid-and-the-Vile\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz<\/strong><\/a><\/em><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gatesnotes.com\/Books\/The-Splendid-and-the-Vile\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">,\u00a0<\/a><\/em><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gatesnotes.com\/Books\/The-Splendid-and-the-Vile\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">by Erik Larson<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Sometimes history books end up feeling more relevant than their authors could have imagined. That\u2019s the case with this brilliant account of the years 1940 and 1941, when English citizens spent almost every night huddled in basements and Tube stations as Germany tried to bomb them into submission.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The fear and anxiety they felt\u2014while much more severe than what we\u2019re experiencing with COVID-19\u2014sounded familiar.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Larson gives you a vivid sense of what life was like for average citizens during this awful period, and he does a great job profiling some of the British leaders who saw them through the crisis, including Winston Churchill and his close advisers.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Its scope is too narrow to be the only book you ever read on World War II, but it\u2019s a great addition to the literature focused on that tragic period.&#8221;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gatesnotes.com\/Books\/The-Spy-and-the-Traitor\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War<\/strong><\/a><\/em><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gatesnotes.com\/Books\/The-Spy-and-the-Traitor\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">,\u00a0<\/a><\/em><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gatesnotes.com\/Books\/The-Spy-and-the-Traitor\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">by Ben Macintyre<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p>This nonfiction account focuses on Oleg Gordievsky, a KGB officer who became a double agent for the British, and Aldrich Ames, the American turncoat who likely betrayed him.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Macintyre\u2019s retelling of their stories comes not only from Western sources (including Gordievsky himself) but also from the Russian perspective. It\u2019s every bit as exciting as my favourite spy novels,&#8221; said Gates.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gatesnotes.com\/Books\/Breath-From-Salt\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Breath from Salt: A Deadly Genetic Disease, a New Era in Science, and the Patients and Families Who Changed Medicine<\/strong><\/a><\/em><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gatesnotes.com\/Books\/Breath-From-Salt\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">,<\/a><\/em><strong><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gatesnotes.com\/Books\/Breath-From-Salt\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u00a0<\/a><\/em><\/strong><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gatesnotes.com\/Books\/Breath-From-Salt\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">by Bijal P. Trivedi<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This book is truly uplifting. It documents a story of remarkable scientific innovation and how it has improved the lives of almost all cystic fibrosis patients and their families.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This story is especially meaningful to me because I know families who\u2019ve benefited from the new medicines described in this book.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I suspect we\u2019ll see many more books like this in the coming years, as biomedical miracles emerge from labs at an ever-greater pace.&#8221;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/lifestyle\/450961\/why-your-december-braai-will-be-more-expensive\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Why your December braai will be more expensive<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Microsoft founder and billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates has published a list of five of his favourite books that he read during 2020.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":455604,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9876],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-455602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455602","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=455602"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455602\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":457404,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455602\/revisions\/457404"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/455604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=455602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=455602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=455602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}