Bill Gates Recommends These 5 Inspiring Books For A 'Lousy' 2020

Bill Gates has revealed the books that offered him some comfort and inspired him to do good despite a “lousy” 2020.

The founder of Microsoft shared the list of five books on his blog Gates Notes and encouraged people to read them in the upcoming holiday season. In his latest blog post, Gates wrote that there’s “no doubt that 2020 qualifies as tough time” and reading is one of the things that gave him a distraction to get through such a tumultuous year.

Here are the five books that Gates highly recommends.

1. “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness” by Michelle Alexander

The book focuses on the rebirth of a caste-like system in the U.S. that has resulted in millions of Black people locked behind bars and relegated to permanent second-class status. According to Gates, the book “offers an eye-opening an eye-opening look into how the criminal justice system unfairly targets communities of color and especially Black communities.”

The book, which was released in 2010, received universal acclaim and won the NAACP Image Award in the Outstanding Non-Fiction category in 2011.

2. “Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World” by David Epstein

In the book, author David Epstein presents a solid argument that range is much more important than specialization in today’s world and believes specialization is unwarranted.

Gates started to follow the author after his excellent 2004 TedX talk on sports performance. The co-founder of Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation also stated that the book is a must-read for “a generalist who has ever been overshadowed” by their “specialist colleagues.”

The New York Times gave “Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World” a positive review and wrote that it is “never less than a pleasure to read.”

3. “The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During The Blitz” by Erik Larson

The book centers on Winston Churchill and how he taught British people the art of being fearless during the war in 1940 and 1941. While talking about the book, Gates noted that the writer gives 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.”

He also shared that the book is a “great addition” to the literature focused on World War II.

4. “The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War” by Ben Macintyre

The book is based on the life of a KGB officer named Oleg Gordievsky, who was hired by the British’ Intelligence Service in 1974 and ran him as its agent for 11 years. Gates wrote that he considers the book as one of his favorites and that it is “as exciting as any of his favorite spy novels.”

5. “Breath from Salt: A Deadly Genetic Disease, a New Era in Science, and the Patients and Families Who Changed Medicine” by Bijal P. Trivedi

Gates labeled this book as “truly uplifting” and explained that it is one of the most “meaningful books” for him because he “knows the families who have benefited from the new medicines” that have been described in the book.