Bill Gates recommends 5 books to wrap up 2020 on a good note

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates recently shared his list of five book on a variety of subjects, that he recommends as a wrap-up of 2020, on Gates Notes.

Bill Gates recommends 5 books to wrap up 2020 on a good note

Monday December 21, 2020,

2 min Read

Philanthropist and Microsoft Co-founder Bill Gates is known to be an ardent reader. In the Netflix show Inside Bill's Brain: Decoding Bill Gates, the billionaire opened up about his reading habits. In fact, in an interview with Medium.com, Bill Gates said that given a choice, he would select reading as his preferred superpower.


Bill Gates recently shared his list of five good books for what was a "lousy year", on Gates Notes. The Microsoft co-founder wrote:

"In tough times—and there’s no doubt that 2020 qualifies as tough times—those of us who love to read turn to all kinds of different books. This year, sometimes I chose to go deeper on a difficult subject, like the injustices that underlie this year’s Black Lives Matter protests. 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."
Bill Gates

Bill Gates, Co-founder of Microsoft

Bill Gates listed five books on a variety of subjects that he recommends as a wrap-up of 2020. He said that he hopes the books can help the readers in some way, and help them become ardent book-lovers, "Finish the year on a good note."


What has now become an annual tradition, and often an anticipated one, here is the list of books Bill Gates recommends:


  • The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander


  • Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World by David Epstein


  • The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family and Defiance During the Blitz by Erik Larson

  • The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War by Ben Macintyre
  • Breath from Salt: A Deadly Genetic Disease, a New Era in Science, and the Patients and Families Who Changed Medicine, by Bijal P Trivedi

Edited by Kanishk Singh