Bill Gates Recommends 5 Books for the Holidays

This holiday season, Bill Gates is sharing his five book recommendations while you celebrate and eat to your heart’s content.

As you may already know, billionaire Bill Gates is a book lover and is always reading. He reads 50 books each year and also shares his favorite books of the year. Now, he is sharing 5 books that will be perfect to read for the holiday season on his blog.

Bill Gates books
Bill Gates’ holiday book recommendations

Bill Gates 5 Book Recommendations for this Holiday Season

  • Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein
  • Surrender by Bono
  • Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin
  • The Inner Game of Tennis by Robert Gallwey
  • Mendeleyev’s Dream by Paul Strathern

Stranger in a Strange Land

The first book on the list Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein is a sci-fi book that Gates was recommended by his late friend and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.

“I met Paul [Allen] around [that] time, and we got to know each other by talking about sci-fi. I thought I had read a lot of it, but Paul way outdid me.”

Surrender

The second book on the list is Surrender by Bono and Gates calls it the best memoir by a rock star I actually know.” The autobiography is by U2 frontman Paul Hewson and he and Gates have been friends for many decades and have worked together on philanthropic efforts.

Team of Rivals

Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin is a critically-acclaimed biography about Abraham Lincoln. Gates goes on to praise Goodwin as one of the best biographers and calls the book as relevant as ever.

“It feels especially relevant now when our country is once again facing violent insurrection, difficult questions about race, and deep ideological divides,” Gates writes on his blog.

The Inner Game of Tennis

The fourth book selected by Bill Gates is The Inner Game of Tennis by Robert Gallwey. It is a book about Tennis that focuses on your mental state and its importance when playing tennis. Gates recommends this book even if you have never played tennis. “He gives excellent advice about how to move on constructively from mistakes, which I’ve tried to follow both on and off the court over the years,” Gates says.

Mendeleyev’s Dream

The last book to make the list is Mendeleyev’s Dream by Paul Strathern. It is a book that covers the history of chemistry and the people that were vital in its development. The book “traces that history all the way back to its origins in ancient Greece.”

Holiday Reading

These are the five books recommended by Gates for the holiday season. Have you read any of them before or plan to? I know I will be adding a few of these to my reading list!

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