Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. (GeekWire File Photo)
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. (GeekWire File Photo)

The original Microsoft CEO, Bill Gates, has practically created a third career for himself by reading and recommending books, so why shouldn’t the current Microsoft CEO get in on the act?

booksSatya Nadella is one of 50 notable people from tech, business, politics, sports, entertainment and the arts who shared their favorite books of 2014 in the Wall Street Journal’s annual “Books of the Year” roundup, published today in the weekend edition of the newspaper.

It’s hard not to wonder when Nadella found the time for recreational reading, while simultaneously figuring out how to lead an $86 billion,128,000-person company.

In fact, it’s fitting that three of his picks relate to the issue of time and information overload:

  • The End of Absence: Reclaiming What We’ve Lost in a World of Constant Connection” by Michael Harris
  • Pressed for Time: The Acceleration of Life in Digital Capitalism” by Judy Wajcman
  • The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload” by Daniel J. Levitin

Writes Nadella in the piece, “In my day job, I have been reflecting a lot on what it means to live in a more connected and digital world. To me this is not about the physical devices in our lives but the physiological benefits and challenges.”

Nadella also read “Capital in the Twenty-First Century,” by Thomas Piketty, which was one of Gates’ top 5 books of the year, as well.

And he re-read The History of the Peloponnesian War — preparing, no doubt, for some battles of his own.

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