Bill Gates is a well-read guy, and it’s been that way for a while. He would check out books from the library so much as a youngster that the librarian wouldn’t give him new ones until he returned a few.
So it’s safe to assume that his top ten books of 2012 are legitimate. The Microsoft co-founder writes that he “read some amazing books this year.”
“Every one of these books changed my worldview, and I highly recommend them if you’re looking for inspiring reading,” Gates wrote.
Here are the top ten books that made Gates “think.” Each is linked to a written review that Gates himself penned.
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The Better Angels of our Nature: Why Violence has Declined by Steven Pinker
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Deng Xiaoping by Ezra Vogel
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The Quest by Daniel Yergin
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Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer
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Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo
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One Billion Hungry: Can We Feed the World? by Gordon Conway
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A World-Class Education by Vivien Stewart
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Academically Adrift by Richard Arum & Joshipa Roksa
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This Time is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly by Carmen Reinhart & Kenneth Rogoff
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The City that Became Safe: New York’s Lessons for Urban Crime and Its Control by Franklin Zimring
Previously on GeekWire: The Bill Gates of bud? Former Microsoftie plans high-end marijuana business