Books Bill Gates has recommended
The books Bill Gates recommended on Gates Notes in his 2024 and 2025 holiday and summer lists, each with the original post.
Bill Gates has no affiliation with this site and does not endorse it. Recommendations are quoted from public sources listed at the bottom. Background: Wikipedia.
Gates publishes a short list every summer and every December on Gates Notes, with a paragraph on why each book earned a spot. The lists skew toward science, engineering, public health and the occasional novel, and he reads them in full before recommending; several picks below are from authors he later interviewed.
This page covers the 2024 and 2025 lists. Each entry links to the Gates Notes post it came from; descriptions are paraphrased from his write-ups.
The list
Engineering in Plain Sight
Grady Hillhouse · 2022
His 'perfect read for the holidays' in 2024: an illustrated field guide to the roads, power lines, water towers and other infrastructure hiding in plain view, from the creator of the Practical Engineering channel.
The Coming Wave
Mustafa Suleyman · 2023
Gates called it his favorite book on AI for its balanced treatment of both the opportunity and the risk, written by a DeepMind co-founder.
The Anxious Generation
Jonathan Haidt · 2024
A must-read for parents and educators, in his words, on what smartphones and social media have done to youth mental health.
An Unfinished Love Story
Doris Kearns Goodwin · 2024
A memoir of the 1960s told through her late husband's papers; Gates found its account of a turbulent decade relevant to handling hard times now.
The Women
Kristin Hannah · 2024
The novel on his summer 2024 list, about the nurses who served in Vietnam, in a set of books themed around service to others.
Remarkably Bright Creatures
Shelby Van Pelt · 2022
The novel pick on his 2025 holiday list: a widow, an aquarium, and a very observant octopus.
Abundance
Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson · 2025
A 2025 holiday pick arguing that building more (housing, energy, science) is the project that matters, which overlaps heavily with Gates' own clean-energy work.
When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows
Steven Pinker · 2025
A 2025 pick on common knowledge: why coordination problems depend not on what people know but on what they know others know.
Clearing the Air
Hannah Ritchie · 2025
Ritchie's data-driven case on air pollution and climate, in the same vein as her earlier Not the End of the World, which Gates also praised.
Who Knew
Barry Diller · 2025
The memoir on his 2025 holiday list, from the media executive behind Paramount, Fox and IAC.
Questions people ask
How often does Bill Gates publish book recommendations?
Twice a year on Gates Notes: a summer list around May or June and a holiday list in December, usually four to five titles each with a short review.
Does Bill Gates recommend fiction?
Occasionally. Most of his picks are non-fiction on science, health and history, but each list usually includes one novel; recent examples are The Women and Remarkably Bright Creatures.
Sources
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Keep going
Charlie Munger
Berkshire Hathaway vice chairman (1924–2023)
The books Charlie Munger recommended in Poor Charlie's Almanack and at Berkshire Hathaway and Daily Journal meetings, with sources.
Naval Ravikant
AngelList founder, investor
The books Naval Ravikant recommends in the Almanack of Naval Ravikant's reading list, with his own one-line reasons.
Patrick Collison
Stripe co-founder and CEO
Books Patrick Collison flags as particularly great on his personal bookshelf page, several of which Stripe Press later republished.
E-ink reading & analog notes
The one gadget that makes you do less, plus the notebook and pen you'll actually open.
Readers of this list also open
From a $800 Mac mini to a 512GB Mac Studio: the hardware that actually fits the model you want.
A sub-20 W mini PC running Proxmox, a NAS for the data, and a UPS so a power blip never eats your drives.
No soldering. A hot-swap kit, switches and keycaps you chose, and the three tools worth owning.
Monitor at eye height, a chair that fits, a desk that lets you stand. Buy those first; cheap out on the rest until it bugs you.