Bill Gates' Recommendations I
2. 
What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions
by:
Randall Munroe
4.14 avg rating β 191,231 ratings 
7. 
Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
by:
Jared Diamond
4.04 avg rating β 445,096 ratings 8. 
9. 
The Magic of Reality: How We Know What's Really True
by:
Richard Dawkins
4.05 avg rating β 27,035 ratings 
11. 
Making the Modern World: Materials and Dematerialization
by:
Vaclav Smil
3.76 avg rating β 585 ratings 12. 
17. 
Poor Charlie's Almanack: The Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger 4.41 avg rating β 16,016 ratings
19. 
The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power
by:
Daniel Yergin
4.43 avg rating β 12,042 ratings 20. 
The Quest: Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World
by:
Daniel Yergin
4.14 avg rating β 5,096 ratings 21. 
Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity
by:
Katherine Boo
3.98 avg rating β 114,830 ratings 22. 
The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined
by:
Steven Pinker
4.16 avg rating β 29,271 ratings 23. 
27. 
Abundance: The Future Is Better Than You Think (Exponential Technology Series) 4.05 avg rating β 11,578 ratings
30. 
Creating Innovators: The Making of Young People Who Will Change the World
by:
Tony Wagner
3.87 avg rating β 2,186 ratings 31. 
35. 
A Rogue's Guide to Acquisition: Principles from the Final Frontier
by:
Ranak Jones
3.75 avg rating β 4 ratings 
37. 
The City That Became Safe: New York's Lessons for Urban Crime and Its Control 3.50 avg rating β 94 ratings
38. 
A Nation of Wusses: How America's Leaders Lost the Guts to Make Us Great
by:
Ed Rendell
3.54 avg rating β 162 ratings 39. 
The Art of Being Unreasonable: Lessons in Unconventional Thinking
by:
Eli Broad
3.51 avg rating β 540 ratings 40. 
Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything
by:
Joshua Foer
3.88 avg rating β 93,084 ratings 41. 
Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses
by:
Richard Arum
3.42 avg rating β 903 ratings 42. 
Awakening Joy: 10 Steps That Will Put You on the Road to Real Happiness
by:
James Baraz
4.14 avg rating β 776 ratings 
49. 
The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger
by:
Marc Levinson
3.86 avg rating β 6,744 ratings 50. 
The Most Powerful Idea in the World: A Story of Steam, Industry, and Invention
by:
William Rosen
3.93 avg rating β 1,369 ratings 51. 
Harvesting the Biosphere: What We Have Taken from Nature
by:
Vaclav Smil
3.72 avg rating β 139 ratings 52. 
The World Until Yesterday: What Can We Learn from Traditional Societies?
by:
Jared Diamond
3.78 avg rating β 10,885 ratings 53. 
Poor Numbers: How We Are Misled by African Development Statistics
by:
Morten Jerven
3.76 avg rating β 158 ratings 
55. 
The Bet: Paul Ehrlich, Julian Simon, and Our Gamble over Earth's Future
by:
Paul Sabin
3.69 avg rating β 389 ratings 56. 
57. 
Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty
by:
Daron AcemoΔlu
4.09 avg rating β 59,226 ratings 58. 
However Long the Night: Molly Melching's Journey to Help Millions of African Women and Girls Triumph
by:
Aimee Molloy
4.21 avg rating β 1,216 ratings 59. 
How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character
by:
Paul Tough
3.89 avg rating β 24,501 ratings 
61. 
Made in the USA: The Rise and Retreat of American Manufacturing
by:
Vaclav Smil
3.77 avg rating β 484 ratings 62. 
Whistling Vivaldi: And Other Clues to How Stereotypes Affect Us
by:
Claude M. Steele
3.92 avg rating β 6,021 ratings 
64. 
The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions FailβBut Some Don't
by:
Nate Silver
3.97 avg rating β 51,885 ratings 65. 
The Price of Inequality: How Today's Divided Society Endangers Our Future 4.02 avg rating β 9,789 ratings
66. 
Tap Dancing to Work: Warren Buffett on Practically Everything, 1966-2012
by:
Carol J. Loomis
3.98 avg rating β 2,722 ratings 67. 
The Fever: How Malaria Has Ruled Humankind for 500,000 Years
by:
Sonia Shah
3.90 avg rating β 1,490 ratings 68. 
House on Fire: The Fight to Eradicate Smallpox (California/Milbank Books on Health and the Public) (Volume 21)
by:
William H. Foege
4.18 avg rating β 421 ratings 69. 
Smallpox: The Death of a Disease - The Inside Story of Eradicating a Worldwide Killer
by:
D.A. Henderson
4.10 avg rating β 364 ratings 70. 
75. 
The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism 4.15 avg rating β 23,623 ratings
78. 
79. 
Getting Better: Why Global Development Is Succeeding--And How We Can Improve the World Even More
by:
Charles Kenny
3.62 avg rating β 204 ratings 80. 
The Man Who Fed the World: Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Norman Borlaug and His Battle to End World Hunger
by:
Leon Hesser
3.83 avg rating β 504 ratings 81. 
Energy Myths and Realities: Bringing Science to the Energy Policy Debate
by:
Vaclav Smil
3.87 avg rating β 622 ratings 82. 
The Last Hunger Season: A Year in an African Farm Community on the Brink of Change
by:
Roger Thurow
4.09 avg rating β 758 ratings 83. 
In the Company of the Poor: Conversations with Dr. Paul Farmer and Fr. Gustavo GutiΓ©rrez
by:
Michael Griffin
4.25 avg rating β 479 ratings 84. 
Change by Design: How Design Thinking Transforms Organizations and Inspires Innovation
by:
Tim Brown
3.89 avg rating β 10,905 ratings 85. 
Mighty Be Our Powers: How Sisterhood, Prayer, and Sex Changed a Nation at War
by:
Leymah Gbowee
4.16 avg rating β 4,306 ratings 
88. 
Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened
by:
Allie Brosh
4.17 avg rating β 213,878 ratings 
92. 
Should We Eat Meat?: Evolution and Consequences of Modern Carnivory
by:
Vaclav Smil
3.52 avg rating β 629 ratings 93. 
How Asia Works: Success and Failure in the World's Most Dynamic Region
by:
Joe Studwell
4.26 avg rating β 4,888 ratings 
97. 
The Myth of the Strong Leader: Political Leadership in the Modern Age
by:
Archie Brown
3.65 avg rating β 787 ratings 98. 
The Grid: The Fraying Wires Between Americans and Our Energy Future
by:
Gretchen Bakke
3.87 avg rating β 4,503 ratings 
