I always find his book recommendations disappointing. I hope to see some obscure gem in there, but it mostly looks like the non-fiction display section being promoted right now at my local bookstore - pop science and history etc.. Nothing wrong with that, but I know Gates has a high intelligence, so I always hope for more.
Book Titles<p>> Leonardo da Vinci, by Walter Isaacson.<p>> Everything Happens for a Reason and Other Lies I’ve Loved, by Kate Bowler<p>> Lincoln in the Bardo, by George Saunders.<p>> Origin Story: A Big History of Everything, by David Christian.<p>> Factfulness, by Hans Rosling, with Ola Rosling and Anna Rosling Ronnlund.<p>He goes in depth on why he recommends them on the gatesnotes website.
The TED talk by David Christian about big history is still my favorite TED talk of all time: <a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/david_christian_big_history?utm_campaign=tedspread&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=tedcomshare" rel="nofollow">https://www.ted.com/talks/david_christian_big_history?utm_ca...</a>
+1000 for Kate Bowler, every interview she's done, and her podcast "Everything Happens". <a href="https://katebowler.com/everything-happens/" rel="nofollow">https://katebowler.com/everything-happens/</a><p>The profound intimacy (not without its joy or laughter, but full of brutal honesty and shocking maturity) that comes from living with incurable cancer and bringing other people into it is truly something apart from the everyday. Though it probably shouldn't be.<p>She is really a scholar of the human condition (in addition to her profession of religious scholarship-- see her work on the prosperity gospel, really) and her insight is amazing. This is not a "typical" anything.
I wonder how <i>Origin Story: A Big History of Everything</i> by David Christian compares to <i>A Short History of Nearly Everything</i> by Bill Bryson.<p>Otherwise, if anyone is looking for other recommendations for summer reading:<p>- <i>Sculpting in Time</i> by Andrei Tarkovsky<p>- <i>When Nietzsche Wept</i> by Irvin D. Yalom<p>- <i>The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge</i> by Rainer Maria Rilke