My Favorite Books of 2016

&quot;Honorable mention: The Grid, by Gretchen Bakke. This book, about our aging electrical grid, fits in one of my favorite genres: “Books About Mundane Stuff That Are Actually Fascinating.” &quot;<p>The author of this book was on NPR&#x2F;Fresh Air in August. It was a great listen&#x2F;read if you are interested in the subject.<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.npr.org&#x2F;2016&#x2F;08&#x2F;22&#x2F;490932307&#x2F;aging-and-unstable-the-nations-electrical-grid-is-the-weakest-link" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.npr.org&#x2F;2016&#x2F;08&#x2F;22&#x2F;490932307&#x2F;aging-and-unstable-t...</a><p>I heard it a couple of days after a weather related power cut and ended up in the rabbit hole of the risk from cyber warfare&#x2F;terrorism and solar flares. I&#x27;m not sure I would recommend that rabbit hole if you have any concerns about the reliance of society on technology and just in time shipping!

I really like the way he limits his list to 4 books. Most other thought leaders&#x2F;influencers&#x2F;CEOs do lists of 10, 20 &quot;hot topic&quot; books that you know they probably haven&#x27;t read. I find the volume also diminishes the individual importance of each book on the list.<p>I&#x27;ll have to pick up String Theory (I love that Bill Gates reads DFW) and The Grid per his recommendations.

A humorous observation: Ever look at an HTML page created by Microsoft Word? Quite a bit of code goes into what should have been a simple HTML document.<p>Now try viewing source of Mr. Gates&#x27; web page here: 6873 lines, the HTML &lt;p&gt; content starts at 5816 and goes for 9 lines to describe the 4 books plus the bonus, for a whopping total of 9 lines of content, 6864 lines of behavior and presentation... Wow.

I thought Shoe Dog was a great book, although my favorite book of the year was a Gates Notes recommendation for summer reading-- The Vital Question, by Nick Lane. If you&#x27;re interested in biology and the origins of life, it makes some provocative claims, and backs them up. If this doesn&#x27;t change how you think about life on earth (and elsewhere), I don&#x27;t know what will...<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.gatesnotes.com&#x2F;About-Bill-Gates&#x2F;Summer-Books-2016" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.gatesnotes.com&#x2F;About-Bill-Gates&#x2F;Summer-Books-201...</a><p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.amazon.com&#x2F;Vital-Question-Evolution-Origins-Complex&#x2F;dp&#x2F;0393352978" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.amazon.com&#x2F;Vital-Question-Evolution-Origins-Comp...</a>

Side topic: Does anyone know any good podcasts that fit his genre of “Podcasts About Mundane Stuff That Are Actually Fascinating&quot;?

Shoe Dog might have been my favorite read of the year, its a very inspiring and highly entertaining story. Regardless of what you think of Nike you can learn a lot about determination and grit from this book. I would recommend it to anyone with an entrepreneurial spirit.

Awesome to see DFW on HN. Infinite Jest&#x27;s tennis scenes helped shape the way I view the world. There&#x27;s one particularly great one where a father is giving some life lessons to his son via tennis. And it is excellent Here&#x27;s a link to (most of) the scene: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;books.google.com&#x2F;books?id=Nhe2yvx6hP8C&amp;pg=PT200&amp;lpg=PT200&amp;dq=infinite+jest+not+like+that+son&amp;source=bl&amp;ots=K3Ns0m27li&amp;sig=xNi2d-yEmd68jJ1M0SUwnuKBDQA&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ved=0ahUKEwjgh6LzuN7QAhXJAcAKHb5yCQ4Q6AEIPjAF#v=onepage&amp;q=infinite%20jest%20not%20like%20that%20son&amp;f=false" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;books.google.com&#x2F;books?id=Nhe2yvx6hP8C&amp;pg=PT200&amp;lpg=...</a>

I can confirm Shoe Dog is an incredible book. Bill&#x27;s summation is right - a how-to on building a company this is not, but it&#x27;s still very much worth reading.

Here is my list:<p>- Endurance: The story about an expedition to Antartica... gone wrong (<a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;amzn.to&#x2F;2g26L5i" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;amzn.to&#x2F;2g26L5i</a>)<p>- Crucial conversations: Learn how to argue with people without starting fights. Allowed me to look at the situation more objectively (<a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;amzn.to&#x2F;2h8w4yN" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;amzn.to&#x2F;2h8w4yN</a>)<p>- Making of the atomic bomb (<a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;amzn.to&#x2F;2gJF6VU" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;amzn.to&#x2F;2gJF6VU</a>)<p>- Relentless: the personal coach of Michael Jordan talks about how you can become a cleaner. Great if you want to understand how great athletes think (<a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;amzn.to&#x2F;2gJCerW" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;amzn.to&#x2F;2gJCerW</a>)<p>- Make: rockets. Some cool stuff to do with the kids (<a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;amzn.to&#x2F;2gZyQaQ" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;amzn.to&#x2F;2gZyQaQ</a>)<p>- How to make a spaceship: The history of the Ansari XPRIZE. Interesting read about how hard it was to build this spaceship. (<a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;amzn.to&#x2F;2h8xMzY" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;amzn.to&#x2F;2h8xMzY</a>)

While these all do look like excellent books, none of them really seem to be of particular interest to me.<p>Except maybe &quot;The Grid&quot;. Technical infrastructure is always fascinating and awe-inspiring.<p>...Which brings me to one of the two books that I reccomend on HN every time the subject comes up, because they&#x27;re just that good.<p><i>Exploding the Phone</i>, a fascinating dive into the world of phone phreaking that really needs more attention. It not only discusses the people and culture of the phreaking scene, but also the technology that drew them to the phone. It really manages to capture a bit of the magic that entranced people of the time: If you&#x27;re not a little bit in awe of the A4 crossbar switch by the end of it... You should be.

Shoe Dog is absolutely incredible. When you hear the back stories about the name Nike, the swoosh, Phil&#x27;s original business plan... Fascinating.<p>I do recommend that people are generally careful with blindly taking everything as a straight truth, especially when an author seems &quot;trustworthy&quot;. It is a known tactic to sneak in lies or exaggerations among the truths.

sigh, as an engineer, I don&#x27;t seem to have time to read books.<p>Did he read this many books before retirement?

I wonder, did he read this much when he was founding Microsoft? I ask because, as someone who would love to read, I feel like I never have the time. And strangely, I feel morally guilty for prioritizing other things like career growth etc.

Not saying this is true but what if Gates&#x27;s favorite books are the only books he may have read in 2016. It would be nice to see a full run down of his list including the ones he did not like.

It would be great if a similar list be curated from HN, if not every month, every quarter. The community here has a much diverse interests and we get to glimpse into different genres.

So many book recommendations. Really suggest people to create the list of books they read in 2016 over at <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;shelfjoy.com" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;shelfjoy.com</a> so that others can bookmark them and this thread is kept alive.

bill, and most people, should read and recommend more fiction (there&#x27;s a little bit of fiction in every one of his recommended books i&#x27;m sure).

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