While Bill Gates has a schedule that's planned down to the minute, the entrepreneur-turned-billionaire-humanitarian still gobbles up about a book a week.
Aside from a handful of novels, they're mostly nonfiction books covering his and his foundation's broad range of interests. A lot of them are about transforming systems: how nations can intelligently develop, how to lead an organization, and how social change can fruitfully happen.
We went through the last four years of his book criticism to find the ones that he gave glowing reviews and that changed his perspective.
1. 'Tap Dancing to Work: Warren Buffett on Practically Everything, 1966-2012' by Carol Loomis
Warren Buffett and Gates have a famously epic bromance, what with their recommending books to each other and spearheading philanthropic campaigns together.
So it's no surprise that he enjoyed "Tap Dancing To Work," a collection of articles and essays about and by Warren Buffett, compiled by Fortune magazine journalist Carol Loomis.
Gates says that anyone who reads the book cover-to-cover will walk away with two main impressions:
First, how Warren's been incredibly consistent in applying his vision and investment principles over the duration of his career;
... [S]econdly, that his analysis and understanding of business and markets remains unparalleled. I wrote in 1996 that I'd never met anyone who thought about business in such a clear way. That is certainly still the case.
Getting into the mind of Buffett is "an extremely worthwhile use of time," Gates concludes.
Aside from a handful of novels, they're mostly nonfiction books covering his and his foundation's broad range of interests. A lot of them are about transforming systems: how nations can intelligently develop, how to lead an organization, and how social change can fruitfully happen.
We went through the last four years of his book criticism to find the ones that he gave glowing reviews and that changed his perspective.
1. 'Tap Dancing to Work: Warren Buffett on Practically Everything, 1966-2012' by Carol Loomis
Warren Buffett and Gates have a famously epic bromance, what with their recommending books to each other and spearheading philanthropic campaigns together.
So it's no surprise that he enjoyed "Tap Dancing To Work," a collection of articles and essays about and by Warren Buffett, compiled by Fortune magazine journalist Carol Loomis.
Gates says that anyone who reads the book cover-to-cover will walk away with two main impressions:
First, how Warren's been incredibly consistent in applying his vision and investment principles over the duration of his career;
... [S]econdly, that his analysis and understanding of business and markets remains unparalleled. I wrote in 1996 that I'd never met anyone who thought about business in such a clear way. That is certainly still the case.
Getting into the mind of Buffett is "an extremely worthwhile use of time," Gates concludes.
