To become successful, one must work hard facing challenges and overcome different obstacles. It does not come in a silver or gold platter. One has to create his niche and prove to himself that he can make a difference in this world. The modern world has produced a lot of successful people, and we can certainly learn from their experiences. Aside from managing their businesses and making more money or attending charity events, they also make time to read and explore more on how to become a better person. In this article, we will learn the best books picked and read by Bill Gates in 2017.
The world’s wealthiest person shared his five best books in 2017, and surprisingly it does not pertain to some seriously nerdy stuff. His eclectic book choices range from memoirs and novels.
The Best We Could Do, By Thi Bui
A graphic novel on a family’s struggle to come and live in a foreign country. A sort of bibliography, the author, described the effects of displacement and war, the ability to be resilient and face daily struggles as they manage to find their way in the land of the milk and honey.
Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City, by Matthew Desmond
The book is on the story of eight families experiencing eviction during the financial crisis in 2008. The author examined the effects of monetary constraints brought about by economic depletion and exploitation, politics, affordable housing, and extreme poverty at that time.
Believe Me: A Memoir of Love, Death, and Jazz Chickens, by Eddie Izzard
Written by an actor, this memoir that possesses a title of a book similar to Gabriel García Márquez’ Love in the Time of Cholera, is his life story as an out transvestite. Reviews of the book hail it as remarkably candid and comedic while relating his life experiences and how he overcame them all.
The Sympathizer, by Viet Thanh Nguyen
The recipient of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, the reader, will be indulged in different themes like immigration, political, metafiction, mystery, dark comedy, espionage, war, and history. As reviewed by GatesNotes,“Nguyen largely ignores these questions and instead tackles the role of individual morality in a time of war. The narrator commits horrible acts on behalf of the North Vietnamese government he serves and the refugee community he’s spying on. He plays both sides to survive. In the end, his lack of conviction makes him the most immoral character of all.”
Energy And Civilization, A History, By Vaclav Smil
This is somehow the most serious book from the lost. Written with a historical perspective, the book deals with the importance of energy to the world and the survival of civilizations. It will take the reader to a time capsule and revisit different eras to describe and understand how power evolved all these years.
It is common knowledge that love for reading can bring a person many benefits. The primary of which is knowledge and eradicating ignorance. Successful persons have developed a reading habit wherein they continue to learn and apply this information in their daily lives. Our advice, buy a book, grab a cup of coffee and be taken away for some time to be entertained and educated.