By
Godfrey Benjamin
April 18th, 2024
As the holidays are slowly approaching, Bill Gates has shared one of his most favorite books. He absolutely loves it and has gifted it to 50 friends.
Bill Gates is known as the co-founder of Microsoft and one of the richest people in the world. But he doesn’t have a reputation of the genius/billionaire who reads a lot of fiction (though he admits that loves reading). The book that has greatly impressed him is called “The Rosie Project” by Graeme Simsion, and Bill absolutely loves it. He says that it has it all – it makes readers laugh, cry, think, and the main character is so vivid that, in Gates’s thoughts, anyone can relate to.
He noted:
“We all have powerful fears, and seeing them in Don makes you feel like you’re not the only one.”
Initially, Bill Gates’ wife Melinda introduced this book to him. Once he said that she “kept stopping to recite parts of it out loud”. That lead to Bill eventually “taking a look” at the book. Once he started it that night at 11:00 PM, he said he stayed up until 3:00 AM, and couldn’t stop reading the book.
The books main character is Don Tillman. He is a geneticist who may or may not have Asperger’s Syndrome. He is determined to find a suitable wife for him. So he decided to create a double-sided, 16-page questionnaire to fulfill his mission.
According to Bill Gates, he even has gifted it to at least 50 of his friends. He thinks that this novel is “one of the best novels” he’s read in a long time. And that’s quite the praise coming from a man who “doesn’t read a lot of fiction”.
“The book is less about genetics or thinking too logically or the main character’s hilarious journey than it is about getting inside the mind and heart of someone a lot of people see as odd — and discovering that he isn’t really that different from anybody else,” Bill writes in his review. He thinks this book is an extraordinarily clever, funny, and moving. It is about being comfortable with who you are and what you’re good at.
So there you have it. If Bill Gates can gift books for Christmas then you can too! And why not follow his example, because the book really sounds interesting. And just for the laughs of it – if Bill loves it, maybe it has some kind of secret billionaire tips in it.
In addition, if you start reading the book and you really love it too – Bill and Melinda say that there is also a sequel called “The Rosie Effect” which they also recommend.
Moreover, there is a couple of books that are also highly recommended by Gates. He even thinks that they should be read by those people who want to work at Microsoft or at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. These books are “Factfulness” by Hans Rosling and Steven Pinker’s “Better Angels of Our Nature”. They may be useful for people who are preparing for changes in their lives. And they offer some insights on how to make their lives better.