Bill Gates, co-founder and chairman of Microsoft, is not only a billionaire who is ranked at the top of the world’s richest list every year, but is also a philanthropist and librarian who runs the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the world’s largest charitable organization that bears his name. He announced on his official blog the 2021 edition of 5 books to read in summer, which he releases every summer.
2020 was a year in which COVID-19 was prevalent around the world and global warming received attention as an important issue. Gates commented on books on the subject of the complex relationship between humans and nature in 2020, and recommended five recommended books for the summer of 2021 according to the theme.
The first is Lights Out (Pride, Delusion, and the Fall of General Electric). By Thomas Gryta and Ted Mann. It is about the rise and fall of GE, the world’s largest general electric maker, recorded by two Wall Street Journal reporters. How do successful companies like GE succeed? He’s been thinking about this question for years, but he says this book has taught me a lot. It is stated that there will be many
The second is Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future. by Elizabeth Kolbert. The Pulitzer Prize-winning author, known for his sixth mass extinction, took a more active approach to the global environment. Whether it’s a biologist trying to protect a rare fish, an engineer trying to turn carbon dioxide emissions into stone in Iceland, or an Australian researcher trying to develop a super coral that can survive on a hot planet, save the planet from the limit of its destruction so far. It deals with trying
Gates said that the five books he pointed out this time are the most direct consideration of humanity vs nature, and the author evaluates this work as talking about people who solve problems that caused mankind to try to solve problems, and considers humankind such as genetic manipulation or geoengineering. said that it contains a way to intervene in nature. He rated this theme as an enjoyable book to read, as well as the other four books on topics he was interested in.
The following is the memoir of former President Barack Obama, A Promised Land. Three memoirs of former President Barack Obama, America’s first African-American and president of color. Gates says he’s interested enough to say he must read a book about the president of the United States, which he particularly likes. President Obama is being candid about his experiences, saying that it is interesting to know what it is like to run a country in difficult times.
The fourth is The Overstory by Richard Powers. It won the 2019 Pulitzer Prize. Gates said that this is the most special book he’s read in the past few years, and that this work follows the lives of nine people and delves into their relationship with the tree they hold. Although he has a very biased view on the need for forest protection, he said that it refreshed the idea of wanting to know more about trees, as well as the passion and emotion that each character has.
Finally, An Elegant Defense: The Extraordinary New Science of the Immune System: A Tale in Four Lives. Matt Richtel’s 2019 book describes the complex biology of the immune system for the general reader. It also drew attention due to the COVID-19 outbreak just a year after the publication of this work.
Gates said the work was published before COVID-19, but the book, which explores the human immune system, helps us understand what is needed to stop it. The author focuses on four patients who are forced to manage the immune system in some way. He said that he succeeded in making a complex subject feel friendly with the help of the four patients, and said that the story of the four patients was quite interesting to know about immune science. Related information can be found here.