These are Bill Gates’ favorite books of 2018

It’s cuddle-up-with-a-book season, y’all.

On Monday, Bill Gates released a list of his five favorite books of 2018 on his blog, without an Amazon link in sight. 

The recommendations include a meditation guide, a non-fiction look at autonomous warfare, the Theranos story, the memoir of a Mormon survivalist escapee, and a book that articulates a framework for worrying. 

Dude’s got range!

He even published the list in video form. You can watch as Gates drives a wood-paneled car through a literary winter wonderland of his own making, complete with a fairy-lights DNA strand and a Christmas-ified robot battle.

If you haven’t checked out other Gates Notes, the Microsoft co-founder is actually a prolific blogger. Under his “reading list” tag alone, he has 106 entries stretching back to 2010! In his list, the book titles link back to his full-fledged reviews of all five titles. Satya Nadella may be helming the ship at Microsoft, but Gates is truly living his best life.

Here’s Gates’ list of books, with highlights from his recommendations. And while he said he didn’t particularly think about gift-giving while composing the list, he had to acknowledge that “this year’s selections are highly giftable.”

1. Educated by Tara Westover

“I never thought I’d relate to a story about growing up in a Mormon survivalist household, but she’s such a good writer that she got me to reflect on my own life while reading about her extreme childhood.”

2. Army of None: Autonomous Weapons and the Future of War by Paul Scharre

“Autonomous weapons aren’t exactly top of mind for most around the holidays, but this thought-provoking look at A.I. in warfare is hard to put down.”

3. Bad Blood by John Carreyrou

“A bunch of my friends recommended this one to me.”

“If 2018 has left you overwhelmed by the state of the world, 21 Lessonsoffers a helpful framework for processing the news and thinking about the challenges we face.”

“Melinda and I have gotten really into meditation lately.”