[PLUG-TALK] The books that Bill Gates reads

[Keith Lofstrom]

On Sun, May 12, 2013 at 06:51:44PM -0700, Martin L. Buchanan wrote:
> http://www.thegatesnotes.com/Books

Interesting list.

I've read 28 of those, and "One Billion Hungry" is on the night
stand.  I would characterize most of them as the upper end of
"Pop Sci", not a lot of heavy lifting, not much deviation from
the Received Wisdom, but better than Hunger Games (one of the
only two fictions on the coverwall). 

I have a few more fictions on my list, mostly because I have
fiction author friends who ask if I've read them.  I feel
obligated to read all science fiction novels whose bad guys
are named "Lofstrom" in my honor.  I imagine Mr. Gates would
be overwhelmed by such an obligation.

I put an occasional book review on one of my wikis.  If I had
the money to hire a personal librarian, I suppose she could
create a coverwall like Mr. Gates' 140+ books. 

Over the last 6 years, I've borrowed 500+ books from the
Washington County Library system, about 200+ from OHSU, PSU,
and Multnomah County, and about 300 purchased because no
local library has them.  And a vast number of semi-random
used purchases from library sales; 9 of the books that Mr.
Gates and I have both read were among those $1/book purchases. 
I wonder how many of his books were used or from a library?

I assume Mr. Gates has a vast number of books, and people to
purchase and care for them.  Like me, I imagine he has read
cover-to-cover a small fraction of the books he owns.  He may
also subscribe to the Umberto Eco philosophy.  When a reporter
asked Eco whether he had read his 40,000 books, Eco replied
"Of course not.  If I read them, I would no longer need them."

When I have more time, perhaps I can put a partial reading
list (mostly culled from library and vendor emails) up on my
wiki.  I suspect I will never have more time.  I will surely
put up more book notes - as I get more forgetful, this is
increasingly helpful for keeping track of where I learned
something, and what I am forgetting.

Keith

-- 
Keith Lofstrom          keithl at keithl.com         Voice (503)-520-1993