Bill Gates recommends
For the past several years in his Gates Notes, Bill Gates has recommended books for summer reading. This year he only recommended two books. The first is certainly one that would appeal to Bill Gates. It’s about two friends who come together while in college to design a video game. No wonder he liked it, right?
Gabrielle Zevin worte Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow. It was published in 2022 to very good reviews. The New York Times Book Review reported that it was ” delightful and absorbing.” Zevin is not only an author but is also a screenwriter. She wrote the screenplay for her best seller The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry. Many of us have read that book! I will be looking forward to the movie.
By the way, “Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow” is the beginning of the second sentence of a famous soliloquy in Macbeth. Quotes from the soliloquy have been reused in various forms of literature throughout modern times. Here it is:
She should have died hereafter;
There would have been a time for such a word.
— To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury
Signifying nothing.
— Macbeth (Act 5, Scene 5, lines 17–28)
The second book Bill Gates recommended is entitled Born in Blackness, by Howard French. French is a professor of Journalism at Columbia University and a former New York Times bureau chief.
Gates recommended Born in Blackness because he says he ‘learned a lot from this thoughtful, well-researched book.’ Other critics have said that the book totally reframes the role that Africa played in the development of the modern world. Writing in narrative form, French takes the reader to Africa with pictures and accounts of his travels. Far from a dull historical read, this book is “beautifuly done; a masterpiece even…. French writes with the elegance you would expect from a distinguished foreign correspondent, and with the passion of someone deeply committed to providing a corrective.” Peter Frankopan, The Observer
I’m not a video game fan or player but I loved Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin. It was fascinating and compelling in the best way. It opened my mind to some very different ideas and I was totally absorbed by the story. It was a singular reading experience! I recommend it.