Books 2016

Bill Gates, Gretchen Rubin and other leaders share their favorite books of 2016

Kathleen Elkins | @kathleen_elk 

 Tuesday, 6 Dec 2016 | 12:49 PM ET

Adam Jeffery | CNBC

Bill Gates at the 2015 CGI Annual Meeting in New York

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Being a bookworm is a smart way to get ahead.

Some of America's top executives, such as Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, are voracious readers.

This week, during Facebook's #ReadtoLead campaign, business leaders across various industries are sharing the top books they read in 2016 that shaped their perspective on business, management or leadership.

Here's what Bill Gates, Gretchen Rubin and other successful individuals recommend from what they read this past year:

Lacy O’ Toole | CNBC

Bill Gates

Bill Gates

Self-made billionaire and co-founder of Microsoft

Gates' best reads of 2016 include:

• "String Theory" by David Foster Wallace
• "Shoe Dog" by Phil Knight
• "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee
• "The Myth of the Strong Leader" by Archie Brown
• "The Grid" by Gretchen Bakke

Read Gates' full post.

TED Conference | Flickr

Margaret Heffernan

Margaret Heffernan

Author and TED speaker

Heffernan's best reads of 2016 include:

• "Creativity Inc." by Ed Catmull and Amy Wallace
• "Team of Teams" by General Stanley McChrystal, Tantum Collins,David Silverman and Chris Fussell
• "Giving Voice to Values" by Mary C. Gentile
• "Give and Take" by Adam Grant

Read Heffernan's full post.

Direct Relief | Flickr

Nicholas Kristof

Nicholas Kristof

New York Times op-ed columnist and winner of two Pulitzer Prizes

Kristof's best reads of 2016 include:

• "Evicted" by Matthew Desmond
• "Sapiens" by Yuval Noah Harari
• "The Plot Against America" by Philip Roth
• "The Trespasser" by Tana French
• "The Whistler" by John Grisham 
• "The Orphan Master's Son" by Adam Johnson
• "The Moor's Account" by Laila Lalami

Read Kristof's full post.

Getty Images

Ubisoft co-founder and CEO Yves Guillemot

Yves Guillemot

Co-founder and CEO of Ubisoft

Guillemot's best read of 2016 is:

• "The Art of Happiness" by the Dalai Lama

Read Guillemot's full post.

Chris Guillebeau | Flickr

Gretchen Rubin

Gretchen Rubin

Author and speaker

Rubin's best reads of 2016 include:

• "Emotional Agility" by Susan David
• "How to Live a Good Life" by Jonathan Fields
• "Born for This" by Chris Guillebeau
• "First Impressions" by Ann Demarais and and Valerie White
• "Between Breaths" by Elizabeth Vargas

Read Rubin's full post and watch her video discussion of each book.

Adam Tinworth | Flickr

Jeremiah Owyang

Jeremiah Owyang

Founder and CEO of Crowd Companies

Owyang's best reads of 2016 include:

• The "Freakonomics" series by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
• "Younger Next Year" by Chris Crowley

Read Owyang's full post.

NASA HQ PHOTO | Flickr

Scott Kelly

Scott Kelly

Former NASA astronaut who spent 500+ days on the International Space Station

Kelly's best read of 2016 is:

• "Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage" by Alfred Lansing

Read Kelly's full post.

Don't miss: Billionaires Warren Buffett and Bill Gates agree on the best business book ever written.