Nine books Bill Gates thinks everyone should read

For Business Insider, Drake Baer went through the last four years of Bill Gates's book criticism to find "the ones that he gave glowing reviews and that changed his perspective." One title on the list:

The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined by Steven Pinker

In "Better Angels," Harvard cognitive scientist Steven Pinker branches out into the history of the most contentious of subjects: violence.

Gates says it's one of the most important books he's ever read.

"Pinker presents a tremendous amount of evidence that humans have gradually become much less violent and much more humane," he says, in a trend that started thousands of years ago and continued until this day.

This isn't just ivory-tower theory. Gates says the book has affected his humanitarian work.

"As I'm someone who’s fairly optimistic in general," he says, "the book struck a chord with me and got me to thinking about some of our foundation's strategies."

Read about the other books on the list.

The Better Angels of Our Nature is one of Fareed Zakaria's six favorite books.

Learn more about Steven Pinker's top five books on the decline of violence, his most important books and five best list of books that explore human nature.

--Marshal Zeringue