When he’s not trying to guess how much ordinary things cost, Bill Gates keeps himself occupied by reading in his spare time.

You know, because being a world-famous billionaire and everything can be taxing.

Anyhoo, Gates manages to find time in his busy schedule to hit the books and chillax. Fortunately for him, his favourite author Steven Pinker has recently published a new book, and Gates has already called it his “favourite book of all time”.

Via Business Insider:

Steven Pinker [pictured below] is a professor of psychology at Harvard and the author of countless popular science titles. His newest book, Enlightenment Now, takes a sweeping look a history and comes to the optimistic conclusion that we are living in the most peaceful era humans have ever enjoyed.

He analyses 15 different indicators, like literacy, quality of life, and safety, and compares data to show how these have changed over time.

It seems like a difficult read for sceptics, but the content sounds riveting:

Despite the doom and gloom we often see within the news, Pinker’s findings are astounding. By all the measures he looks at, humans are much safer than we ever were before …

In his book, Pinker highlights other statistics that suggest significant social improvement worldwide. The average time it took people to wash laundry each week, for example, has fallen from 11,5 hours to just one point five hours in the past 100 years according to his analysis. Pinker argues that the time saved has freed up more people to pursue hobbies — or enter the workforce.

Hell, if Gates has given the book his stamp of approval, I’m in:

Pinker’s book serves as an antidote to the never-ending news cycle. As Gates wrote in his blog, “The world is getting better, even if it doesn’t always feel that way.”

Wise words. He makes me want to read Enlightenment Now … well, right now. Who actually has the time to settle down and read an entire book these days, though?

Here’s where some inside knowledge goes a long way. Seth already knows what a fantabulous book this is, ’cause he was able to read it on Instaread, an app that has earned the words ‘game changer’:

It’s a neat reading app that condenses the world’s best non-fiction books into 30-minute reads, with 6 000+ insights from 600+ books to feed your appetite for fine literary offerings.

You pay for the service, although Instaread does offer a free trial so you can take a crack at it.

Take it from Bill Gates, my friends – reading is the perfect getaway from the daily grind, and Instaread is the gateway to literary paradise.

You can find all the details about the app here.

Or, if you wanna make like Gates and get stuck into Pinker’s cracking new book, click here.

[source:businessinsider]