I see Gates as a highly competitive boy who is curious about the world. Is he a megalomaniac? Yes. Bill Gates' reading list is the curious boy who wants to know everything. The process of learning is an inherent joy / adventure in and of itself.

I can parse Bill Gates' curiosity to know more as an intellectual and take the reading material he values in other directions with different assumptions. I believe that is a given. Reading the books Gates gives 4 stars will not make us think like Gates but it could enrich our understanding of the whole wide world.