Bill Gates says the best business book he’s ever read isn’t a modern bestseller but a classic recommended by Warren Buffett more than 30 years ago. When Gates met Buffett in 1991, he asked him for his favorite business book. Buffett immediately replied, “Business Adventures by John Brooks. I’ll send you my copy.” The 1969 collection of stories about corporate America would go on to become Gates’s own favorite. In a 2014 essay, Gates said the book remains just as relevant decades later. “The fundamentals of business haven’t changed,” he wrote. Brooks’s essays, originally published in The New Yorker, cover topics like Ford’s Edsel failure and Xerox’s rise, exploring human behavior, leadership, and decision-making behind major corporate events. Gates credits the book for shaping how he thinks about management and business strategy, noting that Brooks’s insights feel timeless. Buffett has similarly praised it, ranking it just behind Benjamin Graham’s “The Intelligent Investor,” which he co...