Bill Gates Reveals What’s on His Summer Reading List
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Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images(NEW YORK) — What’s the world’s richest man’s idea of a good beach read? Something that makes him laugh or think.
Bill Gates is gearing up for some sun and sand by releasing his billionaire-approved summer reading list.
It will come as no surprise that the books aren’t trashy romance novels, but Gates said he tried to select “a few more things that are on the lighter side.”
Without further ado, here’s what the Microsoft founder recommends people read this summer.
Hyperbole and a Half, by Allie Brosh
“I must have interrupted Melinda a dozen times to read to her passages that made me laugh out loud,” Gates wrote, referring to his wife.
The Magic of Reality, by Richard Dawkins
What Bill says: “Dawkins, an evolutionary biologist at Oxford, has a gift for making science enjoyable.”
What If? by Randall Munroe
“The subtitle of the book is ‘Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions,'” Gates said. “And that’s exactly what it is.”
XKCD, by Randall Munroe
The anthology of posts from the author’s blog include “cartoons he draws making fun of things — mostly scientists and computers, but lots of other things too,” Gates said.
On Immunity, by Eula Biss
“Biss, an essayist and university lecturer, examines what lies behind people’s fears of vaccinating their children,” Gates said.
How to Lie With Statistics, by Darrell Huff
Gates loved this 1954 book about how numbers can be distorted with visuals so much that it was one of the few books he said he recommended to everyone at TED this year.
Should We Eat Meat? by Vaclav Smil
“The richer the world gets, the more meat it eats. And the more meat it eats, the bigger the threat to the planet. How do we square this circle?” Gates wrote. “A timely book, though probably the least beach-friendly one on this list.”
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