Bill Gates’ Summer Reading List

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For his annual summer reading list, billionaire investor, philanthropist and Microsoft co-founder
Bill Gates
released his recommendations Monday for five books covering topics including climate change, gender equality, science, and politics.

While they might not sound like typical beach reads, Gates assured the followers of his personal blog, Gates Notes, that none of them “feel heavy.”

The five books are: How the World Really Works by
Vaclav Smil
; Lincoln Highway by
Amor Towles
; Why We’re Polarized by
Ezra Klein
; The Ministry for the Future by
Kim Stanley Robinson
; and The Power by
Naomi Alderman.

“Each of the writers—three novelists, a journalist, and a scientist—was able to take a meaty subject and make it compelling without sacrificing any complexity,” Gates said in his blog posted Monday.

READ MORE: J.P. Morgan’s Summer Reading List Enters the Metaverse

Smil, 78, a Czech-Canadian scientist and policy analyst, is one of Gates’ longtime favorite authors. Gates once wrote “I wait for new Smil books, the way some people wait for the Star Wars movie.” Last year, he recommended Smil’s Numbers Don’t Lie: 71 Things You Need to Know About the World, a collection of facts presented in one or two-page chapters. 

This summer’s recommendation, How the World Really Works, “unlike most of Vaclav’s books, which read like textbooks and go super-deep on one topic…is written for a general audience.”

The 57-year-old American novelist Towles is another of Gates’ favorite authors. He recommended Towles’ novel A Gentleman in Moscow in the summer of 2019. “I liked this follow-up novel almost as much,” Gates said about The Lincoln Highway. 

The Power was recommended to Gates by his daughter Jennifer. After reading the sci-fi novel, “I gained a stronger and more visceral sense of the abuse and injustice many women experience today,” Gates wrote.

The Ministry for the Future was recommended by a number of people while Gates was promoting his own book on climate change last year, How To Avoid A Climate Disaster: The Solutions We Have And The Breakthroughs We Need. “It’s so complex that it’s hard to summarize, but Robinson presents a stimulating and engaging story, spanning decades and continents, packed with fascinating ideas and people,” Gates said.

Why We’re Polarized “is fundamentally about American politics, but it’s also a fascinating look at human psychology,” Gates wrote in his post. Klein is a New York Times columnist and political analyst.