Here are the books Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates suggests you read this summer

Every year, Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Bill Gates puts together a list of books that he enjoyed reading, and suggests you read them as well. It’s that time of year again, and his new list has recently been revealed.

In case you were wondering, no, they’re not tech-related, but they do seem interesting nonetheless. Gates tried to include more books that are “beach friendly” on his list this time, books that are lighter to read. Check out the video below to see Bill Gates briefly describe each of the books, or read his comments on them which he posted on GatesNotes.com.

On Immunity, by Eula Biss

“When I stumbled across this book on the Internet, I thought it might be a worthwhile read. I had no idea what a pleasure reading it would be. Biss, an essayist and university lecturer, examines what lies behind people’s fears of vaccinating their children… This is a thoughtful and beautifully written book about a very important topic.” – Bill Gates

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? Vaclav Smil takes his usual clear-eyed view of the whole landscape, from meat’s role in human evolution to hard questions about animal cruelty.”

How to Lie with Statistics, by Darrell Huff

“I enjoyed it so much that it was one of a handful of books I recommended to everyone at TED this year. It was first published in 1954, but aside from a few anachronistic examples (it has been a long time since bread cost 5 cents a loaf in the United States), it doesn’t feel dated. One chapter shows you how visuals can be used to exaggerate trends and give distorted comparisons—a timely reminder, given how often infographics show up in your Facebook and Twitter feeds these days.”

What If?, by Randall Munroe

“People write Munroe with questions that range over all fields of science: physics, chemistry, biology. Questions like, “From what height would you need to drop a steak for it to be cooked when it hit the ground?” (The answer, it turns out, is “high enough that it would disintegrate before it hit the ground.”) Munroe’s explanations are funny, but the science underpinning his answers is very accurate. It’s an entertaining read, and you’ll also learn a bit about things like ballistics, DNA, the oceans, the atmosphere, and lightning along the way.”

Hyperbole and a Half, by Allie Brosh

“The book, based on Brosh’s wildly popular website, consists of brief vignettes and comic drawings about her young life. The adventures she recounts are mostly inside her head, where we hear and see the kind of inner thoughts most of us are too timid to let out in public. You will rip through it in three hours, tops. But you’ll wish it went on longer, because it’s funny and smart as hell. I must have interrupted Melinda a dozen times to read to her passages that made me laugh out loud.”

The Magic of Reality, by Richard Dawkins

“It’s an engaging, well-illustrated science textbook offering compelling answers to big questions, like “how did the universe form?” and “what causes earthquakes?” It’s also a plea for readers of all ages to approach mysteries with rigor and curiosity. Dawkins’s antagonistic (and, to me, overzealous) view of religion has earned him a lot of angry critics, but I consider him to be one of the great scientific writer/explainers of all time.”

XKCD, by Randall Munroe

“A collection of posts from Munroe’s blog XKCD, which is made up of cartoons he draws making fun of things—mostly scientists and computers, but lots of other things too. There’s one about scientists holding a press conference to reveal their discovery that life is arsenic-based. They research press conferences and find out that sometimes it’s good to serve food that’s related to the subject of the conference. The last panel is all the reporters dead on the floor because they ate arsenic. It’s that kind of humor, which not everybody loves, but I do.”

If you enjoy reading, or you just want to know what types of books a Microsoft co-founder enjoys reading, check out the books on the list above.