What Bill Gates thinks you should be reading this summer

Bill Gates's much-anticipated summer reading list is here - and it's a deliberately lighter than his 2014 list, which recommending a biography of Theodore Roosevelt and an examination of the US healthcare system by one of the architects of Obamacare.

1. On Immunity, by Eula Biss

Biss, an essayist and university lecturer, examines what lies behind people’s fears of vaccinating their children.

2. Should We Eat Meat?, by Vaclav Smil

A timely book, though probably the least beach-friendly one on this list.

3. How to Lie With Statistics, by Darrell Huff

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.

4. 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.

5. What If?, by Randall Munroe

It's a very clever way of getting to think about various scientific things going on. This idea of when you see a glass half-empty do you mean empty as in 'perfect vacuum?'

6. The Magic of Reality, by Richard Dawkins

I consider him to be one of the great scientific writer/explainers of all time.

7. 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

More: Beach Reading (and More)