Bill Gates shares five books to read this summer

Want to read like a tech magnate? Here's a list.

Bill Gates, who occasionally reviews books on his blog, Gates Notes, has just released his recommended summer reading list. It's mostly nonfiction, but Gates threw a sci-fi hit in there, too. He said he used to be an avid sci-fi reader, but hasn't read much in the genre for the last ten years.

1) "The Vital Question: Energy, Evolution and the Origins of Complex Life" by Nick Lane

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Lane dives into perhaps the biggest question of all: How did life evolve on Earth?

2) "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" by Yuval Noah Harari

There are "a lot of things about early human history that people haven't been exposed to," Gates said in his summer reading video. This book gets at humanity's earliest moments, and dives into its future.

3) "How Not to Be Wrong: The Power of Mathematical Thinking" by Jordan Ellenberg

Break out your math hat — this book comes from a rock star of the mathematics field. Ellenberg explores how math touches everything, from space to baseball to Renaissance paintings.

4) "The Power to Compete: An Economist and an Entrepreneur on Revitalizing Japan in the Global Economy" by Hiroshi Mikitani and Ryoichi Mikitani

"To me, Japan is fascinating," Gates said. The country was a hub of technological innovation in the '80s and '90s, but that's hasn't carried forward to today. Gates said the book asks: "How did they lose their way? Why have these companies not been more innovative?"

5) "Seveneves" by Neal Stephenson

This is the lone fiction entry on Gates's list, and one of the few sci-fi books he has read in recent years. "Which is crazy," he said. "Because I used to read it massively."

In "Seveneves," a freak lunar explosion triggers a series of disastrous events back on earth, and Stephenson follows society's attempts to maintain order and preserve the human race in the violent aftermath.

"If the world's going to end in two years," Gates asked. "Who is going to come to work? Should kids go to school?"