10 Books Bill Gates Says Will Make You Smarter

On average, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates reads about 50 books every year. He’s been a lover of reading since childhood , and he carries that with him today. On his personal blog, GatesNotes,  he frequently reviews books he’s read, including both fiction and nonfiction. Here are 5 books Mr. Gates found particularly informative and thought-provoking and awarded with rave reviews. This particular collection covers an array of topics, but most importantly, encourages new ways to think and learn.

1. What If? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions

This book by Randall Munroe (which is actually a compilation of posts from his wickedly popular blog xkcd) is equally whimsical and informative. He explores questions like “from what height would you need to drop a steak for it to be cooked when it hit the ground?” and “what would happen if you made a periodic table out of cube-shaped bricks, where each brick was made of the corresponding element?” and he provides explanations that are well-researched, sourced and scientifically valid, while still using a giraffe as a measurement for height. You’ll be entertained, and Mr. Gates says, “you’ll also learn about a lot of other things like ballistics, DNA, the oceans, the atmosphere and lightning.”

2. Moonwalking With Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything

In general, we’re particularly great at remembering things in our domains of expertise but pretty terrible at remembering things that are new or unimportant to us. But is there a way to learn more by improving memory across other domains? Author and science writer Joshua Foer put some ancient memory techniques to the test, and after only a year of training, went on to not only win the U.S. Memory Championship, but actually break the U.S. speed record for memorizing a deck of cards. When Mr. Gates reviewed this book by after its release in 2012, he called it, “absolutely phenomenal, one of the most interesting books I’ve read this summer.”

3. The Magic of Reality

In this Richard Dawkins book, he poses a question at the beginning of each chapter, offers colorful myths from different places around the world and finally reveals an elegant scientific answer. “It’s an engaging, well-illustrated science textbook offering compelling answers to big questions, from how the universe formed to what causes earthquakes,” Mr. Gates writes in his review. “It’s also a plea for readers of all ages to approach mysteries with rigor and curiosity, rather than buying into the supernatural myths at the core of most faith traditions.”

4. SuperFreakonomics

“I really liked Freakonomics, and I think SuperFreakonomics is even better,” writes Mr. Gates in his review for this sequel, adding that he recommends it to anyone who reads nonfiction. This book will tell you a little information about a lot of different things from hurricanes and climate change to U.S. healthcare and the ways people underestimate how much quality of life has improved.

5. Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation

Mr. Gates says that when he picked up this book by Steve Johnson, he was skeptical. “Lots of books have been written about innovation—what it is, the most innovative companies, how you measure it. The subject can seem a little faddish,” he writes. “But Johnson’s book is quite good at giving examples of how you create environments that can encourage good ideas.” In discussing how to create institutional structures that facilitate innovation instead of focussing on people who had good ideas and their eureka moments, the book examines patterns and puts forth ways we as individuals and a society can be more innovative.