These are the 5 books Bill Gates recommends you read this summer

Bill Gates is a big reader.

The Microsoft cofounder and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation co-chair has said he reads about 50 books a year, and he often writes up notes about his favorites on his Gates Notes blog.

Gates has just published his list of summer reading recommendations for 2018, a list that spans genres, from literary fiction to memoir to history and biography.

Gates writes that his selections tend to "wrestle with big questions," like "What makes a genius tick? Why do bad things happen to good people? Where does humanity come from, and where are we going?"

Yet despite the weighty subject matter, Gates says they are all fun, fast and engrossing reads.

Here are the books Gates recommends checking out this summer: