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You thought your favorite books were dorky*?Canada Archives Wait until you see Bill Gates' reading list.

In a blog post on Monday, Microsoft founder and big time book nerd Bill Gates revealed his favorite books of 2016, and well, they are the most Bill Gates selections ever. Which is to say, they are intensely nerdy books that will help you better understand the world.

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Seriously. He says that one of his favorite genres of books is “books about mundane stuff that are actually fascinating.”

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So it's no surprise that this year, Gates' favorite books are deep dives into things we see and experience every day. Selections range the gamut of literary explorations of tennis to explainers of genome science.

"They’re all very well written, and they all dropped me down a rabbit hole of unexpected insights and pleasures," writes Gates.

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Check out Bill Gates' favorite books and why he loved them below.

String Theory by David Foster Wallace

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"Here, as in his other brilliant works, Wallace found mind-blowing ways of bending language like a metal spoon." Check out the full review here.

Shoe Dog by Phil Knight

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"This memoir, by the co-founder of Nike, is a refreshingly honest reminder of what the path to business success really looks like: messy, precarious, and riddled with mistakes." Check out the full review here.

The Gene by Siddhartha Mukherjee

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"In his latest book, Mukherjee guides us through the past, present, and future of genome science, with a special focus on huge ethical questions that the latest and greatest genome technologies provoke." Check out the full review here.

The Myth of the Strong Leader by Archie Brown

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"Brown shows that the leaders who make the biggest contributions to history and humanity generally are not the ones we perceive to be 'strong leaders.' Instead, they tend to be the ones who collaborate, delegate, and negotiate — and recognize that no one person can or should have all the answers." Check out the full review here.

Honorable Mention: The Grid by Gretchen Bakke

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"This book, about our aging electrical grid, fits in one of my favorite genres: 'Books About Mundane Stuff That Are Actually Fascinating'... Even if you have never given a moment’s thought to how electricity reaches your outlets, I think this book would convince you that the electrical grid is one of the greatest engineering wonders of the modern world."

*As a big time book dork myself, I say this in the most loving way possible.

Topics Books

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