The Reading Room

Each month a member of the team reviews a book of their choosing, irrelevant of genre or publishing date.

How to avoid a climate disaster

Bill Gates

Published: 2021, Alfred A. Knopf

Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, shares what he has learnt in more than a decade of studying climate change and investing in innovations to address climate problems. In this urgent, authoritative book, Gates sets out a wide-ranging, practical – and accessible – plan for how the world can get to zero greenhouse gas emissions in time to avoid a climate catastrophe.

Essentialism: The disciplined pursuit of less

Greg McKeown

Published: 2014, Crown Business

Have you ever found yourself stretched too thin? Simultaneously felt overworked and underutilised? Felt busy but not productive? Does your day sometimes get hijacked by someone else’s agenda?

Slowly down the Ganges

Eric Newby

Published: 1966, Hodder and Stoughton

On his forty-forth birthday, Eric Newby sets out to travel the 1,200-mile length of India’s holy river. In a misguided attempt to keep him out of trouble, Wanda, his wife, is to be his fellow boatwoman. Their plan is to begin in the great plain of Hardwar and finish in the Bay of Bengal, but the journey almost immediately becomes...