Posted by Carlos on June 17, 1998 at 14:08:42:
In Reply to: Biography posted by rpcman on June 17, 1998 at 13:15:49:
rpcman said:
My wife thinks I'm a bit strange for reading *and enjoying* biographies. I can't remember the last biography I read that I didn't enjoy. All my recent biography reads have been interesting, entertaining, and helpful in forming my views of life, history, etc. Does anyone else enjoy a good biography or am I a nut?
I have just started into Isaac Newton: The Last Sorcerer and have found it fascinating so far.
I'd like to read a biography on Einstein one of these days too. There have been so many produced in the past decade that I'm looking for some advice. Has anyone read one or more of the following titles, and if so, can you offer some suggestions or titles to stay away from? Einstein: The Life and Times, Einstein: A Life in Science, Albert Einstein: The Human Side, Einstein: A Life, or any others.
A while back you said you had yet to find anything we disagree on. Well, this may be the first. I read Isaac Newton: The Last Sorcerer a couple months ago, and found most of it tedious. I wanted more science, and less mundane detail. I also recently read a biography of Thomas Edison (Edison: Inventing the Century, by Neil Baldwin) about which I had the same complaint.
Since I am not one to give up on an entire genre, I continue to read biographies. I am in the middle of Einstein: A Life, and like it much more than the Newton and Edison books. Part of it is writing, part is the fact that the Einstein book does have more emphasis on science, and part is the fact that Einstein lived a damned interesting life in interesting times.