5 comments about Reason for Hope: A Spiritual Journey.

1. This is a very good book. It is a good description on the life of Jane Goodall. Very easy read.



2. I have read REASON FOR HOPE and find that Jane Goodall did an excellent job in describing her life in a way that gives reason for hope in life, especially in difficult times. I was very touched by her description of her relationship with her second husband, Derek, her life with him, and her feelings after his death. It brought back feelings I had after the death of my wife. Jane Goodall is an excellent humanist. Also, she merits the Nobel Peace Prize.



3. Jane Goodall is just a wise old soul...no matter what
   her age or yours. She brings good wisdom that is
   understandable and applicable for each one of us to
   be better stewards of the earth and ourselves.



4. I loan this book, give copies as gifts, and read it at least once a year. Dr. Jane Goodall's life, from her days as a young British girl with a love of animals and nature to her present incarnation as a world-renowned conservationist, advocate for threatened and endangered animals - particularly primates - and UN Messenger of Peace, is exemplary. In Dr. Goodall's own words, "We have a choice to use the gift of our lives to make the world a better place." Through this book, we may learn how Dr. Goodall has done just that.



5. Jane Goodall's "Reason For Hope" is an engaging, richly detailed life story. Raised in England, a lucky break through a friend takes Goodall to Africa for a job as a secretary. There she meets Louis Leakey, who is very impressed with her and helps to shape her career. Although she completes a PhD and spends time on book tours and teaching gigs, Goodall is most at home living amidst the wildlife. In fact, she makes it clear that she is most comfortable alone, observing chimpanzees. She finds her sprirituality there, drawn on a Christian upbringing in the UK. She also marries twice and has a son, and oversees students who visit her compound.
   
   Although this is a traditional memoir, it is also very much about Goodall's faith. Despite many doubts about man's inhumanity to man, Goodall sees in nature (and in humans) several reasons to believe in a creator and in humankind. (She also has a supernatural encounter with a deceased relative.) Much of her spirituality is rooted in reverance for God's creation. Her life is an extraordinary one, but her faith is a common one.

5 comments about Time Traveler: A Scientist's Personal Mission to Make Time Travel a Reality.

1. Spike Lee has acquired the film rights to this story (spring 2008). "Lee, who will co-write the script for the film and direct it, says he is 'elated to have acquired the rights to a fantastic story on many levels, but also a father-and-son saga of loss and love.'" (University of Connecticut Advance, June 23, 2008)



2. My son is thoroughly enjoying this book -- he loves learning about astronomy and time travel!



3. I heard Dr. Mallett on NPR and ordered the book right away. While some aspects of this book are less than satisfying (Dr. Mallett alternates between hubris and humility in an odd fashion at times....), the emotional quest that set the author on the path of theoretical physics cannot be anything other than deeply affecting. While his personal accounts were sometimes just not quite authentic or unfeigned to me (hey, he's not perfect!), what truly shines in this book is Dr. Mallett's love of science, of math, and his gift for explaining some of the very complex aspects of relativity theory. In this respect, I heartily recommend the book and would hope that he would write further for the general public on the subject. As a PhD chemist myself, I am very appreciative of the gift of teaching with which he is endowed, a rarity among great researchers. His explanations to a general science audience are almost as powerful as those of Feynman. Dr. Mallett's commitment to his lifelong work, his dogged pursuit of any and all tools (mathematical and instrumental) to achieve that goal stand as a shining example. His story should be required reading for minority youth interested in the sciences, engineering, or just seemingly forging ahead in academia. Any flaws in the book are dwarfed by his true artistry in theoretical physics.



4. I enjoyed the auto-biography and the quantom physics lessons along the way. I wish more was said about the more recent events concerning the time travel experiments. I felt hungry for more information on the whole subject and was left wanting more.
   
   This was an easy read and I enjoyed reading non-the-less...



5. "The moving finger writes and having writ moves on, nor all your piety can lure it back nor your tears wash out a word of it." Jon Donne.
   
   If Prof. Ron Mallett has his way, the words of Jon Donne will be a quaint aphorism that people used to say. The reason Mallett says this is because he believes that the time barrier can be broken and that -- someday -- people will have the technology to travel into the past.
   
   Almost immediately on announcing his speculations, Mallett became the topic of intense media interest including a Learning Channel special and great media coverage. And this is rightly so because the back story of Mallett's motivation -- so ably told in this book -- is itself so compelling.
   
   In 1955, while still a child, Ron Mallett lost his father who died of heart failure at the age of 33. Loving his Dad as intensely as he did, Mallett began to dream of breaking the time barrier to rejoin his father just to tell him "I love you."
   
   Just as everyone can easily connect with Mallett's motivation, mostly everyone will find themselves somewhat befuddled by the science behind Mallett's speculations. This isn't because he doesn't do a good job of explaining himself, but rather simply because scientific explanations typically tend to tax comprehension.
   
   That being said, his theory is an ingenious one: that just as gravity can used to distort time, so can concentrated light. In this way, Mallett must now consider it the sweetest serendipity that he worked in the private sector with lasers for a formative part of his early career. In this way, he became immediately acquianted with the very device he intends to employ in his time travel device.
   
   The typical time travel scenerios that have been set out involve a radical twisting of space. If we were bugs living on a sheet of Christmas wrapping paper, our travel from one end of the sheet to the other would be greatly speeded if we could somehow get the paper from the ends to connect with each other. And indeed, this is what the tradition theories of time travel all propose: that somehow -- whether it's through cosmic strings as speculated by J Richard Gott or black holes as speculated by Kip Thorne -- a force so great is created that space is litterally forced to warp back on itself.
   
   Unfortunately, at the end of the day, Mallett's theories will probably face the same fate at those of Gott and Thorne respecting time travel by people into the past...failure. However, having opened by quoting Donne, it's perhaps best to close by quoting Theodore Roosevelt who said:
   
   "Pity not those who have failed but those who live in that grey twilight that knows neither success nor failure."
   
   By dint of genius, Mallett -- ultimately successful or not -- has irrevocably taken himself out of that "grey twilight" and us with him...if only in our hearts and imaginations.

5 comments about A Beautiful Mind: The Life of Mathematical Genius and Nobel Laureate John Nash.

1. I read this book about two weeks ago, and I couldn't put it down. Maybe my opinion is biased because I have schizophrenia myself, but I found this story to be particularly encouraging in terms of my own recovery. The genius John Nash refused the coercive treatments of psychiatry and recovered naturally as some people do. I think it's sad that John could never reach the height of his mathematical genius again, after his illness, but it's still a hopeful story because he made a complete recovery, in my opinion. This book explains the mysterious and challenging symptoms of a misunderstood illness, and it also tells a tale of a person with the classic schizophrenic personality. It seems Nash was predisposed to the illness, and his behavior leading up to his first episode is characteristic of they typical schizophrenic. The difference between Nash's story and those of so many others with this difficult illness is that John was a true genius, became mad, and then recovered through sheer willpower. I think this book challenges the prevailing biopsychiatric model of schizophrenia and demonstrates that people can indeed recover without the use of toxic psychiatric drugs. You can also learn a lot about the politics of the Nobel Prize in this book.



2. I assisted Nash with the C programming language at Princeton and was a source for the book.
   
   I found the book accurate, well-written, and readable. The part of the book that talks about the period in which Nash's economics prize was considered was indeed one in which this very private man was under a microscope, and my supervisor warned me to be very sensitive to his condition.
   
   Sylvia Nasar knows her craft very well. The book is narratively organized, and she doesn't need to do dramatic flashbacks or grabbers to get you to keep turning the pages. It's a man's life, in America of the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s...to the early nineties, by which time Nash had become the Phantom of Fine Hall.
   
   But, Phantoms have a story too. Anyone interested in the human side of math and science, anyone interested in psychology, anyone who is impressed by women who both "stand by their man" and get a career of their own, will enjoy reading the story.
   
   The book is much more detailed and far more accurate than the movie, which had to take liberties with the truth to be entertaining. It includes Nash's other common-law wife Eleanor and a son by that marriage, which was very different from Nash's relationship with Alicia.
   
   The book is long but will probably be very rewarding for most readers.



3. John Forbes Nash Jr. is one of the most intriguing personalities I've known or read about. A precocious math genius and one of the few persons responsible for the establishment of game theory, he succumbed to mentally-decapacitating schizophrenia at around the age of 30. I think Sylvia Nasar succeeds wonderfully in recounting the personal aspect of Nash's life such as his various eccentricities and the effects his mental illness had on both himself and those around him, but when it comes to the science and theories the book is a wee bit disappointing. Of course this book is a biography and is therefore more concerned about his life than his work, but a lot of interesting examles could have been been used to more clearly illustrate Nash's theories that I was quite surprised Nasar didn't give at least a few of them. Until his theories are better understood, the enormity of Nash's genius could not be fully appreciated.
   
   Recommended for its storytelling, but if you'd like to grab the gist of the technical stuff read his published papers or game theory textbooks.



4. In Sylia Nasar's award-winning biography, A Beautiful Mind, which chronicles the life of mathematics genius and Nobel laureate John Nash, she divides his life into three acts (though the table of contents does not): genius, madness and reawakening. Act one, his genius phase, covers the first two parts of the book, and lasts for the first 29 years of his life. Act two - madness, which takes the form of schizophrenia - covers the next two parts, and lasts until he is 62. Act three, his awakening, covers his remission from schizophrenia, his receiving the Nobel Peace Prize for Economics in 1994, and his life at Princeton up to the present. The book was made into an Oscar-winning motion picture by director Ron Howard in 2001 and stars Russell Crowe. Both book and film are phenomenal, as are the man's life and Crowe's portrayal of it.
   
   Particularly interesting about act one of Nash's life, and part one of Nasar's book, is the discussion on game theory. Game theory, up until the time of Nash, was based upon the idea that only one player in a game can win and everyone else must lose. But Nash broke with tradition in his doctoral thesis by theorizing mathematically the results of a game in which everyone won, regardless of the number of players. His thesis became the basis of modern economic theory, and the reason for his eventual Nobel prize.
   
   Nasar does an exceptional job explaining game theory and the workings of the mind of a genius, and especially Nash's original idea, which he called "the Nash equilibrium," and introduced in 1950 when he was only 21. Nash theorized that a game could be both competitive and cooperative - as opposed to the "winner take all" stakes of purely competitive games like chess - and could result in a desirable balance of power, rather than the undesirable condition of domination by a single power. In other words, when a player considers both his own good and the collective good of the other players, the results are better for everyone. This allowed gaming theory to be applicable to economics, politics and other sciences.
   
   In Ron Howard's film, he illustrates this beautifully with the scene in the bar in which all the boys want the beautiful blonde who walks in. Russell Crowe's character, Nash, explains to his friends that if they all go for the blonde, they will all lose, because they will offend the blonde's friends, causing them all to strike out. But if each of them goes for a different girl, they will all score. This is the moment Nash realizes he has found the original idea for his doctoral thesis.
   
   Socially, Nash had no friends growing up. This is ironic for a person whose greatest contribution to science was a theory of relationships. It is also interesting in that it illustrates something about the environment needed to develop into both a genius and a schizophrenic: isolation. As Nasar puts it, "His overriding interest was in patterns, not people." I don't think a lack of interest in people is required for genius, but I do believe an interest in patterns is. It was his ability to see patterns in numbers that led Nash into numerology and decoding imagined ciphers for the Pentagon.
   
   Howard does an excellent job showing Nash's ability to recognize pattern in the opening scene when Russell Crowe insults a fellow student's tie after recognizing several patterns in it that are reflected in the layout of the punch table. He does it again when he is able to pick out the pattern of an umbrella in the stars for his love interest and future wife, Alicia, played by Jennifer Connelly. And when he is decoding for agent Parcher, played by Ed Harris, the patterns that he sees in the numbers and words "light up."
   
   Until he meets Alicia, who would stand by him through his illness and help him overcome it, Nash's relationships are cloaked in mystery and innuendoes. It is not important to get into them here; but let me just say that the homosexual community was vocally disappointed by Howard's choice to leave them out of his film. I believe he was right to do so, if for no other reason than that they would have added nothing to the story; but more because no one is certain of what those relationships consisted. Nash himself did not consider himself a homosexual, so it may be that they were merely codependent. Regardless, they would undoubtedly have been immature and ego-centric, as all his personal relationship were before he met Alicia.
   
   Alicia brought something to Nash's life that he had never experienced before: another focus besides himself and mathematics. Before her, his world revolved around the fact that he considered himself a mathematical genius. Now there was someone else to consider. Alicia drove a wedge into an otherwise self-focused, isolated life. She was the person that would recognize his slipping into schizophrenia - although she didn't know what it was at the time - and she was the one that would bring him back. Connelly is wonderful in the role of Alicia. Howard uses their relationship in the film to turn an otherwise straight thriller into a love story. It is this combination that makes A Beautiful Mind very much like a Hitchcock film; and yet, because it is true, it is even more interesting.
   
   Ron Howard is masterful at blurring the line between what is real and what is not in Nash's world. We are never really sure until the day of the storm, when Alicia goes out to get the laundry off the line and discovers what is in the garage. That is an exciting scene, especially when combined with the scene of the baby's bath, and then with the scene following in which Parcher (Harris) holds a gun on Alicia and tells Nash that she is threatening the mission. The conclusion that Nash voices, as he tries to prevent Alicia from leaving, breaks the tension: "She never grows old" (talking about Charles' niece Marcee). That is when he shows he realizes that something is wrong in his world.
   
   How he deals with his problem is what makes his "a beautiful mind." Once he is diagnosed with schizophrenia, he is given the usual drug and shock treatments. But he realizes that the treatments being administered to save his mind are also destroying it. With Alicia's consent and help, he tries to overcome his problem using the power of his own mind. It is because of her love and support, and the support of the mathematics community, that he succeeds.
   
   There is a key scene in the movie - the scene when he receives the recognition of his colleagues in the faculty dining room in the "pen ceremony" - when Thomas King tells him about his being considered for the Nobel Prize. Nash explains to King how he overcame his schizophrenia. He says it is like having an appetite for something but, rather than feeding it, choosing to starve it. He said he had an appetite for certain things in his life that weren't real. They are still there - talking about Charles, Marcee and Parcher - but he doesn't acknowledge them. Thus, they no longer have the power to affect his life.
   
   To me, this is the take-away from both Nasar's book and Howard's film. We all have appetites for things that are not healthy, not real - fantasies in which we play "what if" scenarios in our heads. Like Nash, we can choose to ignore them and go on to lead happy, healthy, productive lives. Or, as he did during his mad period, we can indulge and become involved with them, allowing them to affect and ultimately destroying us. Like Nash, we have power over our own thoughts, and, thereby, over our own lives. If we choose well, we, too, will have beautiful minds and beautiful lives. It's up to us.
   
   Waitsel Smith



5. Sylvia Nasar writes a wonderful biography of the life of John Nash. We see Nash as an unhappy child who finds success in mathematics and becomes both arrogant and self-centered. He sets high goals but falls short failing to win the Fields medal. Yet he makes phenomenal mathematical discoveries and his work in game theory had a major impact in the field of economics. Alicia is a wonderful wife who keeps things together when John starts having his bouts with depression and insanity. At times he is unable to function and then at other times he recovers and shows signs of his former brilliance.
   
   We feel that we understand him. The Nobel Prize in economics would rightfully have been his long ago because of tremendous impact of his equilibrium theory. However, it seems that the Nobel committee is reluctant to award the prize to someone who needs to spend much of his time in a mental institution.
   
   Miraculously Nash recovers in the 1990s and is awarded the prize in 1995. The story is heartwarming and reads like great fiction but it is actually true!
   
   This was made into a well done movie that I also enjoyed very much.

5 comments about Wizard: The Life and Times of Nikola Tesla : Biography of a Genius (Citadel Press Book).

1. In my opinion this was a very good book about Tesla, but I must confess, I have not read any other biographies on him so I have nothing to compare it to. As others have stated, the book has lots of details about Tesla's personal life and his relationships with business associates like J.P. Morgan, Westinghouse, Edison, etc.
   
   Tesla was clearly a genius and anyone who says otherwise knows nothing about his accomplishments. Titans like J.P. Morgan became concerned about Tesla's intentions regarding the use of his wireless power transmisson, and other inventions. These corporate puppet masters don't want anything in the marketplace that they cannot wield complete control over. Free, wireless power transmission fell into this category. Tesla wanted to elevate humanity with his inventions, whereas Morgan (and others) wanted to gain greater control over humanity through technology. This is the same plight we are in today, in 2008, a hundred years later.
   
   Tesla's work was by no means the only target for suppression. Those of you fascinated with Tesla will surely be fascinated with the discoveries of Albert Roy Davis and Walter C. Rawls. Tesla's emphasis was on electricity, while Davis and Rawls' was/is on magnetism.
   
   Davis was the first scientist in the world to discover, in 1936, that magnetism consists of two separate and distinct energies, not one as it is still taught in colleges today. Each pole affects all matter in two different ways, so the physics books need to be re-written. Davis and Rawls found that North pole magnetism can not only eliminate diseases like cancer, it can be used to increase the intelligence of animals/people, extend the lifespans of animals/people, increase the growth of plants, make stronger metals/plastics and much more. Read "Magnetism and Its Effects on the Living System", and "The Magnetic Blueprint of Life", by Davis and Rawls. All of their books are great reading, but those two will likely interest Tesla fans the most. Read "The Scope of Biomagnetism", by Walter Rawls, on the Teslatech website too.
   
   I've been told by a credible source that Tesla was involved in the Philedelphia Experiment and that he left it because he knew there were going to be problems. He was also working for RCA laboratories at the time of his death, not just feeding pigeons on a bench waiting for the big sleep.



2. If you want to read a good biography of Nikola Tesla I would recommend you two books: Man out of Time or Nikola Tesla: A spark of genius...



3. This is by all means the worst book on Nikola Tesla ever! This book portrays Tesla in a way that he never was, a confused lunatic with confused visions and a hard line nationalist attitude. It is no wonder that one reader nicknamed huh concluded that Tesla was stupid and was not able to finish most of his inventions (by the way, this guy sounds like someone from Edison's camp). Tesla was born in an environment of constant clashes between Croats and Serbs, and Ottoman empire (not "Asian barbarians" as this author constantly portrays this great Empire) had nothing to do with Tesla's departure to US. Teslas's father was orthodox priest (a hardliner) who wanted to see his son in the Serbian army (it is the same army who completely escaped into Greece which is unknown example of cowardice in the history and whose king also escaped to England leaving his nation to German mercy, thus Tesla did not see anything great in this "great army"). Tesla refused going to Serbian army and he refused being hard-line nationalist. Tesla once said:" I am proud of my country Croatia and my Serbian nationality". This indicates best that he was not hard-line nationalist (keep in mind that Serbian nationalist even today claim that Croatia is occupied Serbian territory and that it will be wiped off the map). This author actually invented many stories of Tesla's life and even more of them are from second or third hand, totally untrue.
   On the technical aspect of this book it is not even worth any comments. Someone who does not know anything about electrical tech must be wondering, what the heck did this guy Tesla invent anyway (hence huh reader again)? I would describe the technical portion of this book as a good joke; even Mr. Bean would do it better. Author just could not sustain a certain hatred for Ottoman empire, which by the way was not much different then eg. Roman empire. Stay away from this book, you will not learn anything from it and could be infected with serious hate.
   This book is a zero mark!



4. Without a doubt the most comprehensive book I have read on Mr. Tesla's life. This edition is meant for that reader who wants very detailed events and accomplishments about the scientist life. Mr. Seifer's research about Nikola Tesla's early life, his early school years, formal education and subsequent acquaintances establishes an overall base on which the reader can reference easily as the book progresses into Mr. Tesla's later years. The author brings to the reader's mind the fact that Nikola Tesla called his "close friends" the most amazing scientists at the turn of the 19th century who themselves became icons in the scientific community. However, Mr.Seifer, illustrates as well the human side of Nikola Tesla thereby keeping in focus the frail aspect of this incredible scientist and those devils his amazing intellect had to fight. I strongly recommend this book to those who wish to literaly know about Nikola Tesla's life. It is truly a manificent tome.



5. As you'd expect from a psychology professor, this biography is an extremely good biography of Tesla as a person, and a very good biography of his life and times. As with most scientific prodigies, the biographers are not equal to their subjects' scientific accomplishments, which leads to a certain amount of benign neglect. The book would not suffer under a few more historical mises en scène. All in all though, it is an extremely good book.

1 comments about Rebel Giants: The Revolutionary Lives of Abraham Lincoln & Charles Darwin.

1. Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin, although both famous, would not be said by many to have a lot in common. David R. Contosta disagrees, and "Rebel Giants: The Revolutionary Lives of Abraham Lincoln & Charles Darwin" is his reasoning why. The two figures, hugely impactful in history, were born on the same day, disliked their fathers, lost their mothers at a young age, suffered from depression, and other eerie similarities. Hoping to give readers a more comprehensive understanding of both men by examining their similarities and differences, "Rebel Giants: The Revolutionary Lives of Abraham Lincoln & Charles Darwin" is an excellent pick for any community library collection dedicated to history.

1 comments about The Man Who Loved China LP: The Fantastic Story of the Eccentric Scientist Who Unlocked the Mysteries of the Middle Kingdom.

1. Another book well done by Simon Winchester. The large-print version was a joy to read.

5 comments about The Man Who Knew Infinity: A Life of the Genius Ramanujan.

1. I bought this book for my brother as a Christmas gift. I cannot tell you from my personal experience, but my brother read it and told me it was a wonderful book.



2. Interesting book on the life and times of the math genius Ramanujan. I found the book also interesting as it gave a peek about the world and India during the early 1900s. The author did a great job in researching about Ramanujan, really makes a great effort to take the reader back to those times.



3. MISFORTUNE AND GENIUS ARE TOO OFTEN INTERTWINE.STARTING LIFE IN THE INDIAN CASTE SYSTEM IS CERTAINLY A BURDEN FOR ANY GENIUS (MAHATMA GANDHI DENOUNCED THE CASTE SYSTEM).DOWN IN SOUTHERN INDIA AMONG THE MULTITUDES ONE NEEDS A PRODIGIOUS MIND TO ASCEND FROM SUCH A DIFFICULT ROOTAGE.HOW CAN YOU READ OF THIS MAN AND NOT BE THRILLED WITH THE STARS OF INSPIRATION? HERE IS A SALUTE TO THE BRITS FOR SHOWING THE WORLD THIS NUMERICAL PUNDIT.



4. As some of the other reviewers have pointed out, Kanigel does not dwell much on Ramanujan's mathematics. However, this is a spectacularly outstanding biography (this is not an exaggeration, believe me). Anyone who reads this book cover to cover will 'know' Ramanujan as well as they know their best friend. The many sides of this prodigy's personality - his affinity for mysticism, his need for public approbation, his gentle good nature - are all expertly transmitted. The tragedy of a life cut short at the height of its productivity will be felt keenly even by the 'toughest' of readers. Kanigel deserves high praise indeed for the masterly way he evokes time and place: Southern India and Cambridge (England) during 1900-20. If it were possible to award 6 stars, I would have done that.
   A few further points: 1) Kanigel's decision to give G. H. Hardy equal importance (almost) as Ramanujan is a strength of this book, not a drawback. This decision adds much richness to the narrative. 2) Kanigel returns to one question repeatedly: What is 'genius' and where does it come from? He succeeds in getting the reader to wonder along with him. There is probably no (one) good answer, but a life such as Ramanujan's should lead one to ponder this deeply. 3) I wish that in a future edition Kanigel would include an appendix, with some of the more accessible of Ramanujan's mathematical formulae. I am sure that any one of the 'gang of three' Ramanujan specialists (George Andrews, Richard Askey, and Bruce Berndt) would help him with this if he requested. The biography is superb, as already stated, but this would be dessert for those readers who have a mathematical background.



5. A very very good read....... Ramanujans story still has relevance even after almost a 100 years. The images of colonial Madras and England before the war are very desciptive and well researched. In all one of the best books I have ever read.

5 comments about iWoz: Computer Geek to Cult Icon: How I Invented the Personal Computer, Co-Founded Apple, and Had Fun Doing It.

1. Growing up a Mac nerd I have to say this book is a must read! I found it fascinating and I have to respect the kind of person that Steve Wozniak is. Highly recommend this book.



2. Total pile of hog..
   
   They Say history is written by the winners... Unfortunately the wrong guys won..
   
   Wanna know the truth?
   
   Then Read "On the Edge: the spectacular rise and fall of commodore"
   
   Read that then see if you think "Woz" really invented the whole thing..
   
   On the edge is an awsome book that dosnt treat its readers like a bunch of idiots and gives a balanced account; finally giveing credit to the forgotten heros of the era..



3. I had fun reading "iWoz" as it was both educational and entertaining.
   
   A must-read for all apple lovers.
   
   It tells you the story of the man behind it all...



4. Wozniak gives us a book written for the juvenile mind but marketed to adults, recalling the glory days of his youth and telling us almost nothing about Apple after it grew beyond a home-based business. The presentation is avuncular, excessively colloquial, clownish and shallow. It is fundamentally an incoherent and dishonest book.



5. It's Woz, how can you go wrong? I really enjoyed this book, although I would have enjoyed it a little more if Woz told more up-to-date stories. I know he has a ton, and I was really hoping to learn much more about Woz TODAY. Still, if you want to read about one of the most important people in Computer history, this is a good start.

No comments about The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin.

5 comments about The Wizard of Menlo Park: How Thomas Alva Edison Invented the Modern World.

1. I did not realize how little I knew about Thomas Alva Edison - until reading this book. This is a good biography of Edison, but deals more about his rise to fame and how that whole process happened. The author weaved in and out of a good biography with some editorial tangents, but overall this is a good book.
   
   Coming out of reading this book I really appreciate Edison, and realize that he should have stuck to inventing and left the leadership and management of his companies to people who were good and leadership and management. Classic micromanager who was not good at leading and managing. But, one heck of an inventor.
   
   JVD



2. This enjoyable biography focuses on:
   1.) Thomas Edison's various achievements as an inventor.
   2.) How Edison's inventions led to an ostensible raise in the standard of living in the United States and eventually Europe.
   3.) How Edison became and lived as a celebrity because of his achievements.
   
   If you like reading about heroic producers of the industrial revolution, then I highly recommend adding this book to your reading list.
   
   Even the anecdotes about Thomas Edison's (initial) failures are fun to read. For example, I particularly liked the story of how J.P. Morgan volunteered to have his study be one of the first rooms to be wired with electricity. Eager to bask in his latest highly anticipated investment, Morgan turned on the incandescent light next to his desk to do a little evening reading. Unfortunately for him, as he began to read, his study caught fire, eventually leading to his house suffering substantial damage.
   
   Did J.P. Morgan divest himself of Thomas Edison? Absolutely not! He merely invited Thomas Edison over to witness the charred remains of his study and firmly inquired if he could install the wiring correctly the second time. Such was the earned reputation of Thomas Edison. J.P. Morgan knew he was investing in something big. Also, this story also revealed a great deal about his character. Instead of dwelling on his serious mistake, Thomas Edison focused on how he could rectify the situation and improve his invention. But I digress.
   
   A great read!



3. We all heard about Edison's story. However, most of them are probably more colorful version from the media. This book provides a more complete view.
   
   Author Randall has done a thorough study from the preserved documents of Edison's lab as well as archived newspapers. The book is full of annotations with references at the end of the book. If there is any bias in this book, most likely it is because our minds have long been receiving Edison's prettier' side rather than all aspects of his life. We should welcome and applaud for any whisle blower and fact digger when media is trying to beautify his lesser admirable side.
   
   Edison is an very good inventor, there is no need to model or sculpture him into a saint or an all time sage. He said it himself (hopefully, not another write up from the media) : "Invention is 1 percent of inspiration and 99 percent of perspiration".
   
   Regardless of Edison's personality (if someone happens dislike it) or his serious misjudgement on business or other subject matters, he is, by all accounts, a very important figure in late 19th and early 20th century. While he is not the first person to invent light bulb, he is however, the person to light up the world.
   
   I believe we all appreciate him one hundred percent. :-)



4. I totally enjoyed this book. The author keeps you turning pages as he provides interesting fact after fact about Thomas Edison and his life as the world's most famous inventor. Inside you will learn what made Edison tick and how he impacted the world around him including his family, employees and close friends. As a phonograph buff I particularly enjoyed reading about Edison's beliefs regarding musicians, music and the promotion and sale of phonographs and cylinders (records). The Wizard of Menlo Park is well researched and well written. The author obviously has experience taking readers on enlightening journeys. This book will find a permanent place on my home bookshelf.



5. I've read a number of biographies and biographical sketches of Thomas A. Edison. Most of these concentrate on the man's inventive genius and often provide many interesting technical details on his inventions and on the related technical problems. However, this biography has a rather different twist: it focuses mainly on Edison the businessman and his many shortcomings in this aspect of his life. He is portrayed as a genius with an insatiable passion for laboratory work but desperately lacking the necessary flair for how to succeed in the business world. Edison's private life is briefly discussed, including his relationships with his wives and his sons. The writing style is clear, friendly and engaging, thus making this book difficult to put down. This book is quite successful in depicting the ways in which Edison's instincts were often seriously at odds with the public's way of thinking during these times of mind-boggling new technological innovations. This book can be enjoyed by anyone. But those with a passionate fascination for this period and its greater-than-life figures are in for a particular treat.