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Arbie's Unoriginally Titled Book Blog
It's a blog! Mainly of book reviews.
Currently reading
Station Zero
Progress:
220/282 pages
The Books of Earthsea: The Complete Illustrated Edition
Progress:
749/997 pages
The Penguin Book of Russian Poetry
The Uncertain Land and Other Poems
Progress:
8/160 pages
The Heptameron (Penguin Classics)
Progress:
152/544 pages
The Poems and Plays of John Masefield
Progress:
78/534 pages
Poems Selected
Progress:
4/50 pages
Selected Poems
Progress:
18/160 pages
The Penguin Book of Scottish Verse
Hainish Novels & Stories, Vol. 2
Progress:
133/789 pages
Isaac Newton, James Gleick
Newton is not much less of a cypher to me after reading this than he was before, which is unfortunate, because what I really wanted was insight into his character. I'm left with the impression of a man with a big, fragile ego, much less a scientist in the modern sense than I expected because of his reluctance to publish his results, despite his obvious genius, which has come to shape our modern world philosophically and technologically.
I don't know if Gleick chose not to focus on character or if there isn't much evidence, but if you want the bare facts of Newton's life and what he acheived, then this book will give you them in a compact, digestible form.