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What are you reading? April 14, 2023 [1]

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Date: 2023-04-14  

In WAYR?, I note what I’m reading and comment...you note what you are reading and comment. Occasionally, I may add a section or a link related to books…still can’t locate my Kindle...

I am finished reading:

Einstein: His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson - I might have to go get that Einstein tattoo before the year is out, lol.

I find myself having much of the same reaction to reading Isaacson’s biography as I did those other 2 (or 3) biographies of Einstein over 40 years ago; I came to the bios to understand the scientist and I admire and (still) would like to emulate the human being so much.

The one...weakness (for lack of a better word) in Isaacson’s biography of Einstein is Isaacson’s praise of America’s “self-righting political systems.” (The topic comes up because of Einstein’s reaction to MCarthy-ism). Perhaps that’s the correct view to take from a long-range historical perspective. Einstein, as a child of Germany andas a man that the Nazis placed on an assassination list, could not possibly have that kind of sunny view towards Joseph McCarthy.

Isaacson’s final chapter deals with the macabre story of what happened to Einstein’s brain after he died. I’ve read it before and, since I do have a subscription to Harper’s, I’m reading it again.

Because I love the aura of the macabre and the grotesque. Always have.

The explanation that Einstein himself most often gave for his mental accomplishments was his curiosity. As he put it near the end of his life, “I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.”

I am reading:

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/4/14/2163859/-What-are-you-reading-April-14-2023

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