Lost in the Stacks

An excellent introduction to the life of Isaac Newton. Too short to go into depth on any time period of Newton's life, Gleick chooses to focus on Newton's personality and world view, which he rigorously developed over the course of his life, and how these gave rise to his great discoveries in physics and mathmatics, pausing for a moment everyso often to comment on Newton's influence on the way that we interact with our world.

This is far from a comprehensive biography (for that, you'll need to look to Westfall's Never at Rest, on my 'to read' list, up there with Ulysses and Shelby Foote's history of the Civil War) but entertaining and enlightening none the less.

Highly recommended for anyone interested in scientific history.