I was just insulted. By a paperback. The book that insulted me was “Five equations that changed the world” by a Dr. Michael Guillen in 1995.
His psychologizing take on Newton’s youth was demeaning to the reader’s intellectual capacity, and after having experienced the Baroque Cycle by Neal Stephenson, which contains quite a lot of newtoniana, Guillen’s baby-talk was… grating. Luckily I was able to put the book down after the insulting five pages of Newton-talk.
Instead I picked up the next book that my friend, the Fortran expert, lent me: a memoir of Richard Feynman. It shows verve and storytelling promise. Have you read Feynman? Any thoughts?