There are many perceptive reviews preceding mine and I agree with the good things they've said. But now consider this: I read it to my 12-year old son as a bedtime story. This means I needed to have vocal characterizations of the people in the story and sometimes had to digress into explanations of some of the technical (and legal!) details. But it was an amazing, triumphant journey for my son and I. Almost nowhere else in life would a youngster get such a thorough insight into the philosophy of how we do science -- and how to be an entrepeneur. And all that "thinking about thinking" is carried along by the gripping narrative.

You might think the story is too advanced for a kid but I've always found that kids rise to something like this.

I believe reading him that story becomes one of the foundations of his understanding of the world. After we're done I'll probably take him to the university library and maybe to Berkeley's Sproull Hall to see one of the artifacts of the era.

You read the book, you get inspired! With any self-help book there is a balance between "enjoyable stories" and "specifics" that you can use in your own life. This book gives you both. If you're reading it at the right time in your life it can give you an amazing boost.