And it is personal, making this book the most engaging autobiography from a scientist since I read the Feynman books. Mind you, since these are the only scientist autobiographies I've read, perhaps I'm missing out on all sorts of word-joys that will make me sit up in the middle of the night and wonder whether I can live a full life without turning some corner of the kitchen into a physics-and-chemistry lab.
Watson, the author, is funny, curious, ready to admit goofs, in touch with the everyday world, and full of genuine enthusiasm even as he makes self-deprecating claims to laziness or inadequate math skills. All of this makes for an appealing book. And, I'll admit it, even for Lit majors like myself who only know the periodic table because of Tom Lehrer, the book offers a nice escape from American community colleges and state universities of the 21st century into the pleasures of all-consuming Cambridge academia in the 1950s.
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