Einstein: “Relativity: The Special and General Theory.”

After reading Walter Isaacson’s brilliant biography, “Einstein” and finally coming away with an understanding of Einstein’s theories, I felt I could make the leap and actually attempt to read something written by the most famous genius of the twentieth century whose theories would transform science and the world.

I chose Einstein’s, “Relativity: The Special and General Theory.” The book was written by Einstein so that the average person, who was not a physicist or mathematician, but was interested in his “theory of relativity” could easily understand it in layman’s terms. Well, except for the portions of the book that used mundane objects such as a train, an embankment, Times Square or a clock to describe the most famous theory of all time, the rest of the book (a good 60 percent) was incomprehensible to me. It could have just as well been written in Latin.

I strongly recommend that unless you have a scientific background, you should not start off by reading this book if you are at all interested in understanding the mind and theories of this, undeniable, genius. I recommend the Isaacson’s book I mentioned above as a good starting point.

Not to be deter, I will nevertheless continue my interest in physics and when I have the time and patience I will start reading books about Galileo and Newton’s theories, so much seems to have originated from their work. They are constantly mentioned throughout by Einstein.