The Genius in My Basement: The Biography of a Happy Man
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Masters, Alexander, PUBLISHER: Fourth Estate, Alexander Masters tripped over his first book subject on a Cambridge sidewalk, and ong>theong> result was ong>theong> multi-award-winning bestseller "Stuart: A Life Backwards." His second, he's found under his floorboards. One of ong>theong> greatest maong>theong>matical prodigies of ong>theong> twentieth century, Simon Norton stomps around Alexander's basement in semidarkness, dodging between stalagmites of bus timetables and engorged plastic bags, eating tinned kippers stirred into packets of Bombay mix. Simon is exploring a ong>theong>oretical puzzle so complex and critical to our understanding of ong>theong> universe that it is known as ong>theong> Monster. It looks like a sudoku table--except a sudoku table has nine columns of numbers. ong>Theong> Monster has columns. But that's not ong>theong> whole story. What's inside ong>theong> decaying sports bag he never lets out of his clutches? Why does he hurtle out of ong>theong> house in ong>theong> middle of ong>theong> night? And--good God --what is that noxious smell that creeps ong>upong> ong>theong> stairwell? Grumpy, poignant, comical--more intimate than eiong>theong>r ong>theong> author or his quarry intended--"Simon: ong>Theong> Genius in My Basement" is ong>theong> story of a friendship and a pursuit. Part biography, part memoir, and part popular science, it is a study of ong>theong> frailty of brilliance, ong>theong> measures of happiness, and Britain's most uncooperative egghead eccentric.