Synopsis
"How could you, a mathematician, believe that extraterrestrials were sending you messages?" the visitor from Harvard asked the West Virginian with the movie-star looks and Olympian manner.

"Because the ideas I had about supernatural beings came to me the same way my mathematical ideas did," came the answer. "So I took them seriously."

Thus begins the true story of John Nash, the mathematical genius who was a legend by age thirty when he slipped into madness, and who -- thanks to the selflessness of a beautiful woman and the loyalty of the mathematics community -- emerged after decades of ghostlike existence to win a Nobel Prize and world acclaim. The inspiration for a major motion picture, Sylvia Nasar's award-winning biography is a drama about the mystery of the human mind, triumph over incredible adversity, and the healing power of love.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Putting in Carlissa's box

Took out of carlissa's CD only round 4 bookbox. Thanks for sharing. I enjoyed the movie, so decided to give the book a chance.

If you enjoyed the movie "A Beautiful Mind" you will like this book. It lets us deeper into why what Nash accomplished was so beautiful. It delves more deeply into the facts of Nash's life and accomplishments and his illness. This book is about the people and their experiences in Nash's life. It is NOT a direct exposition of Nash's technical achievements. We find out more about his youth, his life at college, his work after he received his doctorate and his breakdown and illness as well as the nature and scope of his recovery. There is real sorrow and loss in the book, but there is also strength and tenacity that refuses to yield to hopelessness and despair. This is a book about the people and how they lived during the storms of his achievements and his illness. It causes me to wonder if genius and mental illness often run together.

It seems that this is the nature of the gifts scientists and mathematicians give us. We are unaware of them until another person makes them part of other products, services, and policies that directly affect us. And even then we are unaware of the breakthroughs that made these wonderful additions to our lives possible.

I was especially struck by the truly immense amount of competition that exists among math scholars for status. Although portraying this competition is hardly the principal aim of Nasar's book, she conveys the intensity of the struggle among scholars for recognition with impressive clarity and perspective.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Enjoy! Starting the journey of round 4 of my CD only bookbox. Trust this book finds a new listener.

I'm fairly certain I saw this movie at one time, but my memory is terrible, so regardless, I'm going to give the book a read! Removing from the box....

While the subject matter was interesting & very different from what I typically read, as far as biographies go, I thought this one was just "okay". The details re: mathematics & game theory had my head swimming, and there was lots of name dropping. Granted, I understand the need to give credit where credit is due, but all of the names tended to run together after a while & it was difficult to remember who was who. I didn't find the format of the story especially engaging -- there seemed to be a lot of jumping around as far as timeline went, and I'm not sure if this was due to the abridged format of the audiobook, or was just how the book was written. The general storytelling felt dry -- I sometimes felt like I was reading doctor's notes. Again, this may have been due to the subject matter, but in general, I've read better biographies. It's interesting how psychological terminology and diagnoses change over the years. From the beginning, all the way to the very end of the story, John Nash's "symptoms" screamed Asperger's to me, yet not once was this term mentioned, despite the fact that this book was written in the late 1990's, quite a few years after Asperger's became recognized as a common diagnosis.

I'm now not certain I did see the movie -- I don't think I did. I've read that the movie differs quite a bit from the book, but I think I'm going to add it to my Netflix queue regardless.

Going into BigJohnLefty's box!

Already read this book. This book has made a short stop at my house. It will continue on its journey until it finds its new home.

Taken out of the audio book box. Haven't seen the film, but the story sounds interesting.

I enjoyed this book - an interesting story on the scholarly world Nash lived in, some known scientist as side acts and his family surroundings.

Having read the earlier comments I was wonerding about Asperger's. Yes many of his symptoms screamed that, but hearing voices doesn't seem part of it. Did he really have schizophrenia, asperger's, both? In any case, while I liked that he finally got the Nobel price - some recognition for the true genius in his pure mathematics would have been nice.

Released to the winner of the audiobook sweepstake!

Sent to me as the winner of the summer audio sweeps. I am looking forward to listening to this. Thanks so much

I read this because I had watched the film (and also because I had received it ages ago when I won a sweepstake) I don't think I could have finished this book if it had been a hard copy book as very hard going at times, with lots of stuff about pure maths, which, when listening to, I was able to gloss over a bit. I did learn a huge amount about schitzophrenia and was shocked to hear about the insulin shock treatment, which sounds brutal. It bears almost no comparison with the film, although captures the essense of the story overall I think. I wouldn't want to listen to the non abridged version!

released into one of the little book houses in the vicinity, however not sure if it was this one!