Walter Isaacson Talking Einstein at Brookline Booksmith

Walter Isaacson will read from Einstein: His Life and Universe on Monday, April 23, at 6:00 pm, at the Coolidge Corner Theater via Brookline Booksmith, 6:00 pm, $2. We're posting early because you'll want to get the tickets now.

Walter Isaacson's new book on Albert Einstein paints the genius as the rebel among his peers - and that's why we love Einstein so much.

Wired magazine recently published a short piece from Isaacson that featured an image of a black jacket in a locker that was decorated with an anarchy logo and an image of Einstein sticking out his tongue.

While that image overdoes it, the idea of a problem student eventually being lauded as a genius is compelling. Einstein was at his best when he could let his mind roam free without bosses and minders keeping him in line: "Einstein alone was impertinent enough to discard the notion of absolute time, one of the sacred tenets of classical physics since Newton. 'Imagination is more important than knowledge,' Einstein later said."

You may think of Einstein as a genius or as science's official bad boy, but Isaacson's interviews about the biography show that Einstein wouldn't have existed if he didn't have that special mix of genius and rebel. Oh, and Isaacson might also talk about Einstein's crazy love life, too.

Instead of Isaacson's book cover, which we usually go with in our book posts, we're posting Einstein's tongue picture, which says it all, doesn't it?