Can you name the inventors of the microprocessor? I couldn't, in spite of the fact that I have a career that wouldn't even exist without the invention. So because of that, I'm glad I read this book, which focuses on the inventors (Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce fwiw).
However the book is frustrating in a lot of ways. It is neither a biography of the two inventors, or a technical text, but sort of attempts to do both. There's a chapter explaining how microprocessors work at a fairly technical level- a chapter that is probably tedious for anyone with a basic understanding of this (it was for me) and completely useless for someone who isn't grounded in the concepts. If you really want that, check out [b:Code The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software|44882|Code The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software|Charles Petzold|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1328830222s/44882.jpg|44204]. There's a chapter that talks about how Japanese manufacturing was able to supplant US manufacturing in other areas.
As you might sense, this is not a terribly focused book.
Here's a passage I did enjoy quite a bit:

In a sense, this distinction between basic and directed research encompasses the difference between science and engineering. Scientists, on the whole, are driven by the thirst for knowledge; their motivation, as the Nobel laureate Richard Feynman put it, is “the joy of finding things out.” Engineers, in contrast, are solution-driven. Their joy is making things work.