A very fine brief history of a product that most people on earth own at least one of (most Westerners probably have hundreds or thousands).

Reid does an excellent job of demystifying some of the technical aspects of computers. After reading this, you'll get why it has to be silicon, have a basic grasp of binary number systems, understand why so many of our high-tech products have Japanese names, and much more. Mostly, you'll know who Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce are, which was really Reid's goal in writing this book--he couldn't believe that no one knew the men responsible for ushering in the digital age.