I found the book frustrating: while the historical accounts are accurate, the paintinf reproductions lovely, and mastery of analisys of the visual style the author is not a good writer.

The text is focused on the visual documentation leonardo left and with little insight into his logical thinking. More a history of art book overall / with a puzzling self help conclusion and a long deviation following some attribution questions around some drawing.
( )

Wonderful book! We should all be so curious and observant.

This was my first audio book. I thought it was well done. I wasn’t expecting to enjoy it (being read to as opposed to reading it myself) so much. I think it could be easy to get hooked on this. As a bonus, I also own the hardcover so I was able to look at the pictures while reading. ( )

Уолтер Айзексон специализируется на биографиях гениев. Сравнительно недавно большой успех имела его книга о Стиве Джобсе, а ранее — об Эйнштейне и Бенджамине Франклине. К концу карьеры Айзексон решил обратиться к имени, синонимичному понятию «гений», и, как выясняется, даже годы изучения неординарных личностей не смогли достаточно подготовить его к масштабам Леонардо. А как иначе отнестись к человеку, кто в списке своих талантов рисование ставит на последнее место, а в перечне дел на день ставит «разобраться с устройством языка дятла»? Дятел, кстати, действительно на редкость странен в этом отношении. Продолжая шокировать читателя неординарностью да Винчи, Айзексон тем не менее предлагает лайфхаки, основанные на жизни и мировоззрении флорентийца, пригодные и для не столь гениального человека.

Excellent! I learned so much about the Renaissance and Leonardo da Vinci. Not a page turner but easy enough to keep reading. ( )

My biggest gripe here is that Isaacson acts like a cheerleader for the subject. Given da Vinci’s mythical status in the common consciousness that’s not really helpful. We get part art criticism, mostly handed down courtesy of Kenneth Clark, and part surrounding history of the period. That’s where the book really had an opportunity to use its massive size, detailing the context of the people Leonardo interacts with, and to a certain extent it tries to do this, it just falls a bit short, as we have to get back to talking about how great a painter the perennial procrastinator was. There’s also side-tracks concerning the authenticity (or not) of paintings that have caused some controversy and spawned entire books in recent history. Maybe out of a sense of completeness, but it really just furthers the lack of focus the biography has. Is this the historical Leonardo da Vinci? Speculations about the inner psychology of the same (something Isaacson returns to several times if just to explain how it’s Freudian bunk - then did we need to cover it?). Art criticism (again, mostly through the established opinions of others)?
A man with a rich and varied life in a dynamic time period might well need multiple volumes to cover all aspects of his being. Trying to combine them into one book didn’t work that well. Despite these criticisms it kept me engaged while on tour in Florence which nets it an extra star. ( )