The movie was more informative

Like The Butterfly and the Bell Jar it is hard to criticize a book written by someone who no longer has control over their body despite retaining their full mental faculties.

But…

I downloaded the audio-book of this one and was confused when Overdrive’s details said it was under 3 hours, I thought it must have been a mistake but it wasn’t; this is an incredibly brief (heh) memoir by brilliant cosmologist Stephen Hawking. A memoir so brief that the Hollywoodized biopic starring Eddie Redmayne gave me a more complete overview of Hawkings personal and professional life. Since the time commitment is about the same I would suggest the film.

The focus is mostly academic, detailing his schooling and then his professional academia achievements giving his wife and children only brief (heh) mentions. He acknowledges, but again doesn’t expand, on his ALS diagnosis. The longest he talks about it is in reference to the software he uses to speak.

I feel like someone suggested to Hawking “Hey, write a book about your life and work but make it accessible for the lay-person” and Hawking didn’t know that dumbing it down and completely omitting decades were different things.