A fantastic read. Don't miss the audiobook if you're into audiobooks (great for long commutes and if you're not English and want to improve it)[1].

It's read by Simon Prebble[2]. I absolutely love his voice. His 1984[3] is probably my favorite audiobook (I listen to audiobooks a lot).

He is great. From Wikipedia:

In the U.S., he also began narrating audio books,and to date (2012) has recorded well over 450 titles. As one of AudioFile Magazine's 'Golden Voices' and 'Best Voices of the Century', his work has gained him five 'Listen Up' awards, thirty 'Earphone' awards, and in 2005, he was named 'Narrator of theYear' by Publishers Weekly. Nominated fifteen times for the 'Audies' (the audiobook 'Oscars'), he was finally awarded a coveted 'Audie' in 2010, the year he was also named Booklist's 'Voice of Choice'.

[1]: http://www.amazon.com/Wizard-Times-Nikola-Biography-Genius/d...

[2]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Prebble

[3]: http://www.amazon.com/1984-New-Classic-Edition/dp/B000Q6ZLOI

It's a good book, but I am not sure if it's the book to read if you want to know even a little bit of the technical marvels he came up with. I found the book to be good enough to know the names of Tesla's inventions and who he was day-to-day, but not much more. Obviously if that's the main interest, this is a fine book.

On the other hand, if the idea is to learn more about his inventions, I'd recommend reading some of his own writing, e.g. Selected Tesla Writings: http://www.tfcbooks.com/tesla/contents.htm Lots of really amazing articles there. Check out this one, http://www.tfcbooks.com/tesla/1900-06-00.htm , it's one of my favourites.

this one is good because, unlike the oatmeal, it is a down-to-earth telling of the story of electricity, and is not obsessed with trying to establish people as heroes or villains.

Too often we I think we become obsessed with trying to establish credit for a particular idea or accomplishment when the truth, especially when it comes to technical innovation, is usually far more complicated. I was going to say that the best we can do is to try and identify inflection points, but really, the best we can do is recognize that nearly everyone stands on the shoulders of giants.

Back to the book recommendations, I've read 3 of Jonnes' books and they're all pretty good, though the best was "Conquering Gotham" about Penn station and its tunnels.