The just-released biography on Apple’s Steve Jobs by author Walter Isaacson (Simon & Schuster $40) details all the ins-and-outs of the late entrepreneur’s computer empire. But — as is the goal all biographies — it’s the personal revelations that make it a compelling read.

Did you know:

Religion: Jobs — although raised by Lutheran parents — shunned religion.

“In July 1968 Life Magazine published a shocking cover showing a pair of starving children in Biafra. Jobs took it to Sunday school and confronted the church’s pastor. “If I raise my finger will God know which one I’m going to raise even before I do it?”

The Pastor answered, “Yes, God knows everything.”

Jobs then pulled out the Life Cover and asked, “Well, does God know about this and what’s going to happen to those children?”

He never went back to church.

Money: Although wealthy, Jobs was never consumed by his riches. He enjoyed finely designed and crafted items such as Braun appliances and Mercedes cars, but his dwelling were never ostentatious, but simply furnished.

“I watched people at Apple who made a lot of money and felt they had to live differently. Some of them bought a Rolls-Royce and various houses, each with a house manager and then someone to manage the house managers. Their wives got plastic surgery and turned into these bizarre people. This was not how I wanted to live. It’s crazy. I made a promise to myself that I’m not going to let this money ruin my life.”

His father: The Apple empire may be due inadvertently to Jobs’ dad, Paul. He was a repo man but his avocation was cars. Although Steve wasn’t too keen on mechanics and bodywork, he was enamored with the electrical wiring, fuses and capacitators behind the dashboard. “He showed me the rudiments of electronics and I got very interested in that.”

Drugs: Jobs took LSD and credits it making him more enlightened. Commenting on a trip he took in 1972 with his girlfriend: “It was great,” he recalled. “I had been listening to a lot of Bach. All of a sudden the wheat field was playing Bach. It was the most wonderful feeling of my life up to that point. I felt like the conductor of this symphony with Bach coming through the wheat.”

Even in his later life he gave credit to the drug.

“Taking LSD was a profound experience, one of the most important things in my life.”

Ipod: And what was on his Ipod?

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Isaacson describes Jobs as “a kid from the ’70s with his heart in the sixties.” He listened to the likes of Donovan, The Doors, Jimi Hendrix and Buffalo Springfield. He was a big fan of Bob Dylan and included all six volumes of Bob Dylan’s bootleg series. His collection also included The Beatles’ A Hard Days Night, Abbey Road, Help!, Let it Be, Magical Mystery Tour, Meet The Beatles and Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band albums. He even included Canadian content with recordings of Glenn Gould’s Goldberg Variations.

Steve Jobs, by Walter Isaacson, Simon & Schuster, 571 pages, $36.99