I recommend reading Gleick's book in conjunction with Simon Winchester's "The Professor and the Madman" and Walter Isaacson's "The Innovators". Gleick's work is

I recommend reading Gleick's book in conjunction with Simon Winchester's "The Professor and the Madman" and Walter Isaacson's "The Innovators". Gleick's work is deeper than the other two, but the three books combine to form a fascinating picture of how humans have shaped - and been shaped by - information theory over the last ~150 years.