– Customer review on 12/02/2012

Real eye opener!! Reads easily given its 600+ pages and delves deep beneath the surface of the public face of Steve Jobs. The book contains some very interesting facts which never made it to the sensationalist regular media.

Well worth the read over a wet weekend because you won’t be able to put it down once you start.

– Customer review on 08/12/2011

This is a gripping journey into the life of an amazing individual. Despite its girth of nearly 600 pages, the book zips along at a torrid pace.

The interviews with Jobs are fascinating and revealing. We get a real sense for what it must have been like to be Steve, or to work with him. That earns the book five stars despite its flaws, in that it's definitely a must-read if you have any interest at all in the subject.

But there are places in the book where I have to say, "Huh?"

The book is written essentially as a series of stories about Steve. The book continuously held my interest, but some of the dramas of his life seem muted. For instance, he came close to going bust when both Next and Pixar were flailing. There was only the slightest hint that anything dramatic happened in those years. In one paragraph, Pixar is shown as nearly running him out of money. A few brief paragraphs later, Toy Story gets released and Jobs' finances are saved for good.

We hear a lot about Tony Fadell's role in the development of iPhone. Tony led the iPod group and was clearly a major source for the book. You may know from a recent Businessweek article that Tony was basically driven out of the company shortly after the final introduction of iPhone, due to personality conflicts between him and Scott Forestall, the person now in charge of iOS development. But the book doesn't say a word about it. Tony simply disappears from the rest of the book with no explanation, and Forestall is barely mentioned.

Another strange incident was the Jackling house, the house he spent a large part of his life in. A case could be made that the house is historic simply because Steve spent many of his formative years living in it. Preservationists were battling with him to save the house. Only a couple of months before his death, when he must have known he was not going to actually build a house to replace it, he had the house torn down. I would have loved to learn this story. Why did he buy it? Why did he destroy it through neglect? Why did he acquire such a blind loathing for it that he worked hard to get it torn down?

And why did Jobs keep almost all the Pixar options to himself? He doesn't seem to have needed the money, or even really wanted it that much. He could have cut his friends John Lasseter et al into their own huge fortunes. Lasseter only got about $25 million from Pixar, which seems like a shockingly low amount in view of his contributions. Now, it's not like they will starve or anything, and I think John can buy pretty much anything he wants, but it still seems surprising Jobs is so ungenerous.

There were a lot of things like this, incidents casually tossed away in a brief paragraph that should have merited an entire chapter.

I think this will always be the best account of the emotional aspects of Steve's life, which are fully covered. The chapters about his illness moved me to tears. But as an account of what really happened at Apple and how Steve fixed the company, it's insufficient. I guess that will have to await more distance from the subject.

Of course what's truly remarkable about Jobs is that he lived a life so full of incident that perhaps no biography has the space to cover the broad sweep of his life. He accomplished as much as 10 ordinarily famous men. Maybe the upshot is that you just can't fit a man like this in a book, even if that book's nearly 600 pages.

– Customer review on 17/11/2011

Not sure why the above people decided to rate A BOOK based on the fishpond service. You should contact fishpond with any problems, here is the place to review the book itself. I received this book quickly and it was an interesting read . Issacson writes in a truthfull, honest manor and much is to be learnt about Steve Jobs from the book.

– Customer review on 28/10/2011

Awesome read. Very interesting and enlightening. Absolutely no holds bar , the good the bed and ugly all laid bare for all to see. Extremely well written. If you are in anyway interested in the tech industry even if you hate Apple grab a copy. You wont regret it. Fascinating stuff on virtually every page.

– Customer review on 04/10/2011

I have been fortunate enough to see a proof of this and I cannot wait for it to release in November. What I read is really good, interesting stuff. Quite sad that this great man is ailing because he is truly a genius and I can't really imagine the world without him! This is sure to be a hit with Apple Lovers, techies and the general reader who enjoys Biographies. Also some business lessons to be had. Well written, up to the minute (although there will undoubtedly be more Apple releases once it is out!). Great read for Christmas.

– Customer review on 08/12/2011

I'm sure this is a great book , BUT I am going to add my feedback on the product and its condition; I ordered the cheaper copy of this book, fishpond stated new but with slight damage to the front cover. It arrived today and it has a broken spine and the book is damp ( still wet & wiffy - was it onboard the Rena?) and there are water stains and marks on the pages. There is damage to the dust jacket ( as I expected) but the wet and damp pages and the broken spine so Not what I was expecting, I shall be returning it.