Book Review: Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

Title: Steve Jobs
Author: Walter Isaacson
Enjoyment Rating:
Source: Kindle for iPad
Books I've read this year: 98

Okay, okay. I've been a little skimpy on the book reviews lately, and I have Steve Jobs and Walter Isaacson to blame. Seriously. I took this book on vacation and expected to sit in hotel rooms and breeze through it, but that did not happen. I always enjoyed reading the book while I was reading it, but I recognized when I was going into the third week of falling asleep watching Jon Stewart rather than falling asleep with my iPad in my hand, that I didn't seek out opportunities to read this book. It's because of that that I'm giving it a four-star rating instead of five, and I have a feeling that the problem is mine and not either the author's or the subject's, because the writing was pretty amazing, and Steve Jobs's story was interesting and crazy enough that it should have kept me up at night.

So I'm a fluffy reader, what can I say?

Anyway, in that roundabout way, I want to say that I'm really glad I read Steve Jobs. I've been an Apple user for a number of years now (hooked exactly through Jobs's master plan-- through the iPod, and iPhone, then I bought up to a Mac and an iPad, none of which I feel like I can live without and all of which are now sitting on the couch along with me. If there were a fire, I would save my kids and my iPhone, except that now with the iCloud, all of my stuff is out there in the ether somewhere, but I digress), but I feel like reading this book helped me understand why Apple works, why the devices are so great (and they really are all that), and why someone like me, who is fine with "good enough" in almost all aspects of my life, could never be Steve Jobs.

And he reminded me a lot of someone I know and love, who is sometimes hard to know and love, so that was entertaining too.

Steve Jobs was a jerk, but he was a principled jerk, a jerk for the greater good. And I wonder if sometimes that's okay. I'm impressed with the scope of the project Isaacson undertook, and I'm glad I pushed through and finished the book, even if it wasn't a happy little novel.