AppleInsider Staff
Authors Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli visited the Apple Store SoHo in New York on Thursday to read selections from their hotly anticipated biography "Becoming Steve Jobs" and field questions from what quickly became a packed house.
Schlender and Tetzeli were featured guests of the SoHo Apple Store's meet and greet series that brings in notable authors, filmmakers, musicians and more to talk about their latest projects. Events are free and open to the public, though some presentations with high profile participants require reservations.
Apple's venue completely filled up for today's discussion, which had the authors reading snippets from the book and answering questions from audience members. Some latecomers were left standing in the aisles, according to people who attended.
Released this week, "Becoming Steve Jobs" draws largely on Schlender's multiple meetings and interviews with Jobs during his time covering Silicon Valley for The Wall Street Journal and Fortune. Schlender first met Jobs during the early days of NeXT and was in contact with the tech guru up until his death in 2011.
Unlike previous books focusing on Jobs' life, including Walter Isaacson's official biography, "Becoming Steve Jobs" found an outpouring of support from Apple itself. Numerous executives, including CEO Tim Cook, design chief Jony Ive, among others, contributed interviews to offer a more complete portrait of Jobs, one that goes beyond his well-known public persona.
Along with behind-the-scenes cooperation, Apple prominently featured "Becoming Steve Jobs" on the iBookstore and even included an iTunes preview link on the SoHo Apple Store's retail webpage advertising today's talk.
"Becoming Steve Jobs" is available for $11.99 on Kindle or $19.83 on hardback through Amazon.com and $12.99 on the iBookstore.
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18 Comments
I'm just about done with it. Amazing book, and there's a ton of new info in here that I hadn't heard before (and I'm not new to Jobs).
[quote name="TheWhiteFalcon" url="/t/185441/soho-apple-store-hosts-becoming-steve-jobs-book-reading-q-a-session-with-authors/0_100#post_2698805"]I'm just about done with it. Amazing book, and there's a ton of new info in here that I hadn't heard before (and I'm not new to Jobs). [/quote] Excellent. I'm looking forward to reading it.
I'm having trouble getting engaged with the book. Thus far it feels so much like the authors' second hand generalizations and aggrandizements, without specific, important information to grab my attention. Other times the detail provided seems irrelevant. I grew up on the Bay Area in parallel with SJ, and the descriptions of the BA feel artificial/crafted, irrelevant/unnecessary. Too wordy is another attribute I would add. Will see how it goes, but so far not impressed.
[quote name="Cpsro" url="/t/185441/soho-apple-store-hosts-becoming-steve-jobs-book-reading-q-a-session-with-authors/0_100#post_2698818"]I'm having trouble getting engaged with the book. Thus far it feels so much like the authors' second hand generalizations and aggrandizements, without specific, important information to grab my attention. Other times the detail provided seems irrelevant. I grew up on the Bay Area in parallel with SJ, and the descriptions of the BA feel artificial/crafted, irrelevant/unnecessary. Too wordy is another attribute I would add. Will see how it goes, but so far not impressed. [/quote] Good to see conflicting reviews in this thread. My intuition tells me that this book will be much more complimentary about Steve Jobs, which appeals to me, but will be worse written than Isaacson's, and therefore a duller read.
I already finished the book. Other than the Pixar/NeXT chapters and a few anecdotes the book didn't do much for me or really tell me anything I didn't already know. Products like iPhone, iPad, iTunes, iPod and iMac got a few pages each when they all could have received their own chapters. But I guess this was a book about Steve Jobs not Apple so I probably went in with the wrong expectations. I did find it interesting that there were no comments from Tony Fadell or Scott Forstall (the latter was was only mentioned 4 times in the book). And the book gives the distinct impression that Tony Fadell didn't really get along with anyone and there's no love for him within the current executive team. I was surprised that once Avie Tevanian left the company Steve basically cut off all contact with him. Clearly Steve was closer to the current executive team than the one that came over after Apple purchased NeXT. And interesting that two of the executives Steve was closest to (Jony Ive and Eddy Cue) were veteran Apple employees not from NeXT and not hired by him.