Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

Based on more than 40 interviews with Jobs conducted over two years - as well as interviews with more than a hundred family members, friends, adversaries, competitors, and colleagues - Walter Isaacson has written a riveting story of the roller-coaster life and searingly intense personality of a creative entrepreneur whose passion for perfection and ferocious drive revolutionized six industries: personal computers, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing, and digital publishing.

Even if you have no interest at all in the lives of businessmen, this is worth reading, and no surprise it's the number one bestseller in the US. It's a - literally - epic story, superbly told by Isaacson with none of the breathlessness of the usual boring hatchet-faced Chief Executive's Tale. Jobs approved; when, as he was dying, he said he hadn't read it yet but would there be stuff he didn't like, Isaacson said yes. "Good", said Jobs, "then it won't read like an in-house book." Nor, despite Jobs's triumph, does it seem a particularly happy life. But the man left his mark.

Reviews:

"Quality from start to finish. How a biography should be and even turned me into an Apple convert. The story of a driven man who probably did manage to put a dent in the universe (time will tell)."

"The content is great, I'm really enjoying it and getting through quite quickly even though it's a long book. But the gutter is really small so it's hard to read close to the edges and the binding is very hard to it's quite uncomfortable to read. They could easily have made the gutter 5 mm bigger and it'd be much easier to read."