26 March 2014

Review: The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon


The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon
The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon by Brad Stone

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



The Everything Store is basically a biography of Amazon.com from the inception of founder/CEO/owner Jeff Bezos up until a few months ago. As Amazon is arguably one of the most important stores on the planet right now, never mind the internet, I was looking forward to reading this.

The good is that it is very detailed. It's a straightforward account, lines itself up very well, and doesn't pull many punches. It's straightforward in noting both the good and the bad of the company, and doesn't seem to have traded access for a hagiography.

The downside is that it's almost too journalistic in tone sometimes, with a lot of repetition and lacking a lot of soul or wit to go along with it. That's not always a bad thing, but it takes a little bit of the fun out of it, making it seem like a more readable long magazine article.

As someone who is fully and completely in on the whole Amazon thing, I'm glad I read it. It sounds like the company is even more innovative and fascinating than I recognized, and yet I don't think I'd want to be anywhere near it in other respects given my own personality. Your mileage may vary on that, but as for me, a solid read and I learned a lot.



View all my reviews

No comments:

Post a Comment