Last Friday (September 6th), the GrepBeat Book Club met for the first time. Several of you made it out to our HQ in Durham to network and talk about our first book, and we’ll hope to see even more next time around (see details below).
In the meantime, here’s a recap of our first book: “Burn Book: A Tech Love Story” by Kara Swisher.
The Book in 150 Words
Kara Swisher, the aviator-clad, determinedly no-nonsense godmother of insider tech journalism, talks us through her two-plus decades covering modern tech history and the people who have set its course.
With a particularly heavy emphasis on the real-life titans of tech (Page, Brin, Jobs, Bezos, Zuckerberg, and Musk), as well as on media figures who’ve been forced to adapt (Rupert Murdoch and Bob Iger, to name a couple), Swisher weaves a tale of unprecedented disruption, unlimited potential, and—perhaps most of all—persistent carelessness.
The result is a book that’s very engaging, but also somewhat caught between informative history and personal memoir. On the one hand, Swisher’s experience makes her almost uniquely suited to chronicle this era, and her often-critical views of prominent figures seem justified. On the other, her unabashedly arrogant approach and her preoccupation with establishing her own prescience detract, at times, from the story she’s telling.
What Book Club Thought
Reviews, like my own above, were mixed. Suffice it to say most were entertained, but there were some questions concerning Swisher’s style and the overall impact of the memoir.
3.5/5 stars.
Notable Quotes
- “It was no surprise that the media reporters acted like the grandees they covered, preening with the unmistakable air of being frequently wrong but never in doubt.”
- Editor’s take: I suspect “the unmistakable air of being frequently wrong but never in doubt” is a phrase that will resonate with a lot of readers….
- “I have always maintained that the people who ultimately succeed are the creative ones.”
- Editor’s take: Indeed.
- “[Elon] Musk’s initial flaws have taken over, and he’s just curdled into the worst aspects of his personality.”
- Editor’s take: Much of this book is about this sort of curdling. Swisher even seems to suggest in later pages that she left insider reporting to avoid succumbing to it herself.
- “It’s a shame when people with enormous influence and wealth don’t rise to the challenge. And it’s inspiring that some do.”
- Editor’s take: This may be a less concise version of the whole great power/great responsibility thing, but it’s the closest Swisher comes to summarizing her own book.
What’s Next For Book Club
Next Book: “Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow,” by Gabrielle Zevin.
Next Meeting: Friday, October 25th, 8:30am ET at GrepBeat HQ. Let us know you’re coming!
Some Comments: It’s safe to say most books we’ll read in this Book Club will be non-fiction, but given that this is one of the more popular novels of the last few years and has something to do with a startup, we’re going for it.
The synopsis, per Bookshop.org (where you can shop if you’d rather support local bookstores than Jeff Bezos, whom Kara Swisher likens in “Burn Book” to a “frenetic mongoose”): Sam and Sadie––two college friends, often in love, but never lovers––become creative partners in a dazzling and intricately imagined world of video game design, where success brings them fame, joy, tragedy, duplicity, and, ultimately, a kind of immortality. It is a love story, but not one you have read before.
So there you go. You’ll learn about love, video games, and startups.
Happy reading!
