One Click: Jeff Bezos and the Rise of Amazon.com

If you have an interest in Jeff Bezos or Amazon.com, but have never read anything about the company or person before, this book may by satisfying. But if you know anything of the company or the man, you will quickly find that there is little if anything new in this book that you can't get from reading the already-published articles (Wired, Time) about Jeff and Amazon.

The problem with books such as this, that rely on published news articles, instead of getting to authoritative primary sources, is that they tend to replay and enhance errors of fact, and focus on episodes and events that have already been covered in depth elsewhere. Starting with inaccurate dates and information about his high-school years, the book is riddled with mistakes. The author, when discussing net worth and stock options, neglects fundamental facts such as stock splits when calculating people's net worths.

In addition, he seems to totally skip from 2001 to 2007 -- from the dot com crash and Joe Galli directly to the Kindle -- skipping over many triumphs (and failures) of Amazon.

This book is like an airplane pack of mixed nuts. Not nearly enough to be satisfying, and filled with peanuts, instead of the good stuff you are looking for.

There is absolutely no 'insider' caliber insight in this book. The best way to describe this is that it was written by reading lots of previously written articles and regurgitating it. Very stark contrast to the Jobs biography. No need to spend money on this book, just surf for articles and case studies about amazon.com.

Maybe if you're oblivious to amazon.com and want a historical summary? That might make sense. Just don't expect any amazing reveal or back stage access.

While I did find this book educational (at the lowest form of the word mind you), I can't say I found it very insightful. Most of the facts and anecdotes seem to be pulled from public sources like Wikipedia and YouTube with little to no additions by the author. Talented biographers such as Walter Isaacson inject at least some level of commentary into the facts and unfortunately that is absent here. On top of this, the prose is written in a lazy and somewhat amateurish style.

Bottom line: You can skip this book and do a few simple Google searches and learn the same exact things.

I can't help but compare this book to the Steve Jobs biography by Issacson. Yes, I know that is a major tome, and this a slight book by comparison, but the writing and story-telling are both oddly flat. It was almost boring, and somehow I doubt Mr. Bezos is boring. Driven, maybe. A bit one-note, maybe. But probably much more animated than this book.

If anything this book is a testament to Amazon's rating system. When you remove the top 2-3 reviews, which are probably from the author, friends, and the publisher, you get a good feel for the book. I, too, read the book after reading Isaacson's Steve Jobs, and was sorely disappointed. The value feels more like $1.99 (for the kindle version) than the $12.99 it costs.
I actively follow tech, and it's clear to me that Brandt does not play in the industry. The few industry sources he cites are obscure, found via google, rather from any personal industry experience or detailed research.

At first I was concerned this was going to be a hatchet job on Jeff Bezos.
All I can say is I'm glad I gave it a chance and kept reading.
I've been a "fan" of Amazon for some time and read what I can on the company. Unlike the previous review I never read this much detail on Jeff Bezos and his vision. I found the book full of specifics and you get a sense of where Bezos is going. I believe Jeff when he says Amazon.com is just scratching the surface.
He's not creating a Cloud but another internet. Read the book and plug the new Silk browser in the mix and you'll see what I mean. I expect an Amazon phone service within five years. Amazon is creating Sim City.
Few people have the brains to pull something like this off. Bezos has and will deliver.

Not great just an ok read. I was hoping the book discussed more detail about amazon. If you're into technology this book is for you.

Things I learned from Bezos:
-The value of being the first one there: 'When something [the Internet] is growing 2300 percent a year, you have to move fast... A sense of urgency becomes your most valuable asset.'
-Systematic decision making by listing criteria. On finding a wife: 'The number one criterion was that I wanted a woman who could get me out of a Third World prison... Life's too short to hang out with people who aren't resourceful.'
On choosing a location for Amazon: 'It had to be a place with an established population of entrepreneurs and software programmers. He wanted a state with a relatively low population because only residents of that state would have to pay sales tax on the products he sold. He wanted a city near a warehouse run by one of the major book distributors... The city also had to be a major metropolitan hub.' Based on these criterion, he chose Seattle over NYC or Silicon Valley.
On choosing what to sell: It had to be easy to sell online, sight unseen. It had to be easily located and put into a database. Books were the perfect product to start with because unlike clothes etc their content was all interchangeable and they were already well categorized. Music was the next logical move.
-Be inventive. He listed features physical book stores thought an online store could never offer and figured out ways to address those problems: now customized book recommendations based on customer browsing and buying histories, listmania lists, book pairings, are things Amazon does better than any chain book store.
- Think big and long term. 'It was now a race: Whoever captured market share first would establish the pole position and would be difficult to pass. The mandate was now, 'Get big fast.' 'We are not profitable,' he told the NYT in 1997. 'We could be. It'd be the easiest thing in the world to be profitable. It would also be the dumbest. We are taking what might be profits and reinvesting them in the future of the business.'
- Win by out-innovating the competition. 'Whenever we have a problem, we never accept either/or thinking. We try to figure out a solution that gets both things. You can invent your way out of any box if you believe you can.' After building 'the worlds largest book store, Bezos reinvented it into an online market place that also sold music, DVDs, and eventually many different products, then invented the kindle reader, thereby adding ebooks to his business and transforming the publishing industry, also expanded his business by offering his servers as hosts so that he hosted all of Netflix's instant play videos, and is now going into the instant play business himself.

What an inspiring and exciting story! It takes a lot of courage and vision to achieve something like Amazon.

Perhaps the problem with this book is in the marketing. People like me are evidently not the target market, but that is not made clear in the blurb about the book. "People like me" are those in the tech industry who actually know most of the Amazon story, and who are looking for more meat, more details, and more insights into Jeff Bezos and the company he created. It's hard not to think of Steve Jobs these days, and one thing that came to mind, that made me want to read this book, was that while Gates' and Jobs' stories are fairly widely known, Bezos, despite running a hugely important company, is someone I knew much less about. Unfortunately, this book is pretty light in terms of material from Bezos' "early years", and it also seems like the author did not interview him. I can't blame him and the publisher for not putting that in the blurb, but it's going to come back and bite them when people realize it. I did fill in some details that I didn't know, but I didn't come away feeling I really knew that much more than before.

There were also some errors here and there, and some bits where things were left out - for instance, it's talking about the Kindle 1 being expensive and not selling all that well, and then jumps to talk about the Kindle in general without mentioning the fact that it's the Kindle 3 that really went mainstream. Also, "Since the [Kindle] page is formed with [ink filled] particles, and not electrons, it looks like particles of ink on a page. And the particles don't dance like electrons being constantly refreshed". Electrons?

It'd be a good overview of Amazon for someone who doesn't know much about it - the author generally does a good job of making various technical aspects of the company/story "accessible" to those who are not techies - but for someone who lives and breathes tech, I'm left wanting more than the book delivered. It's also fairly brief, for what it's worth.

Not very in depth. Jumps from 2002 until 2007. Very cheesy writing. It is a very quick read. Must be better amazon books out there.