The 9 greatest Apple books money can buy
If you never read another Apple-related book, make sure you’ve read some of these:
Infinite Loop
Michael Malone
The best out of print Apple history book you’ll ever read, Infinite Loop was and remains a poster child for how to make corporate history interesting. If you can get hold of a copy, you should. You sometimes find it at this Amazon link.
Apple Confidential 2.0
Owen Linzmayer
If you want to understand the early years of Apple, you need this book. It’s an excellent behind-the-scenes account of what happened in those early years, from the making of the first computers in Steve Jobs’ parent’s garage, Atari and more.
Revolution in The Valley
Andy Hertzfeld
The history of Apple is intertwined with the Steve Jobs rebels and the making of the Mac. It’s a great book, full of intertwined plot lines and political intrigue. If you are curious about the creation of the Mac, you must read this book.
Inside Apple
Adam Lashinsky
Want to know what it was like to work at Apple? This book, subtitled, ‘Apple: How America’s Most Admired – and Secretive – Company Really Works’, is a pretty good guide. Thing have changed since Cook took the helm, but it’s good insight all the same.
Insanely Simple
Ken Segall
Segall is the man behind the Think Different ads and his book attempts to explain some of the ways of thinking that enabled the success. Apple fans will like the inclusion of a host of first hand Steve Jobs anecdotes, and anyone engaged in product management should probably take a look.
The Second Coming of Steve Jobs
Alan Deutschman
This is the book to read for the history of what happened to Steve Jobs once he’d been kicked out of Apple, his work with Pixar and Next and his subsequent return to the company he cofounded. Critical in some places it does more to articulate the depth of the founder’s character than some more recent titles.
Becoming Steve Jobs
Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli
This book focuses on different material rather than the now widely known stories about Jobs’ personal failings. That’s not to say this title lets him off, far from it, but what it does provide is a deeper, more intellectually satisfying insight into the nature of Jobs.
Design Crazy (no longer available)
Max Chafkin
This is a super read. It consists of quotes from fifty people who’ve worked at or with Apple across the years. It provides “a compelling and deeply revealing oral history of how design evolved at the most creative enterprise of our time, the company that one entrepreneur says “taught the world taste”,” the book jacket says. That’s a pretty good explanation.
Steve Jobs
Walter Isaacson
I can’t honestly claim this attempt lived up to its potential. Given unparalleled access to Steve Jobs in his final months, Isaacson produced a work that provided very little insight or depth. All the same, those nuggets it does contain make this an essential read for Apple watchers, albeit a complete disappointment given the level of access this guy got.
Looking for more Apple history? Try looking through these.
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This library in the LX Factory in Lisboa is really wonderful place. I visit it time to time.
Yeah I really **really** love Lisbon and I will live there if I can figure out how to make that work.
If you can find this book it’s worth it…
http://www.macworld.com.au/reviews/apple-design-book-59141/
Lots of articles on Apple’s design aesthetic (or lack thereof one article claims), plus comparisons to Deiter Rams’ work. A product timeline shows how their products evolved.
Be warned though, as the book weighs a tonne.
Thank you very much. That looks very interesting.
I found it on amazon! More copies here (2nd hand so cheaper)
http://amzn.to/2dAbBqC