The Fall of the House of Forbes

I just got done with Stewart Pinkerton’s The Fall of the House of Forbes. I found it definitely worth the 13 bucks, but that’s probably because I worked at the company for eight years.

So, would I recommend the book to people who haven’t worked for Forbes? If you are fascinated by the eccentricities of rich people, certainly. Pinkerton serves up plenty of detail on the oddball and lavish sides of the Forbes family.

As a broader look at the media biz, I wouldn’t rate this one so highly. Pinkerton lays heavy blame for Forbes’ troubles on the family’s alleged incompetence, without going too into depth on the larger forces at work. So it can be misleading. For example, he dwells on the recent rounds of layoffs at Forbes but doesn’t really explain that plenty of other media companies were contracting pretty hard and cutting people at the same time.

On the flip side, he suggests Forbes is about to be crushed by Bloomberg and its “2000 journalists.” That may be true, but Pinkerton doesn’t go into what enables Bloomberg to field such a humongous edit staff. Again, I think that’s misleading. It leaves you with the impression that Bloomberg is a winner simply because they invest more in journalism.

A couple of other things bothered me about the book, but I thought it was a decent read overall. At the very least, I salute Pinkerton for writing down a bunch of stuff that I probably would have forgotten about in 10 years time.

Shaky

Always nice to have something to look forward to. JamBands.com:

Following the path of legendary rock stars like Eric Clapton and Keith Richards, Neil Young has announced plans to release his autobiography, next fall.

 

Downloaded: Ukulele for Dummies

After thoroughly enjoying Dances with Dragons, I’m back to self help. This time it’s Ukulele for Dummies.  I’ve had mixed results with these books. Reading Chess for Dummies, for example, hasn’t helped me to avoid getting crushed every single time by the computer opponent on my iOS chess app.

But this one has already taught me a couple of things. One is a way for dummies to remember the G-C-E-A sequence of strings on the ukulele. In the book, a cartoon provides a helpful mnemonic:  ”Giant Cockroaches Eat A Lot.”

Dances with Dragons: 764 iBook Pages In

I’m still going strong with Dances with Dragons, although I have to say the reading experience feels somewhat different than it did with the other books. Maybe the writing is pretty much the same as the rest of the series, and I’m just getting older or whatever, but it feels like this one leans a little too heavily on revulsion. The over-the-top disgusting bits just come a little too frequently.

One indicator of that showed up on the bus the other day – I was reluctant to even open up the book on my iPad, because I was worried the person sitting next to me might check out what I was reading and get get horrified. I have no plans to stop reading, though. Made it this far.