George BeahmRezensionen

Nothing original about the book. It is just a collection of quotations. Very disappointed

Difficilmente potremmo trovare una saggio altrettanto completo sulla vita e le opere di uno scrittore.
Testo che si legge piacevolmente (...sono più di 600 pagine) fondamentale per gli appassionati di King che vogliono approfondire la genesi delle sue opere e scoprire aneddoti sulla sua carriera.
Per chi non lo conosce ancora può essereun buon punto di partenza per accostarsi alla sua produzione letteraria.

Nowhere near as good as I'd hoped it would be. You get an overview of King the man and author in very broad strokes, and a cursory mention of every book he's written up to 2015, but some do little more than give you the title and publication date, so, really who cares?

The book is also in serious need of editing, because on multiple occasions, the same information is delivered multiple times. Sometimes within a few pages of each other. There's absolutely no need for that, and it becomes quite irritating to read after a while.

Finally, there's very little critical review of King's work. Even stuff that King admittedly doesn't like himself, the author seems to fawn over and make excuses for.

I love Stephen King. I love his writing. But I don't like every single thing he's put out. Every once in a while, it'd be nice to see someone be a little more critical of his failures, instead of slavish devotion to the so-called King of Horror. It got a little too sweet for me, and by the end, I pretty much had a toothache and diabetes.

An okay overview, but overlong.

3.5 stars

This book is part-biography of Stephen King and partly looks at the places where King grew up, lived, spent time... and where he modelled some of the settings for his books. It includes photos of many of the places.

I liked it. It was published in 1999, so there is probably a lot more current stuff that could be added if it was updated. The book also looked at some of the movies that were made from King’s books. I particularly enjoyed the section on “The Shining” (Stephen and Tabitha lived in Colorado for a short time). I also love that they are both so supportive of libraries, to the tune of gifting a couple of local libraries a lot of money to help them out.½

How big an error can be created by a small typo. When George Beahm submitted his volume The Inessential J. R. R. Tolkien Sourcebook, someone left out the "in," and look what resulted.

I am, of course, being exceptionally caustic, because I bought this book without seeing its contents, and it turns out to be completely useless to me. This is not a book about J. R. R. Tolkien's sources; this is a book about the J. R. R. Tolkien industry.

If I were making a list of Tolkien's sources, it would include such things as the Dvergatal, the "Tally of the Dwarfs" in the Vôluspá, where Tolkien found the names of the dwarves in The Hobbit. It would include Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, which deeply influences the morality of the Mount Doom scenes in The Lord of the Rings. I would include Sir Orfeo, which gave him much of the image of Mirkwood. The Sigurd legend gave him his dragons. The Kalevala gave him Túrin Turambar. A grove in Holderness where his wife danced (a place deeply associated with Robin Hood, incidentally) gave him Lúthien. The influence of Beowulf is everywhere in his writings. Those are Tolkien's sources.

What this offers instead are Tolkien-related produced, from stationary to board games to the movies that took out so much of the mythological depth that made Tolkien Tolkien. These seem to be good as far as they go, although now massively out of date. If this had been entitled "The Essential J. R. R. Tolkien Fan Activity Guide," I'd have no problem with it, although I wouldn't be likely to buy it. But that's not what it calls itself. To me -- and, I'm quite sure, to J. R. R. Tolkien, the great scholar of language and folklore -- a "source" is an inspiration or a thing that supplies ideas and themes. Tolkien had plenty of those -- my list above hardly scratches the surface. But you can't learn about them here. For my (mis-spent) money, that's false advertising.

Your dictionary's definition may vary.

[Correction February 25: corrected "produced" to "products."]

This was a very interesting book. The introduction was definitely not needed. I really didn't care about a publishing war nor did it matter with the core content of the book. After muddling through the introduction, the rest of the book was good. Learning all about the locations, homes, etc. in Maine and how it tied with Mr. King's stories. Towards the end when he was talking about the made up towns, he did a synopsis of the stories. Again, I've read the books, I didn't need the cliff notes versions. All in all I've learned a lot more about Stephen King.

The skeleton key that opens the door to Anne Rice's haunted worlds, The Unauthorized Anne Rice Companion is the first general interest book, resource guide, and reference work for Rice's millions of fans. Comprising nearly seventy articles and interviews, this is an authoritative companion to the bestselling author of Interview With the Vampire.

I'm in the midst of a few other cinder block books, so I can't take on the authorized Steve Jobs book at the moment. However, I still needed a taste of the man following his untimely passing. This book fit the bill. It's summary? I could get into various flowery adjectives, but what it boils to is: he knew what the !#$^ he was doing, he didn't care what you thought of him, he marched to his own beat, and he could market the hell out of anything.

This book expands on the commencement address given by Steve Jobs to Stanford University graduates on June 12, 2005. It draws on stories from his professional and personal life to show the breadth and depth of a man who, more than almost any other, changed the world through technology and art. Jobs, with neither college degree nor skills at coding, created products that redefined personal computers, digital music, cell phones and tablets. His appreciation for art and Eastern philosophy influenced the look and feel of the products that are so iconic today. Jobs was truly a genius who left this world too soon. What stays in my mind after reading the final page are Jobs last words before dying - "oh wow, oh wow, oh wow" - chilling.

Interesting book. Great look into the life and lessons to be learned from Jobs.

I agree with the earlier reviewer who said basically "what's the point" and found even the cover of the book to be misleading. Any passer by would immediately think that this was a book that Jobs' had something to do with. It's a bait and switch tactic. Basically this book could have been written in as a Wikipedia blog post. Cut and paste a few (already published) snippets of information about Jobs, Apple and the speech and then try and connect the dots with a few cliches. The only thing I got out of the book was stated in the first few pages - this is no substitute for watching the address itself. I feel like anyone could have done the same thing as the author did - watch the speech and jot down some notes about how it made him feel, then back fill some tired facts and figures as page fodder. Jobs, warts and all, was an innovator and visionary. His legacy lives in the hundreds/thousands of products, terminology and technology that he cultivated through his maniacal focus and the talented people who were brave and passionate enough to keep working to please him. Far from Thinking Different, this book is simply another example of how rare original thought has become in this world. Instead the book only hopes to glean its "15 minutes of fame" as an inauspicious knock off of a special moment in time - and using Steve's likeness as the proverbial Talking Head. Just let the real work stand on its own

This book was a quick read. This book is in depth look at analyzing Steve Jobs' Stanford Commencement Speech. It gave a lot of background information as to how Steve Jobs' life experiences influenced Apple.

Steve Jobs' Life By Design: Lessons to be learned from his last lecture. The title chosen by the author George Beahm should of been More details about the only concement speech he ever made which was at Stanford. If you do not want to know all the details of Mr Jobs' life and only have a short time to read this would be a good book to take with you. It covers the highlights and important details about his life in a very concise manner. This is not and will never be the end all book about Steve Jobs for this man was too complicated to be easily described in such a short amount of time and space. I concur with the author that you should listen to the address before reading the book.

Very much like "The Last Lecture". I have not read the biography of Steve Jobs but found this short book very good. Taking the elements of the last lecture Mr Jobs gave the author has elaborated with specific instances and examples of how Mr Jobs lived those principles.

This is a very good short biography of Steve Jobs, the founder of the Apple Computer phenomenon, with a heavy emphasis on Jobs' philosophy of life and work. Less attention is paid to his personal life, although the highlights are covered. Although perhaps a bit too adulatory, it is a good introduction to Jobs' life, accomplishments, and influence on technology and world culture

I'll confess to being a fairly hardcore Apple fanboy, but even so -- I was a little skeptical of the notion that a single, 15-minute Steve Jobs speech would provide sufficient fodder to produce a worthwhile book. It turns out that my fears were justified.

The book is a quick read, pulling excerpts from the various sections of Jobs' noted 2005 commencement address at Stanford and using those as lead-ins to brief, superficial anecdotes and tidbits about Jobs' life, and the lessons he ostensibly learned. The material doesn't offer much that would be new to someone already familiar with Jobs' story, and together the stories don't even begin to provide a biography of the man ... though I don't suppose that was necessarily the point.

What is the point? I got the feeling it was to portray Jobs as some sort of developing philosophical guru. Nothing necessarily wrong with that, in itself, but I was fairly displeased with the manner in which it was attempted. The book comes across as being patronizing and condescending, reminding me almost of a self-help inspirational volume that an obscure religious sect might put out. Reading the book, I felt that I was being talked down to, and that the story of a complex and very intriguing figure was being distilled into a handful of vapid aphorisms. I wasn't educated or inspired, just vaguely offended. All in all, this is not a book I would recommend to most readers.

VERY quick read - especially for those who already know a lot about Steve Jobs. I've read quite a bit about him, so there wasn't a lot of new information in this book. However, the book was well written and since it was based around his one and only commencement speech, it inspired me to watch that again, which was nice.

I would definitely recommend it to anyone who wants a quick read with life lessons & Steve Jobs information. It's a fairly concise breakdown of his life and accomplishments interspersed with quotes from other locations.

This book will really only interest people who want to own the entire Steve Jobs catalog. It illustrates quotations from Jobs's 2005 Stanford commencement address with snippets of his life and career. While still accessible to those who haven't read the address or a fuller biography, the book is not a good first stop for those who want to learn more about his ideas, personal life, or role in the development of Silicon Valley.

The life of Steve Jobs, the brilliant but abrasive co-founder of Apple Computer, was struck short when he died of pancreatic cancer in 2011. Although esteemed for his brilliance in bringing the company he founded into the Fortune 500 when he was only 29 years old, he was a different kind of corporation leader. He basically marched to the beat of his own drum. During his life, he had been asked to give a commencement address at various universities, but he only did so once at the 114th Commencement Ceremony at his beloved Stanford University in 2005. This was not the university from which he graduated, for he attended Reed College and went on to become a college drop-out. Stanford was the university whose campus he loved to walk and which provided his medical care at the time of his greatest physical vulnerability.

Beahm's book contains short chapters which focus on the lines from the commencement address that Steve Jobs gave to the graduating class on June 12, 2005. The most glaring omission from this book is the text of the commencement speech itself. At the beginning of the book is a note for the reader to find the actual text and video of the commencement speech on a website online. The direction is then given to the reader to view this before reading Beahm's book. I felt as if I had wanted to view a website about the commencement speech, I would have not been reading this book. I started the book without having viewed the website. I felt as if I knew enough about the life of Steve Jobs from recently reading the excellent biography Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson. I was correct. Nothing in Beahm's book was new to me. However, I did stop midway through the book to first read the commencement speech and then to view the video of the speech.

This book is a kind tribute to Steve Jobs. It puts a good face on a man who was very controversial in dealing with others over the course of his lifetime. It gleans the best of what he learned in his life and puts it all up front as advice for young men and women starting their careers as new graduates. We often learn in hindsight what we should have done differently in life. Actually, that's the only way of really learning something that we can take to heart. However, it's nice to find the human side of Steve Jobs and see it reflected in this book. My favorite part of the book was the last past. That's the part where the focus of his speech was on death. Jobs was anything but conventional and this fit him so well. This part of the book made me very sad for the loss of this brilliant man at such a young age.

The book did not contain much new information for me, but I found it easy to read. The only part I did not like was the very end. I felt as if this book should have ended after Steve jobs wished the Stanford graduates to "Be hungry; be foolish". The ensuing chapters of notes might have been useful, but they made for an abrupt distraction at that point of the book.½

Ce livre dévoile la philosophie de Steve Jobs, la façon dont il a combattu la norme, son envie, son ambition et sa passion.

3.5 stars

This book is a little bit biography and a lot bibliography and discussion of King's works – how they came to be, backstories for his stories, etc. Also includes discussion of the books that were made into movies; movies based on his books, of course, have had plenty of mixed reviews. Also discusses how King is and has been perceived and his reactions to those perceptions. And more...

I enjoyed this. I have read a lot of King, though (he was my favourite author in high school), and I suspect it is much more interesting to someone who has versus someone who has only read a few books by him. This was published in 1998, so there is, of course, nothing more recent than that mentioned in the book.

Can't say that I've read it cover to cover, but I've read a lot of it! Beahm really knows his King lore and shares it with the world. Love this book!

Only up through Season 4. Good companion to the show.

I loved traveling through every page of this book. Art from some of the people who have made the provided the covers of King's books and movies.

Caribbean Pirates
A Treasure Chest of Fact, Fiction, and Folklore
by George Beahm
Art by Tim Kirk

I found this 233 page tell-all book on pirates utterly delightful. I have always had a fascination for these flashy evil doers ever since I heard about the fabled Captain Hook. The author and artist have teamed up to give us a real treat. The colorful pictures and language throughout gave me a sense of what it might of been like back in those days of yesteryear.

The format was also very creative, there were lots of true and false questions and then when I got to the answers I was surprised at some of them, and then laughed like heck at others. This journal displayed page after page of eye-popping photos and salacious tidbits. I would recommend it to anyone who has been swept up in the debauchery, thievery, and splendor associated with the hooligans of the Seven Seas. Thanks guys, for an intimate glimpse into another world.

Love & Light,

Riki Frahmann