Mike Daisey's book on Amazon was horrible, so when I saw Brad Stone had one coming out (and previewed in a great Bloomberg article), I knew this was my shot at a great Amazon book, and wasn't disappointed. This book drove home the following few points:

• Amazon is built in Jeff's image. The leadership principals, management style, pace, and culture all reflect his personality and priorities. These are things that I had been experiencing for the last few years (in terms of culture, metrics I'm held against, etc), and it was interesting to see how much Jeff himself drove them.
• Jeff is brilliant. He is almost always right. And when he's wrong, he realizes it quickly and flips his position completely. This was something Steve Jobs was famous for, but it's always mentioned negatively, as though it's a character flaw. Steve (and Jeff, apparently) would passionately argue his position, screaming at people why they were wrong - and then, when finally convinced otherwise, Steve would flip 100%, and start yelling at people about how this idea (and by that point, "his" idea) was the correct one. Jeff once made a fantastic comment about this attribute, and highlighted that while it's an incredibly powerful trait to have (to quickly realize your mistakes and switch your position) it's one that politicians can never make, or their career would be over. I thought that was really insightful and interesting. The potentially best character trait that allows a leader to effectively lead an organization in a dynamic environment is exactly the trait that we select against in the people we elect to run our country. Crazy.

Anyway, great book - very interesting and the narrative moves fast. The only negative I could give it is that it's clear that this story hasn't ended, Amazon (and Jeff) are just now hitting their stride, so it feels like the book ends abruptly. I'd love to read a followup by Stone in ten or twenty more years.

I like the cover quite a bit, it encapsulates the book really well. Jeff is hidden back there behind the scenes looking intimidating, while the Amazon brand is front and center, all smiles. Well done.