Idea Man: A Memoir
By Paul Allen
£20.00 PORTFOLIO PENGUIN
Although not a stranger to conspicuous consumption, his profile is lower than his former partner's and he's not someone who courts press attention. But now, following the discovery that he has non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, he has decided to tell his story.
If you've seen the film The Social Network, about the genesis of Facebook, then the early scenes (the best scenes, as it happens) of Allen's autobiography will seem familiar. We follow the two prototype computer geeks as they programme for hours without sleep. He paints a vivid picture of the young Gates: "I can still see him alternately pacing and rocking for long periods before jotting on a yellow legal pad, his fingers stained from a rainbow of felt-tip pens.... Then he'd type a flurry of code with those strange hand positions of his, and repeat. He could go like that for hours at a stretch."
It's fair to say that Gates is not an entirely sympathetic figure in the book: he's given to anger tantrums and Allen writes that Gates tried to dilute Allen's ownership stake in Microsoft over the years. But apparently they're still friends.
Allen is now one of the wealthiest people in the world and the rest of the book recounts how he's used his wealth in the name of adventure and discovery, including space travel and brain science. It all makes for a fascinating insight into the life of a very private man. 8/10
BUY IT HERE: Idea Man: A Memoir
A Taxonomy of Office Chairs
by Jonathan Olivares £24.95 PHAIDON
How mad is this? A book entirely dedicated to the history of the office chair. Mind you, we can't talk, because we devoted our cover feature to the subject a few months ago. But this really is a labour of love. Design consultant Olivares adopts the approach of a Victorian naturalist, assiduously logging each new species and subspecies as the chair evolves. There are also more than 400 technical drawings of individual components, showing their development. Mad, but also somehow brilliant. 9/10
BUY IT HERE: A Taxonomy of Office Chairs
Out of Our Minds: Learning to be Creative
by Sir Ken Robinson
£17.99 WILEY
This is an updated version of Robinson's ground-breaking 2001 book. Now more global in perspective, reflecting the author's move from Stratford-upon-Avon to Los Angeles, the book seems more important than ever, addressing as it does the value of creativity and the reasons why so many people think they are not creative. Sadly, our education system is still letting us down in this regard,
as Robinson points out. His rallying cry still deserves to be heard. 8/10
BUY IT HERE: Out of Our Minds: Learning to be Creative
What's Stopping You?
by Robert Kelsey
£10.99 CAPSTONE/WILEY
According to entrepreneur and former City banker Robert Kelsey, around half the population want to run their own business, but only five per cent of them actually do anything about it. What holds them back, he reckons, is their fear of failure. If you're one of those people still frightened to take a dive into the waters of entrepreneurialism, this book offers plenty of advice on how to cast your fears aside. What's more, it makes for a pretty engaging and entertaining read into the bargain. Worth a look. 7/10
BUY IT HERE: What's Stopping You?
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