Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Tangled Web...

Contemporary Weaves
If you are an iTunes, Napster, Amazon MP3, or Rhapsody user, you might enjoy Ripped : How the Wired Generation Revolutionized Music by Greg Kot. The book offers an excellent history of the battlefield and the battles : music industry vs. consumers, music industry vs. musicians, musicians vs. consumers and in some cases; musicians who caught the wave.

Author Ben Mezrich (Bringing Down the House) has again hit it big with The Accidental Billionaires : the Founding of Facebook, a Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal. Mezrich's book has been widely criticized for suffering from "truthiness." For a different take, pair the book with Rolling Stone reportage : The Web's Hottest Site : Facebook.com by Dave Kushner and The Battle for Facebook by Claire Hoffman.

Also try Stealing MySpace : the Battle to Control the Most Popular Website in America by Julia Angwin. The book outlines how MySpace became a media sensation and the pitfalls that came with it. There are many big names in this one, including Rupert Murdoch, Eliot Spitzer, Bill O'Reilly, and CT's Attorney General, Richard Blumenthal. Though a business read at its core, the book will still be informative to parents.