"What I'm Reading" Wednesday (One day late...again!)

This is one of my favorite kinds of blogs to write because I love talking about books and what is good/not good, etc. Sorry it's a day late...again! I had a lot to get off my chest last night and I so appreciate everyone's kind and supportive words and prayers!

Ok...onto what I'm reading................

Right now I am in the middle of Steve Job's biography. Overall I am liking it. If I had to rate it on a scale of 1 to 5, I'd give it about a 3. It has been interesting so far to learn how Jobs developed Apple from just a small start-up in the garage to the empire that it is today. Although he was a pretty "hard to love" guy who was intense, perfectionistic, and sometimes cruel to others, there are (were) enough redeeming qualities about him that keep me turning the pages. Things I can appreciate about Steve Jobs:

* The customer experience was most important to Jobs. It was extremely important to him that his products be easy to use and intuitive.
* Jobs would accept nothing less than a quality product. It was ingrained in him by his father early on that you should always "do things right". Even the motherboard inside the computer had to be put together in an attractive manner using only the best equipment-even down to the screws (even though no one would ever see it).  It makes me feel confident that anything I buy from Apple is going to be a solid, classy, quality product. Although he could frustrate his engineers to death by making them redo and redo something until it was "perfect", I still respect him for not taking shortcuts and for doing things right.
* He spoke his mind. Although he went waaayyy overboard and could have taken a course or two in "tact", I respect anyone who is not afraid to be honest.
* He was a genius- he was not an engineer and did not build any of his products. But, he had the vision and the uncanny ability to know the exact way to promote/market a product. He was feared by many because of his volatile personality, but he was also deeply respected for being a genius and a master of the craft of product development/marketing.

I'm sure there will be more to come, especially when I get to the part where his cancer strikes. It's not a book you can't put down (at least for me), but it is a nice relaxing escape as I fall asleep each night. :-)