Sir Alan Sugar: The Biography: The Verdict: DON'T BUY IT!

Gryzor · 11:55, 11 November 10

Here's the review I wrote on GoodReads:

Oh boy...

When Burden was finally able to withdraw his nose from up Sir Alan's arse, he wrote one of the worst books I've ever read.

A very small book (250-ish small pages, in rather large print), attempting to present Sugar as the Single Perfect Being (SPB(TM)) in the entire universe, with so little insight it makes you wonder why bother at all. With a Bibliography section containing just two sources (seriously! I'm not making this up!), one of which is the *excellent* "The Amstrad Story", I guess you can't expect much.

His analysis is so superfluous I imagine he wrote most of the book before he even had coffee in the mornings.

I bought it primarily to read about Sugar's line of computers. Well... You get to the "Computers" chapter in page 40 (so that's only 40 pages for his life before that point!!!) and... you get done with them things by page 62 or so. The writing is so skin-deep that he doesn't even mention the names of the models that Sugar marketed (save, I believe, the 1512), and it offers absolutely no new information on the whole process. But, what can you expect from a book that totally (I mean *totally*) skips over the early years with the car radio sets or the tower HiFis...

Leave it well alone. Read the Amstrad Story instead...

Well, if anyone wants it, you only have to pay a couple of euros for me to send it to you (to cover postage)...

Xyphoe · 12:32, 11 November 10

Oh dear

I expected as much ... quick cheapo cash in....

...like a lot of Amstrad products

Bryce · 22:05, 11 November 10

So you didn't like it?

Bryce.

Gryzor · 22:24, 11 November 10

Hmm... let me think for a moment.

No.

AMSDOS · 09:04, 12 November 10

Gryzor wrote:

Leave it well alone. Read the Amstrad Story instead...

Or read the Comic-strip adventures of Alan Sugar I suppose!

Gryzor · 14:07, 12 November 10

Hahaha! Actually, I had this very same thought when the author spent all of a couple of paragraphs to describe the buy-out of Sinclair

ukmarkh · 13:10, 24 November 10

Or better still... buy the Book of Arnold when it's finally released

Gryzor · 17:55, 24 November 10

Sign me up for two. Seriously.

Blurredman · 01:35, 11 December 10

My mother bought it for me to read. I have not as of yet, but your description makes me want to read it.

It's no surprise that Lord Sugar does not go into depths about his computers. The way he talks about his computers in interviews and his programmes such as 'The Apprentice' as very vague and I have every confidence in thinking that Lord Sugar does not really care about his computers like you or I. To him it was just a product that his design team came up with.

He is not on the same wave-length as for instance Bill Gates, who funnily enough didn't earn his living boiling radishes as a child but programming on a computer from a very early age.

And yes, he is now in the Government's House of Lords.

AMSDOS · 05:26, 11 December 10

Bill Gates made his money off BASIC for Microcomputers, which allowed him purchased a hacked copy of CP/M, the rest is history - he was only in it for the money!

Gryzor · 08:56, 11 December 10

Quote from: Blurredman on 01:35, 11 December 10
My mother bought it for me to read. I have not as of yet, but your description makes me want to read it.

It's no surprise that Lord Sugar does not go into depths about his computers. The way he talks about his computers in interviews and his programmes such as 'The Apprentice' as very vague and I have every confidence in thinking that Lord Sugar does not really care about his computers like you or I. To him it was just a product that his design team came up with.

He is not on the same wave-length as for instance Bill Gates, who funnily enough didn't earn his living boiling radishes as a child but programming on a computer from a very early age.

And yes, he is now in the Government's House of Lords.

Well, yes and no. We all know what Sugar thought and thinks of his computers, but after all they were the products that made him what he is, so it would be to be expected to talk about them a bit. But my criticism was leveled at the book, which is one of the worst books I've ever bought...

Bryce · 16:11, 16 December 10

This guy obviously either:

A) Liked the book / Alan Sugar an awful lot more than you did.

B) Hated the book and this was his way of expressing it.

C) Is just some wierdo, who needs expensive professional help.

I'll let you decide:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/12/15/alan_sugar_autobiography_pleasure/

Gryzor · 17:05, 16 December 10

Ehm...

But he's talking about the What You See Is What You Get autobiography - another book?

AMSDOS · 22:36, 17 December 10

Gryzor wrote:

Ehm...

But he's talking about the What You See Is What You Get autobiography - another book?

Spoiler: Show

Gryzor · 08:22, 18 November 11

For what it's worth, Amazon is offering this ebook for free... maybe good toilet material.

Bryce · 09:12, 18 November 11

Quote from: Gryzor on 08:22, 18 November 11
For what it's worth, Amazon is offering this ebook for free... maybe good toilet material.

Will they supply it in a handy perforated roll format like my other toilet material comes?

Bryce.

AMSDOS · 09:15, 18 November 11

Quote from: Gryzor on 08:22, 18 November 11
For what it's worth, Amazon is offering this ebook for free... maybe good toilet material.

Wouldn't recommend it for a Log Fire?

INK (particularly the Cheap stuff) might have consequences in that particular region of the body!

It would be a good opportunity for Mr. (Sir) Sugar to follow that book up with another book titled "The Day Books Ruined My Life!"

Gryzor · 16:29, 18 November 11

@Bruce: of all people, I'd have thought *you* would be using home-designed PCBs...

Bryce · 22:34, 18 November 11

@Gryzor: -1 for calling me Bruce

-2 for not realising that Toilet Material is a "Software (t)issue" and I only do hardware

Bryce.

AMSDOS · 23:28, 18 November 11

Quote from: Bryce on 22:34, 18 November 11
@Gryzor: -1 for calling me Bruce

Gryzor could be incorporating both of our names into one!

"uce" as in "use"

@everyone - beginning to look like a Tweet feastival! #quit#it!

Gryzor · 17:37, 21 November 11

What - you've been Bryce all this time? My, my...

khisanth · 15:28, 23 December 11

The problem with Alan Sugar for us computer geeks, is that in any interview, story or book etc the Amstrad computers feature very little. He never talks about them for long or in any kind of detail. Always very much a footnote in the scheme of things.

He focuses on Amstrad as a business, his involvement with football and the Apprentice etc. We need biographies of the people who worked on the hardware really.

Gryzor · 15:42, 23 December 11

Hear, hear.
Then again, not necessarily bios but the story of the machine.

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Sir Alan Sugar: The Biography: The Verdict: DON'T BUY IT!