Sugar's autobiography... don't buy it!

[Gryzor]

I forgot to share it with you guys. I finished it (or rather, stopped reading it about two-thirds of the way) a while ago, and this is what I wrote on Goodreads:


I really don't get it how the average rating for this waste of trees is so high.

Let me explain: Sugar simply doesn't know how to write. When it comes to the business side of his life, not much new of importance comes out of its pages. There's very little insight or philosophy and the writing is very, very dry.

When it comes to his personal life... well, I guess not everyone has to have an interesting personal life, and Sugar's has been quite normal, but the way he writes about it is very forced, almost as he's ashamed to uncover it. What little he does give us is int he form of 'by the way' passages, again very dry and with very little interest.

And a special interest: I bought this book because I love the Amstrad series of computers. the CPC and PCW series were what made him, actually, yet he devotes a very short space to them -especially the CPC, where IIRC he only mentions the 464 model within a handful of pages. Oh, and did I mention that nothing new comes out of it?

Such a shame. Better go with David Thomas' book. Much much older, unfortunately, but he manages to give much more insight to Sugar's life and business.

Oh, and another note: I simply detested how he revealed very, very personal details about others (see: France). Really needless and very tactless.

[Gryzor]

So little interest? Well, I know nobody loves the guy, but I thought more would be interested in the book...

[MaV]

So little interest? Well, I know nobody loves the guy, but I thought more would be interested in the book...

I appreciated your review. You recommended David Thomas' book, so I will try to get that one. Sugar however really is not that interesting as a person, and I have a stockpile of books to read before I'll have the time for another one.

[AMSDOS]

So little interest? Well, I know nobody loves the guy, but I thought more would be interested in the book...

Well if someone suggests "don't buy it!", then I "won't buy it!"    Though generally speaking I have zero biographies of any kind on my bookshelf cause I usually want to get something out of a book that I can use in practice, rather than read about the life of a successful business person!    If you ask me, the life of a homeless person would be more interesting to read in a Biography, it may only be 10 pages big and a quick read, though at least it would be direct and establish how someone became homeless because it's not really something people choose to do.