I bought an iPod Mini several years ago. Like many iPod owners, I was simply blown away. As a skeptical purchaser of anything, I rarely pay attention to the hype surrounding products, but it was hard to find any review of an iPod that didn’t smack of the typical hype-talk surrounding new technologies. After buying one, I knew why. It really is quite simply the perfect thing. It has achieved immortality as a cultural icon of its time and deservedly so.

Steven Levy’s book The Perfect Thing is an account of how the iPod came to be ubiquitous. I actually read this book a couple months ago over spring break, but didn’t have time to blog about it then. However, this book is too good not to mention and recommend.

I originally heard about it on a podcast interview with Steven Levy. I was already interested in reading it because I had previously read Crypto and found it to be fantastic. However, one part of the interview really sold me on reading The Perfect Thing. They were talking about the organization of the book. One the things that defined the iPod was its shuffle feature. Steven Levy decided that he wanted to build this into the book in some way. Thus, the chapters in the book are ’shuffled.’ Thus, if you go to a bookstore and pick up two copies, the chapters will be in different orders. It’s really quite fun to flip through different versions just for the novelty.

The book is similar to Crypto in that both of them involve a lot of very colorful people doing groundbreaking things. The excitement of the time is conveyed palpably. There are few business ventures and technologies that become as successful as rapidly as the iPod. Reading about these people, their excitement, their eccentricities, and ultimately their success was greatly enjoyable and made for a wonderful vacation book. If you are a technologist, a business nut, a music lover, or simply looking for something fun to read, I really encourage you to pick up a copy from the bookstore or the library.