iWoz

Personal Computers are now a huge business, with large numbers of people employed in bringing us the latest design. It's surprising to learn that it started with one person designing and building a computer by himself - and doing it in his spare time. That person was Steve Wozniak and in iWoz he tells his story. Up until now he hasn't written about his life, but in this book one sees how his upbringing led to a fascination with electronics and to him being in the right place at the right time to initiate the personal computer revolution.

Wozniak is clearly a genius, but on reading the book I felt that this is accompanied by a kind of awkwardness. Indeed one of the reasons Woznaik had for writing it was to set straight some things that had been said about him in other books. But there's also the question, after creating the Apple II, what then? Others in a similar situation have gone on to run huge business empires, but Wozniak was anxious to avoid getting sucked into management. Certainly he has done many worthwhile things since the first Apple computers, but one gets the feeling that none of them have quite lived up to the excitement of the early days.