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24 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Humanist In The Dark Wood Of The Internet Boom, July 30, 2004
This review is from: Amazonia: Five Years at the Epicenter of the Dot.Com Juggernaut (Hardcover)
James Marcus, author of "Amazonia:Five Years at the Epicenter of the Dot.Com. Juggernaut", compares his role as a humanist/editor at Amazon with Ralph Waldo Emerson's life and work. He felt Emerson had looked at the history of idealistic thought before coming up with his own version. Ralph Waldo Emerson's Theory of Everything:
" Whenever a true theory appears, it will be its own evidence. Its test is, that it will explain all phenomena. Now many are thought not only unexplained but inexplicable, as language, sleep, madness, dreams,, beasts, sex"
How does this relate to Amazon, hang on this is going to be a fun ride!
In 1996, Marcus James, author, lived in Portland, Oregon with his wife and baby son. He was trying to support them all with his writing and not succeeding. He received an offer to apply for a job at this new Dot.com, Amazon. He flew to Seattle- met with Jeff Bezos in the small building that had doors as desks. The interview with Jeff was a bit bizarre- Jeff asked everyone what their SAT scores were and also included some esoteric questions. James did well and asked a question of his own, knowing Jeff's first job was working with Hedge Funds. He asked for an explanation of Hedge Funds, and how they worked. He was also interviewed by almost everyone else at Amazon and felt the excitement in the place.
After a bit of time, James and family were ensconced in Seattle. James was the first senior editor to write reviews of the books Amazon was selling. He met some extraordinary people and had good success. He was in at the beginning, housing in a warehouse, and saw Amazon grow from a small group of 40 or so to thousands and thousands of employees. He saw the growth from email account with CompuServe or crash-prone AOl to high-speed computer software that does everything. He and the rest of the employees all went to the warehouse at Christmas time and helped wrap and pack books. They roamed all over the warehouse for each order and learned the works. James saw the explosive rise of Amazon.com and the traumatic fall, where all of his colleagues were looking over their back waiting for the "pink" slip. James survived at Amazon, and if it was not for the death of his marriage, and a new found love, he might still be there. He tells us about these colleagues, their quirks and successes. His first trip to the Chicago Book Fair, and his time manning the Amazon.com booth. The funny stories of their retreats and company picnics. The goofy things that happened, the fun and excitement of a new start-up.
This is not a tell-all book, James wrote and perfected the first 45 word review known as" haiku of book criticism." I am a reviewer at Amazon, and I have great interest in how the gold stars, rankings and Jeff Bezos philosophy "Every day is the first day of Amazon.com " works. This is an inside look at Amazon- the fun and the freakiness. A book hard to put down.
James Marcus is an excellent writer- informative, funny and precise. I finished the book feeling like I have met people who worked at a succesful company that includes community and understands the real world of commerce. prisrob
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16 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Rediscovering the 90's with a great read, June 27, 2004
This review is from: Amazonia: Five Years at the Epicenter of the Dot.Com Juggernaut (Hardcover)
James Marcus's Amazonia: Five Years at the Epicenter of the Dot.com Juggernaut is a surprisingly quick and absorbing account of the author's five-year stint as an editor at Amazon.com. Hired in 1996, in the early days of the e-tailer's historic march to world domination (Marcus was employee number 55), the author watched the value of his stock options explode in value during his tenure, and he saw his job as a provider of editorial content become increasingly marginalized as Amazon turned to "personalization widgets" to automate the content of its pages.
For an Amazon enthusiast like myself (I placed my first order--for a copy of Alison Weir's The Wars of the Roses--relatively early, in October of 1997, and have handed over bagfuls of money to the company since), Amazonia offers a titillating view of life behind the web site. Have you ever wondered, for example, what a professional Amazonian's take on the reviews of Harriet Klausner (Amazon's top-ranked reviewer) might be? But the book also reminds us of our recent history, which, given the frenetic pace of change in the computer age, seems very long ago indeed--those early days in the mid-90's when the average man on the street was only vaguely aware, if aware at all, of the wonders of the world wide web. Remember PlanetAll, for example, an online datebook service Amazon acquired back when PDAs weren't ubiquitous? I remembered, but vaguely, once Marcus jogged my memory. Reading Amazonia, then, is an experience akin to reminiscing with a rediscovered friend from grammar school. It's also a great read.
Reviewed by Debra Hamel, author of Trying Neaira: The True Story of a Courtesan's Scandalous Life in Ancient Greece
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8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
THE RISE OF A RETAIL GIANT..., June 16, 2005
This review is from: Amazonia: Five Years at the Epicenter of the Dot.Com Juggernaut (Hardcover)
This is a marvelously written book about the early days of Amazon by one who was employed there in the capacity of editor. This is an insider's observation of an e-commerce leviathan's rise from obscurity. The author reflects on the heady, halcyon days when Amazon was just a newly minted internet book seller, hoping to make its mark. The reader can almost taste the author's enthusiasm for the time he spent working for Amazon in those early days. Who wouldn't be enthusiastic, having worked for a company that gave its employees stock options that, at the height of the dot.com craze, were worth millions.
It was not, however, just about the money. It was also about the opportunity to be on the ground floor of a business that would change the retailing community forever. It was about the camaraderie and the solidarity in those early days, as the employees all wore many hats. The author lets the reader sneak a peek at job interviews. He allows the reader to sit in on staff meetings with him, as well as trade shows, corporate picnics, and retreats that were like pep rallies. It is a most intriguing birds-eye view.
As Amazon grew and changed, so did the author's position as editor. Then, the death knell began ringing for the editors, when the concept of customer reviews developed and grew, becoming a cultural phenomenon unto itself, laying the groundwork for the obsolescence of the job of editor as it was originally constituted. Moreover, the freewheeling, by the seat of your pants operation of Amazon had given over to a more corporate structure. The author worked at Amazon from 1996 to 2001, and his nostalgic reminiscences make for absorbing reading. Those who are devotees of Amazon will find this well-written book heady stuff, indeed.
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