Narrated by Dylan Baker, Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson has a runtime of 25 hrs 18 mins on Audible.
Publisher’s Summary
2012 Audie Award Finalist for Audiobook of the Year
Walter Isaacson’s “enthralling” (The New Yorker) worldwide bestselling biography of Apple cofounder Steve Jobs.
Based on more than forty interviews with Steve Jobs conducted over two years—as well as interviews with more than 100 family members, friends, adversaries, competitors, and colleagues—Walter Isaacson has written a riveting story of the roller-coaster life and searingly intense personality of a creative entrepreneur whose passion for perfection and ferocious drive revolutionized six industries: personal computers, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing, and digital publishing.
At a time when America is seeking ways to sustain its innovative edge, Jobs stands as the ultimate icon of inventiveness and applied imagination. He knew that the best way to create value in 21st century was to connect creativity with technology. He built a company where leaps of the imagination were combined with remarkable feats of engineering.
Although Jobs cooperated with the author, he asked for no control over what was written. He put nothing off-limits. He encouraged the people he knew to speak honestly. And Jobs speaks candidly, sometimes brutally so, about the people he worked with and competed against. His friends, foes, and colleagues provide an unvarnished view of the passions, perfectionism, obsessions, artistry, devilry, and compulsion for control that shaped his approach to business and the innovative products that resulted.
Driven by demons, Jobs could drive those around him to fury and despair. But his personality and products were interrelated, just as Apple’s hardware and software tended to be, as if part of an integrated system. His tale is instructive and cautionary, filled with lessons about innovation, character, leadership, and values.
Steve Jobs is the inspiration for the movie of the same name starring Michael Fassbender, Kate Winslet, Seth Rogen, and Jeff Daniels, directed by Danny Boyle with a screenplay by Aaron Sorkin.
Audiobook Details
- Narrated by: Dylan Baker
- Length: 25 hrs 18 mins
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Release year: 2011
- Audible category: Biographies & Memoirs / Professionals & Academics / Business
Listener Ratings
Steve Jobs holds an average listener rating of 4.7/5 from 35539 Audible ratings.
On Audible, ratings for this title break down into narration performance and story separately:
- Performance (narration): 4.7/5
- Story: 4.7/5
- 5-star ratings: 78% of all ratings
What Audible Listeners Are Saying
4/5 stars — “I Had to Listen…Glad I Did”
After many, many, recommendations, I gave in. For whatever reason, I had spoken with at least a half dozen people within a week who had either recently finished the book, or were close to finishing it. I originally thought that I might get around to this someday, mostly because the idea of reading a biography of someone so recently alive seemed mundane compared to the backlog of great biographies that I would like to get to.I am very happy that I did get to it now. This was a wonderful biography of a sometimes horrific, often brilliant, and almost always headstrong man. Isaacson does a great job balancing the competing storylines that could be attached to Steve Jobs. While it feels like Isaacson does side with Jobs’ worldview a bit too often, he does ensure that there is a bright spotlight on the foibles of a man who most of us knew only through the press. It is a difficult job to portray someone whose echo through history has only just begun. So many of us have opinions about Jobs, and Isaacson really makes no attempt to sway us. He gives plenty of ammunition to both supporters and detractors. In the end, I think he means to say that it doesn’t matter if you were for or against Steve Jobs, the man. Instead, it is about the kinds of legacies we wish to leave, and how one man shaped his own.
Highly recommended, especially when so many of your friends have already read this.
— Joel, Audible listener
5/5 stars — “Really Enjoyed This Book”
Steve Jobs Unabridged by Walter Isaacon is very well written. I thought the narrator Dylan Baker was above average despite some of the poor reviews I read on him. I am a tech- enthusiast and theologian. Steve Job’s was a complex man and Isaacson captured his very essence in this book. Having read (listened) to his so close after the passing of Job’s his book takes Steve off the high devine pedestal that we put people shortly after they have past and brings us smack back into the humanity of Jobs.
What I loved most about this book is how Issacson not only displayed Job’s journey in developing business & technology but also in his spirituality & personal relationship and how each part of the journey intertwined with all aspects of his life. What I thought would be a dry tech book turned out to be both a very inspirational book about the advancement of humanity and leaves the reader to self-reflection about one’s own identity and personal growth. Jobs’ innovations and legacy will live on for many generations to come. This is a must read.— angelacaruso, Audible listener
5/5 stars — “Disgusting.”
Everything about this book is wonderful except the man Steve Jobs himself. I’m not sure I’ve ever known a more selfish despicable man in my lifetime and grew to dislike him more and more with each chapter. My favorite man was Woz of course. A really good human being it seems. Great presentation and great writing to put this book together for a man that deserves much less in my mind. Who wouldn’t have extreme reactions to a man that doesn’t bath, and washed his feet in the toilet or shouts obscenities at employee’s in front of rooms of people to take all pride away. Who wouldn’t have a reaction to lying about so much to so many and even trying to pretend this isn’t his child as he branded the mother as trash and a whore and sued her.Do human beings get lower than this, and all the time pretending it has nothing to do with money as he hoards in all the cash to himself and helps almost no one. Dying with billions in the bank says all you need to know about what a jerk and crummy human being this was and everyone let him get away with his bizarre act because he knew how to make money, and they all hung on to get their piece of the wealth. A marketing genius and fantastic design engineer and thief by trade still makes this man a rotten human being in my book.
— dennis, Audible listener
For full pricing and the 30-day Audible free trial offer, see the link on this page.
