AAUG Reviews

by Steve Nigl, AAUG member
Reviewed 11/2005

People milling about with white ear buds. You see them on the street. In the coffee shop. At work and school. If you have ever wondered about the appeal of the iPod, or wanted to know what it’s like to be in the inside of this new sub-culture - to ‘get it’; then, boy do I have the book for you! “The Cult of iPod” explores every facet of the iPod experience. Leander Kahney is an editor at Wired News. His new book, ‘The Cult of iPod’ culls the best information from his blog of the same name.

Before I get into the content of this book, I must take a moment to comment on the beautiful aesthetic design of the book itself, and it’s themed layout. The outer corners of the book are rounded - mimicking the curved corners of the full-sized iPod. The table of contents is presented in graphics resembling the iTunes interface. Nice. On the back cover, you will find a small caption inside a box with rounded corners, reading “160PP”. Turn over an actual iPod and you will find it’s capacity (20GB, etc.) printed on it’s back in the same fashion. Finally, as you flip through the pages, notice a printed battery icon in the margin going from full to empty in flip-book fashion. It is clear that Mr. Kahney wanted to lavish as much attention to detail in his book as Apple has in it’s legendary iPod line.

Now, on to the content. I am now the owner of my third iPod and like to think that I am fairly well-versed in it’s history and culture. “The Cult of iPod” really opened my eyes to minutiae of all things iPod. The book discusses why the iPod has been so successful and how it is changing the music industry and how we buy and listen to music. It shows people in many walks of life using the iPod in many different ways, including a fashion designer with over 70 iPods in his collection and a $1500 briefcase to cart them around. The book discovers a whole pod-economy revolving around accessories; plus new careers and businesses that never existed before the iPod (for example, a company that designs custom playlists for surgeons to listen to while operating).

In brief, “The Cult of iPod” shows the past, present, and future of this remarkable little device. I cannot remember ever enjoying a book from the ‘computer section’ as much. I’d give it ’six stars’ if the scale went that high.