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Rating: 
Summary: Sticks& Stones won't break his bones but this might Bore you
Review: I bought Accidental Zillionaire on impulse. I passed it on the end cap and thought it looked interesting. It was! Even though I live in the Seattle area and end up following Allen through the news he makes here, this was a terrific - and fair - look at the whole life of Paul Allen. The author did a great job getting the story straight and demystifying Allen. I suppose one of the things most famous people must tire of is inaccuracies about their lives. It seems as though the author did a good job of sticking with facts and not getting into too much rumor and innuendo that would have made this book a gossip work rather than a read that gives you insight into the life and times of Allen. I thought the book's take on the relationship between Allen and Gates was particularly interesting - especially how Allen has lived his post Microsoft life trying to get another success under his belt - one that would prove that MS wasn't just the vision and success of Gates, with Allen along for the ride. I recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a great overview of Allen's life and work.
Rating: 
Summary: A Great Read
Review: I saw this book in the bookstore window and was curious. The only
thing I knew about Paul Allen was that he and Bill Gates founded
Microsoft. The book is a fascinating, insightful tale of a per-
plexing multi-billionaire who struggles to grasp the brass ring,
predict again the future of technology, and make it his own. The
author spotlights the reasons for Allen's myriad interests, as
well as, the conflicts between his self-perception as "an idea
man" and an inconsistent venture capitalist. I couldn't put
the book down. Its easy to read, carefully researched, highly
recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Great read!
Review: I was always interested in Paul Allen but didn't know much know much about him. This book is a great introduction and a great read, because it's sort of a fantasy -- what would you do if you accidentally made 20 billion bucks? It's like those lottery ads you see on the subway, "Hey, you never know." Allen bought a basketball team, built a museum partly dedicated to Jimi Hendrix, a huge house, fixed up a Cinerama movie theater, invested in Hollywood. For a big oaf of a nonentity, Rich (great name! Wonder if it's real) manages to bring him alive (something he could use help with generally) and make him pretty interesting. And he's much less annoying than Bill Gates. I highly recommend it.
Rating: 
Summary: Demystifying absolutely nothing
Review: I was excited about the topic, as there should be much to say about Paul Allen. Unfortunately, this book reads like little more than a compendium of other sources with the author's mildly informed barbs along the way. Ms. Rich seems to love to judge Mr. Allen's successes and failures, but you learn little about the man in the process. You're better off reading the Forbes or Fortune archives about the man. Furthermore, the book is poorly structured and redundant, giving you the same information multiple times. It reminded me of hastly done 7th grade book reports, where you repeated information just to make the minimum length of the report. Perhaps Ms. Rich was doing the same to reach the 200 page requirement for the book...
Rating: 
Summary: A Good Read!
Review: It's hard not to envy Paul Allen. A son of Oklahomans who moved to Seattle, he went to a private school, met Bill Gates, helped start Microsoft and has had billions of dollars to play with almost ever since. OK, so when Microsoft first went public, he only had a hundred million or so to play with. He's been sued for sexual harassment, owns a big chunk of a hot movie studio and is still an ordinary slob. Allen and his family refused to cooperate with the author, so nothing is straight from the horse's mouth - at least not that horse. The author shows admirable self restraint for the first several chapters, but really pulls the lid off later in the book. Allen comes off looking like a junior level IT nerd who won the lottery, a weirdly fascinating, odd guy. The book is easy enough to read, though it relies mainly on secondary sources and press reports, and is repetitious, disjointed and inclined to skip important information, such as dates. But, if you want the gossipy side of the Microsoft story, We suggest this as your vacation reading.
Rating:
Summary: Great read!
Review: Paul Allen is a fascinating guy, and this is his only biography. So it is worth reading. This is a well written, though a bit repetitive, short book that won't take long to read. The book retells what he has done, but without a lot of perspective. Having finished the book, I have only partial answers to the two key questions: 1. What kind of guy is he? This is an unauthorized biography, so the author never got to know Paul Allen. The book gives plenty of anecdotes that hint at what he is like. But I still don't have a sense of who he is. 2. What has he accomplished? The book retells his life, but without perspective. It doesn't really attempt to answer the big question: If Paul Allen had simply kept his Microsoft shares, how would the technology revolution have been different? To what extent is he simply an observer, and to what extent is he a driving force? How accurate is the book? I knew Paul back in high school (haven't seen him since) and the description of those years is fine. I can't judge the accuracy of the rest of the book, but it bothers me that the author says Paul lived off his Microsoft dividends, when in fact Microsoft has never (until very recently) issued dividends. I wonder how many other details are wrong.
Rating:
Summary: A Must-Read!
Review: This book did nothing to 'demystify' Paul Allen and was poorly written. Though the author did write a great deal about his companies she neglected to include a major company in the Allen stable, Vulcan Producations, a movie production company. When Rich decided to probe into Allen's private life she did so again without regard to details. On page 145 she refers to Allen's age as 49 years old in 2002 then on page 149 as 52 years old in 2001. This book is not a scholarly look at a man who co-created the powerhouse Microsoft and continues to stretch technology with his vision of a wired world. this book.
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