Rating: 
Summary: Sigh ... Mike, won't you please come home?
Review: I understand the temptation. The Big Story of the early 1990s was the stock market, and that is the story that writer Michael Lewis rode to fame. And the Big Story in the late 1990s was technology, and so Lewis tried to do ride it this time. His efforts, to be frank, have been patchy at best.Unlike in politics and the stock market, where Lewis's insights are canny and spot-on, in technology he is all-too-often just another mouth-breathing naif, wheezing away about some new gee-whiz bit of technology being promoted by twenty-somethings in Palo Alto. What's worse, this book isn't really a book at all. Instead, it's a collection of article Lewis wrote for varous publications, supposedly, as he told on interviewer, to pay for some renovations he and his wife were having done on their San Francisco home. This book reads like something written to pay for renovations. It is workmanlike, at best, with none of the sparkle and gitchy-goo wordplay of Lewis's best work. Matter of fact, it is often boring -- and I never thought I'd say that about anything Mike Lewis wrote. Avoid -- unless you can't find the articles online in the NY Times Magazine archives.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting but fails to bring good connection
Review: In "Next: The future just happened," Michael Lewis opens by stating that in the long run the Internet will become invisible and ubiquituous and no one will think of the social effects anymore than they think of the social effects of electricity. This is a rather obvious statement if one thinks about it: the reason that electricity has had zero social effect on me is because it has been a part of every facet of my life for my entire life. This is the idea that Lewis sets out to explore through stories that he has investigated. The stories are quite interesting, but are not interestng enough to make this book worth the read. The first chapter, entitled "The Financial Revolt," tells the fascinating story of Jonathan Lebed in great detail. The story stretches for the entire eighty-page chapter and relays the inside scoop on the 15-year old kid that made $800,000 by going into chat rooms and giving financial advice. Lewis's analysis of the Lebed story is that stock prices respond to the public's perspective. Lewis also hints at what might be the future of the stock market: millions of small investors plugging becoming in essence professional analysts, generating little explosions of unreality in every corner of the capital markets. But Lewis fails to further explore this idea, providing many pages of story, but no bang to back it up. The book follows the pattern of the first chapter: a long, very detailed, interesting story with very little analysis. But the book is only four chapters, so really you're only getting four stories. Marcus Arnold and his rise in legal advice on AskMe.com is discussed in chapter two, Lewis's point being that if one reduces the law to information then anyone can supply it. Sounds like Will Hunting's claim that anyone can get an education with a library card and $1.35 in late fees. In chapter three, kid-whiz Daniel Sheldon and file sharing application Gnutella are explored. Lewis's major point through these three stories and chapters is that the Internet undermined all the old sources of insider power: control of distribution channels, intellectual property, and information. Chapter 4 is about the effect of TiVo and Knowledge Networks on opinion surveys and advertising. This is the least interesting chapter and Lewis is at his lowest in analysis. In the final chapter, Lewis explains that he has interviewed and explored many more people and stories, but selected only a few to tell that fairly represented the whole. Perhaps Lewis should have just told all of the stories in brief, because then the reader would have been left with a bunch of stories to draw conclusions from, instead of just four or five like there are now. Lewis closes his book with a quote from Leded: "I feel that it is very important to focus on the future right now." Lewis's closing remarks are icing on the cake for the breakdown and in depth explanation he misses throughout the book.
Rating: 
Summary: Simple read, skip it
Review: The book is about the Internet and it's influence on social behavior which turns around and effects the business world. This book borders on reporting and spinning the facts. The author does bring out some surprising issues, but they are at best surprising and not prophetical or revolutionary as the author would like them to be understood as. The author while trying to nit pick at the status quo, ends up using rather trite and cliched methods of describing teenagers and fat people, that again reminds one of a made for TV movie. Finally, it seems that at the last moment the author consulted a thesaurus to insert adjectives that hurt eyes if not disrupt the otherwise simplistic prose. Loan it from a library or a friend.
Rating: 
Summary: A fun read on the nature of the Web
Review: I admit to being something of an Internet evangelist. From my earliest days in cyberspace, I recognized that the Internet contained the potential to transform the way we communicate and, in so doing, the way we live. I still think so--although I think the siren song is being muted by the greedy attempts of corpacracy to co-opt the Web for profit. So when I heard the buzz on Michael Lewis' Next: The Future Just Happened, it was an instant "One-Click"! What I found was a book that overstates and oversells its thesis, but is still a valuable look at how the Web is beginning to affect our culture in unanticipated ways. This is not a scholarly effort by any means. It's more of a personal journey that we take with Lewis as he plumbs some of the more spectacular manifestations of what might be called "Web power." Lewis begins with the kid who made hundreds of thousands of dollars in the stock market until the SEC shut him down, continues to another teen who--despite the lack of any training whatsoever--was among the top dispensers of legal advice on the Web, and ultimately ends up with a tale of a washed-up band resurrecting itself by cobbling together a fan network that finances its tours and new releases. It's a very pleasant--and quick--read. And as we enjoy the antics of these characters at the fringe of society, we begin to discern Lewis' contention: The Web is breaking down the monopoly of the "Insiders," the credentialed, the oligarchy. Due to its vast information resources--and its even wider global and trans-cultural reach--the Web makes it possible for the little fish to make a big splash in the sea. Lewis' tales are not only amusing, but they provide insight into a world that has not yet emerged. Lewis fails, however, to demonstrate that these admitted "Outsiders" are more than an odd aberration. As much as I'd love to see the cold walls of corporate bureaucracy fall, I remained unconvinced that Lewis' heroes are the harbingers of the future. I'd like to think they were; I even hope so! Only time will tell!
Rating:
Summary: Equivalent to a 4 hour movie, with a interesting subject
Review: It literally resembled a fairly long movie. Most of the book was repetitive. Yet the actual subjects of the stories were mind boggling. I was not aware that such frauds and disturbing acts could be done from anyone's home. The novel used several words that I did not recognize; being more exposed to stocks would have been a great aid. Lewis's style of writing was continuous, dull, and at the same time it seemed like he was forced to write unnecessary jokes just to have more pages in his novel.
Rating:
Summary: What's Next?
Review: Found the book very engaging, although at times it was a little unfocused. The stories were interesting. The sociological implications of the internet are staggering, considering the length of the book, it should of delved into the meaning of the impact further. Overall I would recommend other people to read it.
Rating:
Summary: An interesting read -- but collectively, quite poor
Review: I really enjoyed reading "Next". Lewis' profiles are thoroughly interesting as they describe some of the forces that shaped (and still shape) the internet. The book is a very fast read, giving people who know little about the Internet Boom a great deal of knowledge in a short amount of time. Seasoned Silicon Valley veterans can also enjoy the finer details of the people and technologies Lewis profiles. Where Lewis fails, unfortunately, is tying the entire book together. The book would have been a very successful collection of narratives, but Lewis (probably urged by his editor) poorly brings the work together in his "Conclusion" with weak metaphors and a story about the Millenium Clock. Read the book. You will really enjoy it. Just skip the last chapter, especially if you are in a hurry.
Rating: 
Summary: funniest + most informative commuting CD I've ever gotten
Review: Listening to these stories on the way to the office kills the pain of commuting. They're humorous, informative, and well edited.
Rating:
Summary: A revolution in the market
Review: Every little part of the United States is somehow effected with the Internet. All the businesses in the United states doesn't matter big or small is effected by the Internet. Through his amazing book, Michael Lewis tries to illustrate the importance of Internet in today's business life. He tells the story of a 15-year-old boy called Jonathan Lebed who earns $800,000 dollars over a short period of time. After Jonathan succeeds in earning a small amount of money by buying the stock of a company, he becomes more confidence and steps into the complicated world of the stock Market. As Michael Lewis says, no one found out what Lebed exactly did, but not willing to give up, Lewis continues his investigations and finally finds an answer for this question: Jonathan posts this message two hundred separate times, "The Most Undervalued Stock Ever". In his messages he talks about the situation of FTEC. He says that, currently, FTEC trades for just $2.5, and he continues by saying that he expects to see FTEC at $20 dollars very soon because of some issues that are going on in the company. Then he offers them some FTEC stocks for a very little amount of money. Well, his reasons were logical and acceptable to many people and amazingly, many people believed him. His words were so powerful that they encouraged many people to simply buy huge amounts of stocks from him for way more than what they actually costed . Those poor people, did not know that the sender of these messages was only a 15-year-old boy. So, by doing the same thing on different companies, Jonathan earns $800,000. Through this story, Lewis, tries to explain how Internet has become very important, and that how businesses are so depended on it. When someone communicates with someone else through the Internet, there is no way for him to identify his identity. He proves that it is the Internet, that leads the business in the United States. Everything is so depended on the Internet that a simple change in this huge Network, effects everything in the United States. Through his interesting book, Lewis shows how this new technology has effected the United States and the world remarkably.
I am very proud of Michael Lewis for his great work that reveals many interesting facts about the future of the world being greatly effected by the Internet. But of course, in my opinion there is something about the book that made it less than perfect. All the definitions and the explanations are so complicated that it took me several minutes to understand them completely.
But overall "Next" is a great book to read.
Rating:
Summary: Economic Psychology
Review: Though I started to read this book for a class, I was reading it for myself after the first few chapters. The first pleasant thing about it was the fact that Michael Lewis is a writer, not simply an economist with good ideas. He knows how to get his thoughts out in a clear and interesting manner. It wasn't exactly poetic, but it certainly kept my attention. I also liked that the book, while it wasn't totally non-opinionated, allows the reader think for him/herself. He presents the problem or conflict and usually states an opinion, but he does it in a very non-obtrusive way. While reading it, I felt that I was using his data to come up with my own hypothesis. The book is also at times poignantly funny, again usually in a subtle manner. And then of course the content was extremely interesting. Even if he were a less talented writer, the engaging topics would hold the book together.
I thought that this book was a lovely analysis of life with technology.
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