Steven Levy's Perfect Thing

I feel as if I move from one book launch party to the next......Despite the length of time I've been doing what "I do," I remain amazed and grateful at how many authors I know and cherish the moments they celebrate in their published prize. Most in my circles, publish more than once.

Steven Levy is on the west coast as part of his new book unleashing of "The Perfect Thing: How the iPod Shuffles Commerce, Culture and Coolness." I've known Steven for years and not only is he a great writer, but he is full of integrity and as one Apple department shared with me at the event, "the book is so incredibly accurate." Like I said, integrity coupled with quality reporting, research and writing.

After admitting that I was a 'somewhat happy' PC user to the head of marketing for iPods, I found myself compelled to add, "I am now a proud owner of three iPods, all of which I use regularly." (I even have funky hip cases for them - hard to believe I'm in a demographic that doesn't quite match up to this user behavior).

Steven also has a blog about 'everything iPod,' and while I watched him personalize book after book (requesting that mine of course say "to his favorite publicist -:-)," I was intrigued by the realization that the event felt more like a college reunion than a typical technology networking soirree.

VC Heidi Roizen hosted it at her home, in an adjacent Moroccan adobe party house, surrounded by fountains and a warming flame to add to the ambience. The crowd was a mishmash of my old world (John Markoff, John Dvorak, Therese Poletti, Katie Hafner, Thomas Dolby, Renee Edelman, Dan Farber -- people I don't necessarily associate with as part of my new Web 2.0 west coast world) and those who fell somewhere in between (Brad Stone, Eric Auchard, some of the Google guys and lawyers from EFF -- there are apparently ten in total -- Craig Newmark, Donna Sokolsky, the list goes on). I'm sure there were other VCs there, but I didn't notice. Well done Steven and Heidi for pulling such an interesting mix of people together.

Dvorak with Steven towards the end of the evening

Fabulous buzz...

And writing.....
Levy talks about the magic and perfection of the iPod. He says, "the triumpth of the iPod is such that the word "success" falls far short of describing it." I use this quote because it resonated with how I feel about my first experience with the iPod -- later than my early adopter colleagues -- and because in some ways, it caps it all - such a perfect concept, its no wonder I own three. More on the book after I read it.