Burn Book

A Tech Love Story

By: Kara Swisher

Narrated by: Kara Swisher

Length: 7 hrs and 40 mins

Publisher's summary

Instant New York Times Bestseller

From award-winning journalist Kara Swisher comes a witty, scathing, but fair accounting of the tech industry and its founders who wanted to change the world but broke it instead.

“Swisher, the bad-ass journalist and OG chronicler of Silicon Valley…takes no prisoners in this highly readable look at the evolution of the digital world…Bawdy, brash, and compulsively thought-provoking, just like its author, Burn Book sizzles” (Booklist, starred review).

Part memoir, part history, Burn Book is a necessary chronicle of tech’s most powerful players. From “the queen of all media” (Walt Mossberg, The Wall Street Journal), this is the inside story we’ve all been waiting for about modern Silicon Valley and the biggest boom in wealth creation in the history of the world.

When tech titans crowed that they would “move fast and break things,” Kara Swisher was moving faster and breaking news. While covering the explosion of the digital sector in the early 1990s, she developed a long track record of digging up and reporting the facts about this new world order. Her consistent scoops drove one CEO to accuse her of “listening in the heating ducts” and prompted Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg to once observe: “It is a constant joke in the Valley when people write memos for them to say, ‘I hope Kara never sees this.’”

While still in college, Swisher got her start at The Washington Post, where she became one of the few people in journalism interested in covering the nascent Internet. She went on to work for The Wall Street Journal, joining with Walt Mossberg to start the groundbreaking D: All Things Digital conference, as well as pioneering tech news sites.

Swisher has interviewed everyone who matters in tech over three decades, right when they presided over an explosion of world-changing innovation that has both helped and hurt our world. Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Sheryl Sandberg, Bob Iger, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Meg Whitman, Peter Thiel, Sam Altman, and Mark Zuckerberg are just a few whom Swisher made sweat—figuratively and, in Zuckerberg’s case, literally.

Despite the damage she chronicles, Swisher remains optimistic about tech’s potential to help solve problems and not just create them. She calls upon the industry to make better, more thoughtful choices, even as a new set of powerful AI tools are poised to change the world yet again. At its heart, this book is a love story to, for, and about tech from someone who knows it better than anyone.

©2024 Kara Swisher (P)2024 Simon & Schuster Audio

Get it while it’s hot!

Tech stinks now. Kara is unafraid to point out where the stench is coming from. If you want to know exactly when and how Big Tech went from cool as Fonzie to jumping the shark, put on your oven mitts and push play on Burn Book.

Great Insight - Needs a professional narrator

As a woman in tech and a Kara Swisher fan, I really enjoyed listening to this book. Swisher can definitely come across as a know-it-all, but I love how she speaks truth to power and calls BS on anyone deserving. About 3/4 of the way through the book I got really sick of her mumbling and fast talking. I think the book would’ve done better to either give Kara a speech coach on narration, or had a professional narrator reading it.

Very engaging

I have been following Kara’s work for many years and this book really captures her essence. I’ve always appreciated her willingness to call out BS and this book is an extension of that. I enjoyed it throughly.

Listen to this book to learn what you don’t know. Kara is continually entertaining.

Kara’s writing is so carefully and thoughtfully composed. Her voice fits perfectly with her lnowledgeable writing.

Great read, poignant, personal informative and fun

I am a fan of Kara Swisher and found the book a captivating read. Her personal perspective on the birth of the digital economy and how it has changed the world, gives even more insight into the people that shaped our current culture. I found her relationships with these individuals, so informative and honest. Her frank nature makes the storytelling that much more interesting. She tells a fascinating story, and more importantly her call to action about controls on technological development couldn't be more timely.

I love this perspective

To my embarrassment I only recently heard of this author. I saw her on a talkshow in which she was being interviewed about this book being born in the 60s and growing up in the 80s and 90s. I am a child of tech myself and really loved a lot of her opinions and her history and I really enjoyed the book.

Her writing/conversation style is easy to read and listen to.

I thought it was just perfect if I didn’t always agree with her opinions

Fearless

Swisher writes with clarity and precision. She avoids bullshit. Her inclusion of personal family details adds perspective to her writing about the monarchy of the tech world. Her decision to include her cardiac repair story encourages me to believe that she will be here to provide more chapters to this very human/tech drama. Thank you Kara for sharing your insights and devilish sense of humor!

A fun ride through the sharpest writer in tech

This is a great listen for anyone who follows and works on tech. Kara gives a great narration that balances between her patented cynicism and humanity that makes her so great. While I’d like a more expansive story that goes beyond the big names that you’d expect, she shines light on the personalities that shape our world.

Thoroughly enjoyed

Great memories, truths, background, analogies, and a real honest look at all the dimensions of digital & the mighty few who are determining generational destinies.

Loved it

History of the Internet with Swisher sass. Great listen especially if you enjoyed Kara's podcasts