Steven Spielberg: Close Up: The Making of His Movies ... (ISBN 1560251956)

Superficial at best:
If you know nothing at all about Steven Spielberg, this book might be a good summary of his career. But if you are looking for personal insights, new depth or detailed film analysis, invest your book-buying money elsewhere. I was also put off by the fairly frequent denigrating remarks about various actors, screen writers and directors many of whom have careers that would seem worthy of some degree of respect.

superficial, innacurate, boring... bad.:
If you've read a Profile on Mr. Spielberg in any magazine or seen one of the very bleak "behind the scenes" documentaries in one of his DVDs... you're more than qualified to write a better book than this one. The back cover refers to the "book" as a "fascinating behind-the-scenes account of how Steven Spielberg really makes movies"... an utter LIE!! The chapter on "Jaws" for example, is only 4 pages long. I mean, the movie took forever to shoot, was plaged with trouble and was the first ever blockbuster... you could easily write a whole book with the creative process involved, not 4 pages. I see that there's an used book priced at $ 0.93 it is expensive, don't buy it.

Amazingly average book:
With enough books chronicling the life and works of Steven Spielberg, this brief and sketchy tome hardly qualifies as one of the best. But I'm a hardcore Spielberg fan and have almost all the books written about him. Regardless, this is simply to fill a niggling itch, not necessarily for a good read. If you're looking for quality and sincere Spielberg books, Neil Sinyard and Ian Freer's excellent bios are great reading.