Rating: 
Summary: buy this book if you like rehashed dot com whinning!
Review: This book is as played out as the website. Pud's bitter resentment for the dot com sector was interesting for a few days a year ago, but now it seems old and tired. Everyone knows about the dot com thang. I thought at least this book would offer some interesting insights, but no. Played out.
Rating:
Summary: Waste of time, money, paper and ink
Review: All he offers in this very badly book is found for free in his own website and elsewhere in the web. He can't write and his sense of humor is lame and boring.
Rating: 
Summary: Having seen Kaplan in person, I dismiss him and his crap
Review: I have NOT read his book and never will. But I did see this guy give a book promotion talk at our research lab today. The following is based on my impression gathered from twenty minutes of his talk.First of all, I was in fact a bit intrigued by this book a couple of weeks ago, after stumbling on it during a Google search. But after reading a few NEGATIVE reviews at Amazon.com, some of which were very caustic about Kaplan's personality, I lost interest. But Fate did intervene today. To take a break from my interesting research work, I decided to come down to the lecture room, hoping this guy might tell something interesting insights about the dotcoms. I squeezed myself into a packed auditorium. A few minutes into the talk, which was about Mr. Kaplan himself -- i.e., how he managed to charge people obscene amount of money for his five minutes of work to set up email, all due to others' naivety, not his intelligence -- I soon realized that I was watching a shameless self promotion. Fifteen minutes into the talk, and after many bad, not-so-subtle jokes, it became clear to me that this was yet another content-free talk about some parasitic guy living off other people's misery and naivety. Twenty minutes into his self promotion, when he uttered the phrase "three-headed chicks" while referring to Jerry Springer show, I had had enough. (By the way, I am man.) A guy who cannot watch his language in public is unworthy of my respect. I walked out and wrote down this review. Whether you choose to buy his book and laugh off other people's stupidity and misery in order to liven the day for you, that, my friend, is your own business.
Rating: 
Summary: Nothing New
Review: It appears as if the author through together tidbits from his website postings and wrote this book in an hour or two. He offers little-to-no insight regarding the demise of these companies. The book is also full of incorrect information (Paul Allen does not own the Seattle Sonics, he owns the Portland Trailblazers, Fizzylab was not an ecommerce company...)
Rating: 
Summary: Too Dirty? Too Funny? Too Sad?
Review: Admit it: you've loved the site. Now, Kaplan has finally figured out a way to "monetize" his traffic by collecting the best stories from FC and assembling them into tidy little nuggets. Kaplan can definitely turn a phrase, but most are unfit for Amazon's "G" rating. One problem: while the signal to noise ratio at FC is way too low, at least individual voices come through loud and clear. Here, all you get it pud. He's funny, but I kept hoping for some middle ground. Where are those true believers who never saw the end coming? As an aside, if you're an FC junkie / refugee with a real story to tell, startupfailures.com and the University of Maryland's Smith School of Business are building a slightly cleaned up archive of failed companies to save for posterity. Check it out.
Rating:
Summary: A WASTE OF TIME & MONEY
Review: The only reason I gave this book 1 star is because 0 stars wasn't a menu option. This book screams out for someone to write a book titled, "F'd Authors: Unspectacular examples of Lierary Ambulance Chasers Who Need To Get A Life".
Rating:
Summary: Simple ...
Review: If you've been reading the papers or watching TV for the past few years you probably know most of the "information" contained in this book already. Nothing new. Similar to a long magazine article that would normally be free on the web....
Rating:
Summary: Funny as hell
Review: Absolutely entertaining. A great editorial on pop culture and you can learn some important mismanagement concepts from these spectacular failures.
Rating: 
Summary: Painfully fun, appropriate and entertaining.
Review: I enjoyed the book, and certainly appreciate it's message. (i.e. the dot-com company emperor has no clothes). True, it may not be a work of literature, but it has an important message for everyone. Dare I say it is lightly akin to Michael Moore's early documentary film work - not too technically savvy and sexy, but the message is necessary, appropriate and timely. And the delivery is right on. The point of a business is to exercise financial (investment and shareholder) responsibility and social (employee and customer) responsibility. The point of a business is not to prove you can spend the finances. These are mini Enron's, which combined can have a more cumulatively more damaging result than Enron itself. Read the book - tell people about the book and the web site.
Rating:
Summary: It's hard to believe he's a college graduate
Review: I hope selling your soul was worth it.
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