A few weeks back, I added the book, Founders at Work, to an order I placed with Amazon and I got around to starting it yesterday.

It is a very interesting reading so far if you are interested in start ups and the business side of the technology. The interviews I read give a bit of insight into what it was like for the different people interviewed as they started their successful ventures and what things they focused their energy on. Each interview is a chapter and stands on its own, making it an easy book to pick up for a shorter time of reading.

In particular, Steve Wozniak's interview stood out. I never had really read much about the early days of Apple and it was an eye opener. You can read this interview on the book's website. Also, Max Levchin's interview reminded me of how much I enjoyed the book about his start up, The PayPal Wars. (Funny name, interesting read.)

I finished reading Eric Sink's new book this weekend, "Eric Sink on the Business of Software". I've been enjoying Eric's weblog for a long time so I figured I'd splurge on this book as I'm a book person at heart.

This book is actually a printing of 27 articles (or blog posts) from his web site, many of which were released on MSDN. I believe there might be a few small changes, but nothing major. I had read many of these articles previously and I knew what to expect going into the book. If I had been expecting new work, I would have left very disappointed.

Eric has organized the book into 4 sections, Entrepreneurship, People, Marketing and Sales. Each of the articles is now a chapter and he has written an introduction for each one, similar to what Joel Spolsky did in his Joel on Software book. Eric's book does flow together very well considering each article was written without the book in mind.

Eric's focus is on the small software shop or "Micro ISV" has he refers to them. Eric has lots of experiences in the software business and is a great communicator of his ideas. He shares his insights in a very personable, humorous tone which makes for easy reading.

Having had some experience in my own small businesses, a lot of his advice rings true. Some of his ideas didn't really apply, some I'm a bit skeptical of, and some I really wished I had thought of.

The book is recommended reading if you have interest in starting a "Micro ISV" or just like to dream about it. I will readily admit, the weblog archives will give you basically the same content, but you won’t be able to enjoy them as comfortably as a book.