"The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon" by Brad Stone. This book presents a partial history of Amazon, and how it has always prevailed through the long term vision of Jeff Bezos.
One theme pervasive throughout the book is how Amazon has always been customer-driven, that even a complaint from a single user was enough to affect company decisions. This is likely to appeal to fans of Amazon, reassuring them that customers are always priority one. At least, until they read deeper into the second half of the book. Careful readers might already observe questionable bits such as exploiting distributors' minimum order requirements.
Another theme that is more prominent in the latter part of the book is one of dominance and relentlessness. Amazon will be the everything store -- not just a store that happens to be in every market (which might be scary enough), but also the sole leader in every market. This book details countless tales of how Amazon crushed competitor after competitor with not so subtle tactics, all in the name of bringing lower prices to consumers. Amazon's negotiation with UPS might be the turning point in this tale, as from that point on there is nothing to stop Amazon's momentum. It's the kind of stories that might motivate you to spend more money in brick and mortar stores.
This book depicts Amazon as almost patron saint for consumers, but in all other aspects it doesn't seem very favorable. Of course, there is no telling if any of it is really true. I am very happy to have read this book because the anecdotes were all very entertaining to read (truth or not), and it makes me feel pretty good about being an Amazon customer as opposed to an Amazon employee.
Previous (2013-12-01): "Roman dourou" by Dazai Osamu
Next (2014-01-23): "Kaijin Nijuumensou" by Edogawa Ranpo