If you're looking for a light read for the beach or your next cross-country flight, you could do a lot worse than "Options: The Secret Life of Steve Jobs" by Fake Steve Jobs (former Forbes Senior Editor Dan Lyons, now headed to Newsweek in August). I've written about the Fake Steve Jobs blog previously and how its a good mix of satire and insight. But I can't keep up with the volume of postings there and only ge If you’re looking for a light read for the beach or your next cross-country flight, you could do a lot worse than “Options: The Secret Life of Steve Jobs” by Fake Steve Jobs (former Forbes Senior Editor Dan Lyons, now headed to Newsweek in August). I’ve written about the Fake Steve Jobs blog previously and how its a good mix of satire and insight. But I can’t keep up with the volume of postings there and only get it it every now and then. But I picked up Lyons’ book Options while on vacation and I found it very funny. It’s a much better book than I was expecting. This could be the definitive Silicon Valley satire. Lyons reuses some of the posts from his blog including anecdotes of partying with Bono and Larry Ellison, but he’s able to weave a coherent story around Steve Jobs supposed involvement in an options-backdating scandal and the development of the iPhone. FSJ may be a caricature of Steve Jobs, but it’s a darn funny one, especially the way he dismisses the concerns of lawyers, CFOs, board members and engineers. (If only real life were this easy!)It’s a quick read and it had me in stitches. That said, the ending is a bit of a bust. It felt like Lyons had a deadline to make and couldn’t figure out a way to wrap things up without resorting to a snowglobe cliché. Still, the book is tremendous and worth the read. I can’t claim it’s as insightful as Lyon’s other writing, but it’s helluva funny book. Open Source