I've got to be honest, I was hoping for a lot more...and a lot less...out of these books. But, having spent the money on the four-book box set, and now two books in, I'm here until the bitter end.

Spizer, obviously a fan, does tend to get a bit self-congratulatory at the beginning of this book, which hints at some of the other frustrations I'll have with it as we go.

Yes, there's definitely some interesting insights in these books—even stuff that I didn't know (not that I'm an expert or anything)—unfortunately, there's also a lot of information that keeps coming up over and over in the same book, because the reader gets the US, the UK, and the Canadian reactions to everything.

I couldn't be bothered with the pages and pages (and pages and pages) of fan reactions. I just don't care.

The part I found most interesting was the song-by-song details. Unfortunately, they're not quite worth the price of admission. And the rest of the stuff, while interesting, tends to border on self-indulgent. ( )