I read the book carefully and the it's a real shame that the authors did not spend more time on research! Many reviewers complained about lack of information of Bee Gees main asset, their music, I regret to say that it's true. Now, should we wait for a Bee Gees Anthology? Official, Authorized and Informative?

I had already ordered the book when I started reading some of the reviews on here. Some people did not like that the authors wrote about the Bee Gees family or about their younger brother Andy. I tend to disagree with this popular mode of thinking. In order to understand their success and failures, it was their families that were always there for them. The support and love of their families is what molded and shaped them into the successfull and well-rounded individuals they are today. I truly enjoyed getting a glimpse into what life is really like for the Bee Gees.

This book was very well written and researched. In many cases, it will give many views from different parties to a particular story. And if the authors felt that some of the stories were embellished or untrue, they would further research the stories and give their opinions to what really may be the truth.

This book may not give die hard Bee Gees fans any new information but it is a great book for those just discovering their music. It is a very realistic book that not only follows their success but show each Bee Gee as an individual person, not just as a group.

Tales of the Brothers Gibb achieves its purpose, being a great bio-graphy about the life of a family dedicated to music, a journalistic account of their sharp "up and downs" in the public's preferences and final, long-awaited redemption, when a new generation of fans and artists, who never danced their hits on discos, decided that they were a legend.

The book fails to deliver, though, one of the promises made in the first pages, where the authors state that the main focus will be in the musical aspect of their lives. There is not that much discussion about the chords, harmonies, musical significance of their works or a detailed anylisis of the great albums, as it should be. The Bee Gees are, after all, more about music than anything else.

But that shouldn't stop us from enjoying a good biography or even from learning many, many facts about the music, about the way it was made, about the historical context that gave birth to Odessa or Main Course. I can only begin to imagine now what a song like "Really and Sincerely" must mean to Robin. Or Robert Stigwood's insane obsession with the Beatles, which the Brothers Gibb suffered too and still suffer. A very unhealthy obsession that led them to make unforgivable mistakes like their Sgt. Pepper movie and album.

The book is also too "clean" because the Bee Gees always appear like saints, and I somehow suspect they are not. The part dedicated to Australian years is too long and the final stage of their career (1981 and up) is too short, but I enjoyed the book a lot anyway.

And it gives us all a very important lesson: No matter how bad it looks, be always like the Bee Gees and never give up.

As previous reviewers have stated, the book is out-of-date and error-ridden. Some have praised the book as being easy to read, but if the content is wrong it doesn't matter how well the book is written - It is still wrong.

Bad written and full of mistakes - an example :

Chapter 7 - Working with Novell Netware

"NetWare does not provide DNS or DHCP services. These network services, if required on the network, must be provided by a server running some other NOS."

This guy knows nothing about Netware - since 1998 Netware has built-in DNS and DHCP servers.

If you want a real good begginners guide go to : Computer Networking: A Top-Down Approach Featuring the Internet by James Kurose and Keith Ross (ISBN 0-201-47711-4)

Its really an excellent source of information for beginners

I have virtually no networking experience, but this book provides a fairly detailed, easy-to-read, and complete coverage of the topic. There are obviously books that go into extreme detail, but this book is an introduction to the topic. This book deserves 5 stars just for being easy to comprehend and up-to-date. After reading this book and putting the knowledge to use, one will probably be ready for an advanced book on the subject. Well done.
I notice a few complaints about the age of the book, but I purchased the 3rd addition and it was first printed in June 2001, so I don't see what the gripes are for; it's current.