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Firstly, I'll say that I stuffed up and did not notice or adequately heed the fact that the product description for Starting At Zero clearly states that the book is in the form of a narrative. Upon discovering that Starting At Zero was ghost written and, as author Peter Neal readily admits in the introduction, uses interpretations and liberties, I felt that the packaging and marketing of this book was designed to efficiently mask the 'His Own Story' ruse, in order to sell as many units as possible to suckers like me eg: Neal's name doesn't appear anywhere on the spine, front or back cover. Neal's imaginative adaptation of Jimi's life is an ambitious undertaking and the input of Alan Douglas, who worked with Jimi, would have been invaluable in crafting this sincere tribute to the great musician. However, if the 'interviews, lyrics, writings, poems, diaries, and even stage raps' that I was expecting to find printed verbatim were what Starting From Zero was compiled from, then I would have no issue with the words 'His Own Story' being used in the title but this book is merely Jimi's life and words as retold by Neal, assisted by the long time supervisor of Jimi's recorded legacy, Douglas. I can't say whether or not I will ever bother reading. For a devotee such as myself, I imagine it would probably be like hearing those infamous tracks from Crash Landing, Midnight Lightning etc: but I do know that I will take to it with a box cutting knife and extract Bill Sienkiewicz's lovely sketches of Jimi that feature throughout the book.Read full review