Being a huge sci-fi fan and someone who loves reading about dreaming big, I was constantly intrigued by the man behind Tesla and SpaceX. Little did I know he was the co-founder(and the interesting quarrel between him and Thiel), has 5 kids(I always wanted to start something before 'settling down') and has one of the greatest assholic characters where even Jobs would look like Buddha.
A superb account, a page turner, a look at the obsessed dreamer who proved the most famous quote from Margaret Mead over and over again, a fanboish look, a hypercritical reporting, everything in one. The book singlehandedly rekindled a long lost energy to start something, in me. Suffice to say I'd read whatever Ashlee Vance puts out.

Pros :
Very balanced approach. Though some pages seem like a fanboish(where I think Elon had control over) reporting, the hypercritical negative account, especially during the last days of x.com and paypal's merger made ita very balanced book.

Cons :
I wanted to get closer to the man - a madman as many called him- on personal accounts. But because of the fear his practices and no-quarter firing from the job approach has instilled on many close folks within his companies, the personal touch was missing.

A must read.