REVIEW: "PHOTOGRAPH BY RINGO

This new e-book allows readers to not only marvel at Starr's personal photo collection, but to interact with it. Each chapter features introductory videos of the drummer setting up the time and place of the section and almost every page includes a short audio clip of Starr recounting the story behind the picture. The e-book's digital pages are also touch sensitive, allowing readers to expand pictures for a deeper look.
Organized like a scrapbook, the e-book has a hand-crafted feel. Large photographs take up most of the pages and any words are limited to extended captions. The descriptions are written in first person and offer little information, but lots of personality: A photo of Brian Epstein bears the inscription, "There's Brian, looking pensive in a hotel room. You tell me which country, I don't know." A picture of Paul McCartney wearing a beret and puffing on a cigarette dangling from his mouth says, "Paul looks very French."
The enhancements make it feel like Starr is perusing the book right along with you, which makes it well worth the comparatively expensive price of $12.99. (Most e-books range between $.99 – $2.99). A limited print edition of the book is scheduled to be published in December.
"Photograph" is broken into chapters that correspond with portions of Starr's life. "On The Road of Happy Drumming" follows Starr's early career while "Beatle Buddies" touches on the beginning of Beatlemania and "A Hard Day's Night" looks at the making of the film of the same name.
The book focuses more on Ringo's life and his role as drummer than on the band itself, but Beatles fans will get a kick out of photos of the fab four horsing around in hotel rooms and gallivanting across India and Japan. The descriptions and pictures of Liverpool during Starr's childhood allow readers a glimpse of the place that influenced much of the Beatles' work.
Starr's e-book, sold exclusively through the iBookstore, was released last month in conjunction with an exhibit at The Grammy Museum called "Ringo: Peace and Love." Both the book and the exhibit feature never-before-seen photos and artifacts from Starr's life and his time with the Beatles.
"Photograph" is as close to hanging out with Starr as most people will ever get; for that alone it's worth a download.
"Photograph"
By Ringo Starr, Genesis, 149 pages with 69 audio clips and 11 video clips, $12.99