This book by communications professor Schatz (The Genius of the System: Hollywood Filmmaking in the Studio Era, 1988) covers 15 years—from 1989 to 2004—that set the table for the complex, franchise-heavy film era we’re now in. Focusing more on business moves than aesthetics, the book is mostly concerned with ever-merging studios and the big, high-risk bets they made: Batman (1989), Jurassic Park (1993), Toy Story (1995), Independence Day (1996), Titanic (1997), and other exemplars of ever-bloating budgets and revenue. Though such projects seem like inevitable successes now, Schatz shows how they were built out of complex production funding, licensing, and marketing deals, and (quite often) panic. Disney, for instance, was flailing on its animation side until Beauty and the Beast (1991) and computer animation got it back on track. The explosion in event films occurred in tandem with the rise of what Schatz calls “Indiewood”—independent companies like Miramax (led by Harvey Weinstein) or arthouse-minded subsidiaries looking to reinvent the surprise successes of hits like Sex, Lies and Videotape (1989), Do the Right Thing (1989), and The Blair Witch Project (1999). U.S. media deregulation opened the floodgates for a host of mergers and international partnerships, but the shifts only seemed to serve the interests of big-budget plays on familiar intellectual property—hence the rise of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Schatz covers all this thoroughly, if a bit bloodlessly, more concerned with the financial consequences of various projects that left everyone not named Steven Spielberg artistically compromised. The book’s scope means he can only briefly mention the rise of streaming players like Netflix and Amazon, but his outlook is pessimistic: “truly memorable films are in increasingly short supply.”

The author here champions cultivating a daily habit of reading—even for a period of five minutes—as a way to “unlock clarity, habits, and a mindset for growth,” citing figures from business executives to professional athletes who credit the practice of reading with helping them to succeed in, as Jacobs puts it, “maintaining relevance, fostering resilience, and ultimately thriving in your personal life and career.” He takes readers on brief tour of the history of reading and describes (and then dismantles) some popular misconceptions about finding time for the pursuit, which he refers to as a “catalyst habit: a foundational practice that fuels growth in almost every other area of your life.” Reading, Jacobs asserts, improves thinking, sharpens communication, and can even lead to making smarter choices on the path to becoming what he calls a “deliberately developmental individual.” The author outlines the real, practical benefits of regular reading under the heading of five pillars: Practical, Physical, Perspective, Practice, and Performance, elaborating on each in turn. “Books help you find the kinds of problems you want to have,” he writes, “and give you the tools to keep solving them with more clarity, confidence, and even a little joy.” Jacobs details his five pillars with the fast pace and confident tone of a personal trainer, and while some may find the author’s entire conception of reading unrecognizably utilitarian (such as when he calls reading “a proactive investment in your well-being”), his happy certainty will likely win over converts to his ideas. “Be the person with a book in your bag,” he encourages. “Be the one taking notes, asking questions, staying curious.” Perennially good advice, and well delivered.