Name: Don Katz
Town: Montclair
When did you move there? 1989
How do you make a living? Founder & CEO Audible.com, Newark NJ
Coffee, tea or …. ? Tequila – preferably reposados. Into good tequila for a decade.
What’s your idea of a perfect Saturday? Working less than most of the day to start; playing hockey; catching up with far flung kids; reading versus glancing at the Times; dinner with friends.
What’s your favorite local restaurant? Too hard because there are so many – Satish Palace, Blu, Beyond Pita, Egans (when it’s not too jammed).
What’s on your nightstand? A Kindle Fire (reading Art of Fielding); and old world physical books too: The Stuff of Thought (Steven Pinker); A History of Reading (Alberto Manguel).
Katz pioneered the audio book download.
Your iPod The New Wilco album and dozens of Audible Audiobooks – several about India for a recent trip. Listening now to the new Steve Jobs book; Keith Richards’ A Life (amazing in audio); Thomas McGuane’s Driving The Rim.
Your TiVO? Recent Devils and Blackhawks games; a long list of Showtime and HBO series (how did TV get so good?)
What’s the worst-kept secret about your town? That some of more impressive “human capital” in town is deployed in intensive voluntary efforts to improve the quality of life for all – even though a perusal of, say, the local message boards would indicate that they are highly paid functionaries in fee to forces of darkness.
What do you hope they say about you at your funeral? As my kids know, I hope anything that’s said will need to rise above the gospel choir (preferably in long purple robes). I hope somebody says I was a solid stay-at-home defensemen for well over a half century on the ice; that I wrote a couple of books worth reading; built a company that lives beyond me; raised kids who can love and find their place; had an absolutely great marriage in every way; and that I left a sense with those who knew me that I had a complete blast along the way.
Find out more about Audible in this video.
So many truly wonderful people live here. Nice Profile.
Ditto.
Loved HOME FIRES. Great, great read. Thank you Mr. Katz.
Great guy. I had the pleasure of working with him when Audible was a small company in Wayne. I even have a picture of him from the Star Ledger back in 1997 or 1998 (I am also in the picture, but only the back of my head!)
WOW, Sounds like a great guy, great father, great husband. I googled him…he started the company from scratch and grew it into a multi-million dollar business employing a couple hundred people. It also appears he does some philanthropic work…plus he plays hockey and drinks tequila! Someone better tell him he is going to give the 1% a bad name!
Congratulations Mr. Katz, you have my respect and admiration!
Good tequila is an oxymoron.
In the late 80′s, I was the publicist for the paperback version (published by Penguin) of Don’s great book on Sears Roebuck, THE BIG STORE. Don was everything an author should be: nice, smart, articulate, easy to work with, and he returned phone calls! (this was before email).