If you’re into post-production and need some winter reading to fill those lazy snow days then check out John Buck‘s Timeline – A History of Editing. I haven’t read them yet — I’m still trying to finish the Steve Jobs biography — but they look to be the most exhaustive books on the subject to date and are definitely next on my reading list. I wasn’t aware of them until last week, when an excerpt began circling the Internet under the headline, “Steve Jobs, Final Cut and iMovie”. This was only the second entry published on a blog dedicated to the book. The author chose his excerpts well: If you want to get some press, all you have to do is mention Apple and/or Final Cut Pro and the blogs will come-a-running!

There are actually two volumes of Timeline published in eBook form. Volume One covers the years 1898 to 1988 and Volume Two runs from 1988 – 2000. I’m tempted to jump right into Volume Two, since it covers the era in which I’ve been working in this business. But a good history lesson on something you’ve dedicated your career to is also a good thing and I bet there’s a lot of stuff to learn about those very early days of the craft and the technology.

What’s inside? From the Timeline blog:

Timeline contains exclusive interviews with all of the key players including Randy Ubillos, Bill Warner, Adrian Ettlinger, Ralph Guggenheim, John Molinari, Bruce Rady, Dave Bargen, Ivan Maltz, Bill Ferster, Glenn Reid, Ron Barker, Chet Schuler, Paul Bamborough and the QuickTime team.

It gives an insight into the development of CMX, Montage, Final Cut Pro, Avid, EMC, Media 100, EditDroid, Lightworks, D-Vision, iMovie, in:sync, Premiere, Ediflex, ImMIX, Link, and many other systems for the first time.

The eBooks cost $4.99 each and are available for a number of eBook devices. There’s Amazon for the Kindle versions of Volume One and Volume Two. And then there’s iTunes for the iPad, iPhone and iPhone touch versions of Volume One and Volume Two. If Barnes and Noble Nook is your thing, you can download Volume One and Volume Two for that. Full details of all the places where you can get the book are on the Welcome to Timeline blog post. I guess now we have to wait for Volume Three to get all the juicy, behind-the-scenes details from 2000 on!