Taylor Swift: The Platinum Edition

by Liv Spencer

Taylor The Platinum Edition gets to the heart of this superstar with albums and singles that head straight to the top of the pop and country music charts, a shelf full of awards, and millions of fans around the world. Fans looking for Taylor’s complete story should look no further than this detailed biography, which chronicles her childhood in Pennsylvania where she was teased and bullied, to her early days trying to land a record deal by personally dropping off demos at Nashville record companies, to the performance that led Taylor to her current label ― and international fame. Includes details on her 2012 album Red and coverage of all her recent romances and adventures in the spotlight.

Genres: Nonfiction, Music, Biography

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

Liv Spencer is the writing duo of Jen Knoch & Crissy Calhoun.

Jen Knoch is an editor at ECW Press and the founder of the Keepin’ it Real Book Club, where you’ll find her thoughts on books she reads and on other book-related adventures. Crissy Calhoun works with Jen at ECW Press, as its managing editor, and she also writes companion guides to The Vampire Diaries (the Love You to Death series).

One fine day while toiling at ECDubs HQ, Jen and Crissy decided they should join forces to write books together about subjects they love — hey, half the work, double the glory! — and Liv Spencer was born. (Fun fact: our pen name is a combo of Olivia and Spencer, the children of one of ECW’s pop-culture-minded bosses.)

Despite book-writing being kind of a heck of a lot of work, we can’t seem to stop — there’s nothing better than diving into something we’re fans of and emerging 60,000 words later looking a little haggard but feeling even more in love with our subject than when we pitched the idea to the editorial team at ECW. And once our little books go out into the world, it is the best, most nerve-wracking thing to hear what readers think!

xoxo
Jen and Crissy

Reviews

[Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pre-read: I'm laughing a little because I'm thinking about riding along with my family a while back and overheard my father (who has quite an eclectic taste in music) singing along to "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together." I couldn't stop laughing for a good while. He's like "What? It's stuck in my head."

And now I'm going to have that song stuck in my head for the rest of the day after typing this. Gah. XD

Full review:

I thought this was a decent biography of Taylor Swift, and I'll admit as someone who wasn't familiar with her respective history from the beginning, this was an enlightening read. I have a respect for her career and respective successes in the industry, as well as her collective artistry. "Taylor Swift: The Unofficial Story: Platinum Edition" compiles photos, previous tour dates and set info, discography with song background notes, a comprehensive timeline of Taylor's respective career and accomplishments, and personal notes with collaborators, contributors, mentors, and those who were important figures in her career. There are more than a fair amount of full-color photos of Taylor in various performances, with country superstars, and from her youth. If I can critique this collection on one thing, however, it feels a bit at arms length for all the information that it presents. I thought it would be a little more dynamic and immersive than it was. I can't complain about the depth of the information provided here, though. If you're not familiar with Swift's respective works, inspirations, and history, this is a good resource to peruse.

Overall score: 3.5/5 stars

Note: I received this as an ARC from NetGalley, from the publisher ECW Press.

[ele (taylor’s version) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve read this like 20 times! Taylor is a god 🙏
I’ve got this book since it was published and thanks this I became a swiftieee 🫶🏼

[April (Aprilius Maximus) · Rating 3 out of 5]

T-SWIZZLE 5EVA!

It was very informative as well as having beautiful coloured pictures and extra facts! I especially loved how it went through each of her songs and said what/who they were about and her writing process and everything! That was definitely my favourite part! Some of it was kinda boring though and I found myself skimming some of the parts about which films she's been in and yadayada.

I especially loved this quote from Taylor:

"Fearless is not the absence of fear. It's not being completely unafraid. To me, fearless is having fears. Fearless is having doubts. Lots of them. To me, fearless is living in spite of those things that scare you to death".

[Cate (taylor’s version) · Rating 5 out of 5]

god my love for this woman grows everyday, she’s so talented and kind I love her

[Hannah Showalter · Rating 4 out of 5]

this was so goofy and i had a lot of fun reading it!! it definitely doesn't deserve 4 stars but i'm giving it 4 stars anyways. the last section dragged on sooo much but i loved the deep dive on each track from the album!! shout out to me for randomly finding this at work last week lol.

[Natalie Monroe · Rating 3 out of 5]

*ARC received through Netgalley*

I was really excited when I saw this up on Netgalley because I'm a huge Taylor Swift fan and would love to know more about her.

This book chronicles her rise to stardom, from when she was a little girl just learning to play the guitar to now, her Red tour. It also includes info on each of her songs on her 4 albums. Inserted within are full-color photos of Taylor (They're black and white on my Kindle though but I'm sure the physical copy is full-color)

I think this book would provide lots of fascinating facts and information for new Taylor Swift fans but for an old-timer like me, it falls a bit flat because I already know all this stuff. I did learn some new facts though like Taylor helped propel 'Super Bass' by Nicki Minaj onto the charts because she rapped a few verses on the radio during an interview.

One thing you should note about this book is that it is not a tabloid. You will not find a timeline of when Taylor dated who or why they broke up. Uh-uh. This is all about Taylor and her career. There are snippets of her boyfriends' names but that's rare and most of them appear in the analysis of her songs.

All in all, this is good read for Swifties whether you just jumped on the bandwagon or you've been with her from the start. Who knows, maybe you'll find out some more stuff about your favorite artist.

[♥Booknerdswift♥ · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'd give it 130000000000000000000000000 stars. then again, its TAYLOR SWIFT!!!!!!

[Ellie Reuschel Taylor's Version · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book gave me so much information about how hard it was for her selling her first album. After you get through that chapter you get to learn about all of her albums in depth. You go through each song talking about the different aspects of it and possibly who it was wrote about. All in all it gives you so much good information and is a really good book if you like Taylor Swift.

[Marie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received Taylor Swift: The Platinum Edition biography from NetGalley for review last week and I was really, really, really excited. I figured I’d read it and then pass it along to my niece, who is ten years old and a diehard Taylor Swift devotee. Not so much how it ended up going…

Liv Spencer’s book does cover all the statistics and information that anyone could ever need to know about Taylor Swift, but it does so in such a dry, formulaic manner. I felt like I was reading a bad high school biography report on T. Swift. Never having intentionally sought out any Swifty biographies before, I was expecting to have my mind blown with “insider” information, fun stories about life on the road with the girl wonder, and such.

Instead I found myself reading a literal list of Taylor’s albums, shows, tours, and awards. The chapters are broken down by album first, and then the book finishes with a timeline. I was so disappointed in how little “new” information was presented. I was also disappointed in a lack of quotes from Miss Swift.

That being said, this book would make a great resource for those teenagers out there writing biography reports on celebrities. Liv left no stone unturned when it comes to document every public moment of Taylor’s life.

I give this book 3 of 5 stars, unenthusiastically. Like I said, it’d be a good resource for report-writing, or for someone who just has to know ever single step Taylor Swift has taken on her journey to superstardom. The book also acts as a great album of T. Swift photos. BUT it read like last week’s newspaper. I’m not recommending this to the 10-year-old Swifty fan in my life.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Despite being an old punk I'm a great fan of Taylor Swift. She is the genuine article: a singer-songwriter who is both storyteller and poet and who addresses universal themes which - whilst they might come from personal experience - can resonate with anyone of any age who has ever loved or hoped to love. This book includes a breakdown of the writing experience/lyrics for her songs up to and including the album, "Red", together with a potted history of her career which demonstrates her determination to succeed on her own terms. Whether you like her music or not you have to admire her attitude and work ethic, and rather refreshingly I found this book spoke to its readers as adults rather than a teen market.

Some aspects weren't relevant to me. There was a detailed section on her music videos which - as I haven't seen them - I found myself skipping through; and a chronology at the end adds little to what had come before and felt like repetition. This is the first book I've read about Taylor and probably the last (I picked it up from the library), but I now know enough about her to be sure of continuing to appreciate this diverse, independent, artist.

[Yasmin Hassan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really like this book because it is so descriptive about Taylor's life and what she has been through and how she became a singer and the author went into detail and put answers to the specific details about Taylor's life and how she became big.

[Magdalene Lim · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not a Swiftie (aka Taylor Swift fan) but I have heard her songs and can remember the title of one song - You Belong with Me. Chanced upon this book on Scribd and started reading because I was interested in how Taylor Swift got so popular.

I enjoyed her quips on her work ethic and reading the back stories behind some of her songs (despite not knowing most of them) BUT there was just so much (more) explanation for each song than I could tahan (take). It'll be great for die hard Swifties but perhaps a bit of a drag for those who don't know her songs. It got pretty repetitive after a while and I couldn't really care less about which heartbreak song was about which dude.

Back to Taylor's work ethic, she speaks about loving the pressure, taking the fame in her stride and wanting to connect with fans on a personal level. I've much to learn from this singing sensation.

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good biography for Taylor

This book is a good, positive biography for Taylor. A must read for fans, it describes and chronicles Taylor's career up to and including the Red album. It does this reviewing her songs and career in conjunction with each other. A good read showing the many facets of Taylor's life.

[Leen Reynaerts · Rating 2 out of 5]

Veel informatie ontbreekt, maar het leest vlot. Een degelijk beginpunt, maar wel met Google en Wikipedia in de andere hand.

[Elena · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good job, but I am awaiting Taylor's self-penned biography. It's gonna be the best ever. Like, ever.

[Ds · Rating 4 out of 5]

ITA-ENG

Ho iniziato questo libro con una grande dose di scetticismo. Sono un'enorme, gigantesca, grandissima fan di Taylor da tantissimi anni (sono anche riuscita a incontrarla e parlarle) e temevo che il libro avrebbe travisato fatti e curiosità. Be', mi sono ricreduta. Si capisce che Liv Spencer ha seguito Taylor in questi anni e la biografia (tra l'altro abbastanza aggiornata) è ben documentata. L'unico, piccolissimo neo (proprio perché il resto è preciso): Holy Ground non è dedicata a Joe Jonas ma a Jake Gyllenhaal, lo sanno anche i muri. Comunque per quanto riguarda la traduzione italiana mi aspettavo molto peggio...è andata abbastanza bene anche se era abbastanza chiaro che la traduttrice non sapeva moltissimo dell'argomento. Tradurre "twin fire signs" con "segnali anticendio gemelli" è stato un grande colpo al cuore. In ogni caso, se siete interessati a conoscere la Taylor lavoratrice, professionista e artista (e non solo legata ai gossip) questa biografia è perfetta.

At first I was very skeptical about this book. I am a huge, enormous, gigantic Taylor Swift fan and I have been for a lot of years (I even got the chance to meet and talk to her a few times) so I was afraid that this biography would misrepresent facts and curiosities. Well, I changed my mind. It's clear that Liv Spencer followed Taylor's career during these years and the biography (which is almost up to date) is well-documented. The only, minuscule flaw (the rest is quite accurate) I could detect was this: Holy Ground is not dedicated to Joe Jonas, but to Jake Gyllenhaal. Everyone knows that. And I expected much worse from the Italian translation. It was pretty good, even though it was clear that the translator didn't know much about the subject. Translating "twin fire signs" with "fireproof twin signals" (segnali anticendio gemelli) was a shot through the heart. Anyway, if you're interested in knowing the hardworking, professional and true artist Taylor (and not just the Taylor connected to gossip), this biography's perfect.

[Lu · Rating 3 out of 5]

My secret pleasure is biographies. Granted I haven’t read hoards of them, but I do seem to buy and request quite a lot of them. So when I saw a Taylor Swift one, I jumped at the chance to read and review it. I love Taylor Swift’s music, I’m not ashamed to admit, and I have been a fan from the moment I heard Love Story. I didn’t know much about Taylor’s story and I wanted to learn more! What I got however, was a sort of listing of Taylor’s achievements and no so much history. Sure it starts out with the basics of how Taylor got famous, but not in much detail.

What I did like, was the decoding of all Taylor’s songs and what they have been interpreted as meaning or who they were written for. But saying a song was written because of this one or that one, isn’t enough for me. The relationships were never really talked about and only mentioned when decoding a song. When in her life was this? What are the facts? Nothing? I got nothing…

I wanted something more in depth and detail and not just a list of artists Taylor has performed with etc. I did like the information about all Taylor’s music videos and the decoding part of the songs. I just wanted more of a biography and less lists, more emotion and less distance from the story. So in that regard it felt a bit flat and makes me want to pick up another biography to learn more. So treat this as a intro biography and not an in depth one.

[Jamie Campbell · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was given a copy of this book for an honest review.

This biography follows the songstress from birth until after the release of her latest album, Red.
Starting with Swift’s upbringing and her rise to fame, the story is told mainly from quotes from the singer herself. Sourced from multiple media, it is delicately placed together as if the subject was telling her own story.

Besides the standard issue details on her life and career, Taylor Swift also includes a detailed breakdown of both the singer’s four albums, and her music videos. Revealing the inspiration behind the songs, the secret hidden messages, and the chart success of each.

From Tim McGraw to I knew You Were Trouble, Spencer covers the entire journey in a way that ensures you are instantly enchanted.

This book is a comprehensive guide for anyone who is a fan or just curious. You are guaranteed to learn something new and may also be inspired by the young star’s determination and input into her career.

Dotted with photographs and side stories, this book is visually interesting and well constructed. It is good to read in short bursts or in one sitting.

If you know anyone who is a fan of Taylor Swift, this book would make an excellent gift.

[Psicologorroico · Rating 5 out of 5]

Per chi sa poco o nulla di Taylor, questo libro è una fonte preziosa di informazioni. La parte iniziale è dedicata al percorso fatto da Taylor come artista, dalla gavetta insomma al successo internazionale. I capitoli più belli a mio parere sono quelli relativi alle canzoni di ogni album, di cui viene fornita una descrizione dettagliata: con chi sono state scritte, a chi/cosa sono dedicate, certificazioni e posizioni in classifica. Il tutto viene condito da citazioni da Taylor in interviste varie. Molta attenzione viene data anche alla videografia della cantante. Conclude l'opera un elenco cronologico di tutte le tappe più importanti.

Grande assente: la descrizione canzone per canzone di 1989 e informazioni sul relativo tour. Sarebbe stato meglio fare uscire il libro a conclusione del 1989 World Tour, ma va anche bene così.

Consigliato a tutti gli appassionati di Taylor Swift: se volevate altre motivazioni per amarla, questo libro ve ne fornisce un sacco :)

[Ellie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the best Taylor Swift biography on the market. I constantly reference it and have read it countless times. This book has started my obsession. My HUGE, almost stalker obsession. I love the Swift Notes sections which tell me the meanings behind every song up to ending at RED. The only thing better than this would be a book written by Taylor herself. Update coming soon?

[Rose · Rating 3 out of 5]

lolllllllllllll who edited the ebook version of this and in the section that breaks down the "I Knew You Were Trouble" music video added a sneaky little hidden hyperlink that goes to the screaming goat video? I love you.

[Agnes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Exhaustive information on the songstress. Love the dissection of her songs and the little known facts.

[Kate Welsh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very nicely put together, with lots of interesting trivia and great pictures. Definitely recommended for Taylor Swift fans.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is filled with high quality, glossy photos and lots. It is a fantastic book for a fan.