reputation

Reputation #1-2

by Taylor Swift

Limited edition Hardback reputation book with poetry, paintings, and never-before-seen personal and portrait photos. Also contains posters and pages of handwritten lyrics on Taylor's watercolor paintings. (11" X 9.25") [From the Taylor Swift online store listing]

158 pages, Hardcover

Published December 1, 2018

About the author

Taylor Alison Swift was born on December 13, 1989, in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania. Swift spent her early years on her family's Christmas tree farm. Her grandmother had been a professional opera singer, and Swift soon followed in her footsteps. By the age of 10, Swift was singing at a variety of local events, including fairs and contests. She sang "The Star-Spangled Banner" at a Philadelphia 76ers game at the age of 11, and began writing her own songs and learning guitar at 12 years old.

To pursue her music career, Swift often visited Nashville, Tennessee, the country music capital. There she co-wrote songs, and tried to land a recording contract. Noting her dedication, Swift and her family moved to nearby Hendersonville, Tennessee, in an attempt to further Swift's career.

A stellar performance at The Bluebird Café in Nashville helped Swift get a contract with Scott Borchetta's Big Machine Records. She released her first single, "Tim McGraw," in 2006, and the song became a Top 10 hit on the country charts. It also appeared on her self-titled debut album in October of that same year, selling more than 2.5 million copies. More popular singles soon followed, including "Our Song," a No. 1 country music hit. "Teardrops on My Guitar," "Picture to Burn," and "Should've Said No" were also successful tracks.

In addition to commercial success, Swift received a lot of critical praise for her debut effort. She won the Horizon Award from the Country Music Association (CMA) and the Academy of Country Music Award for Top New Female Vocalist in 2007. Swift next released Sounds of the Season: The Taylor Swift Holiday Collection in 2007. Her renditions of "Silent Night" and "Santa Baby" were modest hits on the country charts.

In 2008, Swift was nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best New Artist category, and won the Academy of Country Music's "Female Vocalist of the Year" Award, the American Music Awards "Favorite Female Country Artist" award, and the American Music Association's "Horizon" award. Around this same time, Swift released her next album, Fearless (2008), which hit the top of both the country and pop charts and stayed there for 11 weeks. By the end of the year, Swift had become the highest-selling country artist of 2008.

In 2009, Swift netted several awards for her work on Fearless, including "Video of the Year" and "Female Video of the Year" for "Love Story" at the CMT Music Awards. On September 13, 2009, Swift also won the MTV Video Music Award for "Best Female Video," making her the first country music star to win an MTV Video Music Award. The win stirred controversy when rapper Kanye West leaped to the stage during Swift's speech, took the microphone, and declared that R&B singer Beyoncé should have won Swift's award. The stunned Swift was unable to make her acceptance speech, and West was removed from the show. When Beyoncé accepted her award for "Best Video of the Year" later in the show, she called Swift to the stage to finish her speech. West later apologized to Swift privately,
and made a public apology on The Jay Leno Show.

If possible, the attention has made Swift an even hotter commodity. Her concert tickets now sell out in less than two minutes, and she is currently ranked as the 69th most powerful celebrity by Forbes magazine, with more than $18 million in earnings this year alone. She recently made her second appearance on comedy show Saturday Night Live, this time as both the host and musical guest. She has also been tapped for four CMA nominations in 2009—"Female Vocalist", "Music Video of the Year", "Best Album" and "Entertainer of the Year"— as well as six American Music Award nominations.

Reviews

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the limited edition collection of the content found in Taylor Swift's previously released reputation / Volume 1 and reputation / Volume 2 magazines. As those two magazines were sold as deluxe editions for her reputation album, a fair number of fans have not had the opportunity to own either of them, and in some cases could only own one of the two magazines. With the release of this Limited Edition Hardback reputation Book, those Taylor Swift's fans who may have missed out can now own all of that exclusive content and more in one fancy package.

If you have one or both of the reputation magazines, then the majority of the content in this new book will be very familiar because it is all taken straight from those magazines and reprinted here, albeit in a much nicer and more desirable binding for collectible purposes. You will get the original photos, handwritten lyrics, poems, and paintings by Taylor Swift, but this is not entirely just a re-designed version of the previously released reputation magazines, for there is some new content in this book, just not a ton of it. Included as exclusive, never before released content are some behind-the-scenes photographs of Taylor Swift recording her music videos and performing her world tour, and some glamour shots of her posing or just doing something quirky. There is even a new poem written by Taylor Swift included which is always a joy to read. This new content was a nice addition to the book, but felt a bit lacking; the new stuff entails only a few pages in the middle of the book. The exclusive content is even added into the book in an odd manner, for there are literally prefacing pages that say "beginning of exclusive content" and "end of exclusive content" just in case that bit of material was all that you were interested in finding. I do wish there was more new stuff in this book because I already have both reputation magazines, but it is cool to have everything wrapped up in a great looking book nevertheless.

Speaking of which, this hardback edition looks great; truly a one-of-a-kind collector's item to proudly display on your bookshelf. The book is made with high quality binding and gold-trimmed pages, making the presentation of the book look collectible and exclusive. It is also more convenient to have one book for all the reputation photos and poems rather than splitting it between two magazine volumes, so if you already have both of those, this limited edition book still warrants a separate purchase, at least for hardcore fans.

Overall, the contents may seem redundant to the more casual fan, and its shiny new coat of paint may not entice the average buyer into essentially paying for the same things twice, but to the die-hard fans like myself, there is simply no other option than to have this book in your collection. If you haven't experienced reputation / Volume 1 or Volume 2 yet, I would say it is safe to skip over those and go straight for this book because it is a much better value for all of the same content and more (plus you won't get stuck with multiple copies of the reputation CD, which each magazine came with).

Taylor Swift has not written a full-fledged book of her own yet, so this is the closest thing we have to such a publication. Keeping that in mind, owning a copy of the Limited Edition Hardback reputation Book feels much more special and has greater value because it is essentially her first book. Simply put, this is the ultimate Taylor Swift book out there right now, so be sure to get one of your own if you are interested because it is limited edition, after all, and won't be around forever!

[Anna Francesca · Rating 5 out of 5]

I finally got around to reading this beauty.

The poems really hit home and the blend of art, photographs and handwritten lyrics along with the quality of the binding, gilded edges and personal touches. I really didn’t have to think about the rating.

Reputation was released at a time when I truly needed it the most. The lyrics and mood of this album helped me in more ways than I can convey. So having this beautiful keepsake is something I’ll treasure.

PS I need to read more of Taylor’s poetry, I need books filled with her wisdom.

[Amna · Rating 5 out of 5]

who doesn’t love taylor swift

[Josie · Rating 5 out of 5]

stunning

[Blaze · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am possibly reputation's biggest fan, as a whole—the album itself, the tour, the general aesthetics, and the poems. I can't get enough of the intricate love story and courageous tales of self-growth told through the music and all of its accompanying visuals. The reputation book is the perfect companion to the album. It contains the lyrics to all the songs, plus the poems that Taylor wrote to accompany the era. (In my opinion, her poem "Why She Disappeared" is the most in-depth piece of writing in this era, even more so than any of the songs.) There are also plenty of photos, including those from the album shoot and more candid shots.

[catarina · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good look into Taylor's "reputation" era and how it's aesthetics and sound came to life.