I enjoy a good book like a piece of apple pie. Here are some of my automotive books, bought some 25 years ago, that have left a sweet taste in my mouth.
I started with this one. Basic book for beginners. The author, armed with a pair of scissors, mostly cut out the cars from old magazine advertisings and pasted them on a white sheet. And when he could'nt or didn't want to destroy the magazine, he just did a drawing instead. This "enlarged edition" is the second copy that I've bought, some years after the original edition. The first is repaired with red and white tape, but the second remained in 3 or 4 pieces with flying sheet, because these books have a definite tendancy to fall apart.
There weren't that many complete books about US cars in Paris at the time when you carried a flat wallet. I've got better ones maybe since, in bright colors on glossy papers, but I never forgot this one. Glossy paper books usually show contemporary photos of shiny restored cars. I like the original stuff. And when I opened my Spotter after a few months of Autopuzzles, I was quite surprised to see that many of the rarest cars proposed on the site, such as the Gordon Diamond or the Bobbi Kar, were in fact in it.
Someone else, I believe it's Paul Jaray, mentioned this book elsewhere in the site. Also one of the firsts that I've bought. Poorly printed, like the other one, but first class binding, as all the rest. Rare pictures of cars in films, actors in cars... The cars not always accurately identified, but who cares? Nice stuff.
I bought one or two of these Crestline series books, then bought six more from a friend who moved to Corsica and wanted to travel light. Still relatively poor printing, greyish photos and boring text with facts and only facts, but INVALUABLE! Every model pictured, plus some clays or concepts, and 99,99% period factory photos.
The cover says it all. Early Nascar as told by the drivers themselves, fine (and well printed) black and white photographs, all of this packaged in an intelligent and sensitive text by the author. And you learned who took his monkey with him in the car, and who took a loaded gun.
I have four of these Ford books all bound in
padded leather. Very good printing and only period photos, of course. Well, in one of them they added some modern color illustrations that aren't too good (not this one, which is a 1930's image). The man does the cars OK, but his characters are lousy.
There are two problems with contemporary automotive illustrators. One is that they are often nitpickers, and it's hard to keep the strength of a image when you pay too much attention to detail. The other is that very often they draw cars from a photo, using an airbrush, and don't really know how to draw. So their perpectives or characters are often faulty.
In this book, you'll find some delights like the list of color and upholstery combinations, list of standards and options, year by year, photos of dealerships and accessory displays, so you will feel like you can go down to the corner and buy one right now.
It's not a book, it's a magazine, but in hardcover! I only have one but I wish I had more. Great text and illustration (in this copy there is a long article about the Adler, extensively illustrated by paintings from Walter Gottschke, to whom none of the critics I made above applies).
In guise of conclusion, I'll say that, if there has always been a debate about european cars being better than american cars, or vice versa, I won't take side in it. But I can tell you that their book-binding is definitely top-notch!
