[AJD] Disappointment: New JD Book

[Dean Vinson]

I periodically have to re-learn what a sucker I am for new and 
interesting-looking books.  Latest iteration was my recent purchase of 
John Deere: A History of the Tractor, by Randy Leffingwell.  For quite a 
few years I've thought his previous book, John Deere Farm Tractors, was 
about the best coffee-table type book on the antique and classic green 
tractors.  He's a great photographer and writer, and a serious historian.

So this big new book comes out, eleven years after the other one, and I 
figure it'll be great.  More and better, accumulated wisdom of an 
additional decade in the business, etc.  Huge disappointment.  There's 
certainly some new stuff, but way, way too much of it is just recycled 
from the original book, word for word or nearly so, stretched out with 
bigger type and wider line spacing, and dorked up with artsy shadow 
effects on some of the photos.

I'll slowly make my way through it and try to pay attention to the parts 
that are actually different from the older book, and see if there's 
enough there to make it recommendable.  At first pass, though, it looks 
to me like it should have been published under exactly the same title as 
the original, perhaps labeled "Second Edition" or some such.  Or maybe I 
just need to get better at remembering to keep my wallet shut.

Dean Vinson  --  Dayton Ohio
<http://my.voyager.net/~vinsond/>