[AJD] Disappointment: New JD Book

[John Boehm]

As Richard Hain, Green Magazine editor, wrote in one
of his book reviews:

"Being the author of a book on classic John Deere
tractors is a simple one.
1. Learn how to take pretty pictures.
2. Find a couple of collectors who have large
collections.
3. Read a bunch of books and magazines to try to come
up with something to say about the tractors.
4. (Most important) Dont hire an editor who knows
anything about tractors.
5. Send it all to Hong Kong to be printed.
The hardest part may be coming up with an original
title."

Unfortunately, Richard is right and Motorbooks, the
publisher of Leffingwell's books, is the worst of the
bunch. I know Randy Leffingwell personally and agree
that he is a great photographer. However, the
seemingly endless recycling of the same material,
along with many factual errors, has kept me from
buying any of these "coffee table" books for a long
time.

John Boehm
Woodland, CA
Visit my web site at http://vintagetractors.com




--- Dean Vinson <vinsond at voyager.net> wrote:

> 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/>
> 
> 
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