An Unpleasant Review....[Fwd: Re: [AJD] Disappointment:NewJDBook-HOBBY BOOKS IN GENERAL]

[Louis R Godena]

Dean;

A curious combination of both, actually:-)

Louis G

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Dean VP" <deanvp at att.net>
To: "'Antique John Deere mailing list'" 
<antique-johndeere at lists.antique-tractor.com>
Sent: Tuesday, December 14, 2004 9:52 PM
Subject: RE: An Unpleasant Review....[Fwd: Re: [AJD] 
Disappointment:NewJDBook-HOBBY BOOKS IN GENERAL]


> Louis:
>
> Did you get the B engine loose by using "Wooster or Looster" Sauce?
>
> Dean A. Van Peursem
> Snohomish, WA 98290
>
> I'm a walking storeroom of facts..... I've just lost the key to the
> storeroom door
>
>
> www.deerelegacy.com
>
> http://members.cox.net/classicweb/email.htm
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: antique-johndeere-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com
> [mailto:antique-johndeere-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com] On Behalf Of
> Louis R Godena
> Sent: Tuesday, December 14, 2004 2:52 PM
> To: Antique John Deere mailing list
> Subject: Re: An Unpleasant Review....[Fwd: Re: [AJD] Disappointment:
> NewJDBook-HOBBY BOOKS IN GENERAL]
>
> A spirited defense, Randy.  For the life of me, I can't fathom why writing 
> a
>
> book should elicit such carping.
>
> I have a carp of my own, however.  It's *Worcester* (pronounced Wooster),
> not 'Worchester'; that's stuff you pour on your hamburger.  I know, 'cause 
> I
>
> live about twenty-five miles south of that fair city.  I also bought a 
> stuck
>
> late-styled B there not long ago.  But that's another story...
>
> Louis G
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Randy Leffingwell" <randy at rleffingwell.com>
> To: <vinsond at voyager.net>; <antique-johndeere at lists.antique-tractor.com>
> Sent: Tuesday, December 14, 2004 3:09 PM
> Subject: RE: An Unpleasant Review....[Fwd: Re: [AJD] Disappointment: New
> JDBook-HOBBY BOOKS IN GENERAL]
>
>
>> Hello Dean,
>>
>> I'm really sorry you're disappointed with my new book.
>>
>> If you wouldn't mind giving me a moment, I would like to set a record
>> straight about some of the comments you have written.
>>
>> The first two-thirds of this book IS based on 15,800 pages of new
>> material. It truly is not a rehash of the book I wrote 11 years ago but
>> it is a fresh and complete re-examination of that material in view of
>> several dozen new discoveries. In fact, I threw out the original book as
>> I started reading Theo Brown's diaries. The text material in this big
>> book is virtually new up through 1959.
>>
>> As for taking the text as gospel, I am willing to stake my reputation -
>> such as it may be in your eyes, now - on this text. Brown was there, and
>> he did the work. While I am aware that J.R. Hobbs has read portions on
>> the diaries at Deere's Archives, it appears that Lorry Dunning (who read
>> all 15,800+ pages) and I may be the only people who have read Brown's
>> diaries this thoroughly. In fact, according Rodney Gorme Obien, to the
>> curator at Worchester Polytechnic Institute, we are the only researchers
>> who have examined Brown's diaries there since he donated them and they
>> microfilmed them nearly 40 years ago!
>>
>> Regrettably, from there on, I encountered substantial challenges in
>> getting more recent engineers to respond to phone calls, inquiries, or
>> requests for interviews. I admire Deere's engineers and I like the
>> company but I can tell you after 15 years experience doing books that
>> book authors exist at the bottom of the food chain for responses to
>> information requests, not only at Deere & Co. but at most of Fortune's
>> 500.
>>
>> I felt compelled, as a result, to rewrite some of my existing material
>> for the chapters dealing with the origination of the New Generation
>> tractors because I could not obtain enough new information. It
>> disappointed me and it frustrated me. In the case of my interviews with
>> Bill Hewitt, and with some of the Dreyfuss designers, some of these
>> people no longer are with us. I went back to my original interviews,
>> listened to the tapes and reread my transcriptions, in order to see if I
>> could come up with any new interpretation.
>>
>> The photos are another matter. There are 88 NEW tractors in this book,
>> machines that I have not photographed before. As I assembled the text I
>> recognized that there were some machines that I wrote about but that I
>> had not found new machines to shoot, or I had been denied access to
>> shoot them again for this book. Hence, there are some recycled images. I
>> regret it, and it's decidedly not a majority. It's not how I like to
>> work, however; I absolutely believe in giving my readers value for their
>> money - meaning new information and new photos in each book.
>>
>> I cannot speak to the design or the title of this book. None of those
>> decisions are mine. I will say in defense of MBI and its design staff
>> that they created a book in tune with and stylistically in keeping with
>> other coffee-table style books that are selling now. MBI's goal is to
>> sell books. Honestly, too, we really believed you all would like the
>> large photos that this format allowed. And frankly, as my own aging
>> process advances, I don't mind a little extra white space.
>>
>> It is my goal to provide you and other Deere enthusiasts with value for
>> money. I have to tell you that in my mind, this IS a major new work. If
>> you think I've failed, you all now have my e-mail address. Let me know.
>> If you do find that I've made factual mistakes in this book, I'd like to
>> know that, too. Please be specific and, if you would, tell me not only
>> what is wrong but what the correct information is and what your source
>> is. I value your experience and I will respect your comments.
>>
>> We'll correct errors in the second printing. But if, after you finish
>> reading this book, Dean, you conclude that you hate it, let me know
>> that, too. Tell my why. If what you say makes sense to me, Dean, I'll
>> personally buy your book back.
>>
>> In the meanwhile, I wish you happy holidays,     randy
>>
>> Randy Leffingwell
>> writer/photographer
>> 805-967-2953
>> New website - www.rleffingwell.com
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Guy Fay [mailto:fayguyma at execpc.com]
>> Sent: Sunday, December 12, 2004 10:35 AM
>> To: Randy Leffingwell
>> Subject: An Unpleasant Review....[Fwd: Re: [AJD] Disappointment: New JD
>> Book-HOBBY BOOKS IN GENERAL]
>>
>> Perhaps some problems with MBI's new layouts.....and the lack of text.
>>
>> -------- Original Message -------- 
>>
>> Subject:
>> Re: [AJD] Disappointment: New JD Book-HOBBY BOOKS IN GENERAL
>>
>> Date:
>> Sun, 12 Dec 2004 12:47:25 -0500
>>
>> From:
>> Dean Vinson  <mailto:vinsond at voyager.net> <vinsond at voyager.net>
>>
>> Reply-To:
>> Antique John Deere mailing list
>> <mailto:antique-johndeere at lists.antique-tractor.com>
>> <antique-johndeere at lists.antique-tractor.com>
>>
>> To:
>> Antique John Deere mailing list
>> <mailto:antique-johndeere at lists.antique-tractor.com>
>> <antique-johndeere at lists.antique-tractor.com>
>>
>> References:
>> <000001c4e06c$6ca6d860$64f0480c at DeanOffice>
>>
>> Bill Brueck wrote:
>>
>> > Would invite contrary comments on this, but I make a point of having
>> > the JR Hobbs books that cover those models that interest me.
>>
>> Ditto.  I just the other night re-read my copy of his older book on the
>> first numbered series, which is now in print again in an "updated"
>> version (quoting from Richard Hain's editorial in the November Green
>> Magazine).  So it's back on my list of books to think about buying.  I
>> notice, however, that the ads for the book don't say "Second Edition" as
>>
>> they do for his book on the 30 series, and they've taken JR's name off
>> the front cover, so I'll hold off on getting one until I can find a copy
>>
>> to browse through.
>>
>> Mike Massengale wrote:
>>
>> > If anyone can recommend some "must have" publications that would be
>> > in line right behind the "essentials" for an early styled "B" I'd
>> sure
>> > appreciate it.
>>
>> Bill's recommendation of JR's books on the Letter Series is where I'd
>> start as well.  You can read a little about them (or order them) at
>> .
>>
>> Several others have commented about the various things people are
>> looking for in tractor books, the abundance of choices and the scarcity
>> of really excellent products, etc.  I've got a bunch of coffee-table
>> types, a bunch of nuts-and-bolts-and-production-numbers types, and
>> several operators, parts, and service manuals for tractors I've had or
>> would like to have, and happily spend just as long making sense of the
>> hydraulic system exploded view drawings as reading about the events that
>>
>> influenced this company or that product design or whatever.
>>
>> I wrote my original post about Leffingwell's new coffee-table book
>> because I was mad that so much of the text and a fair number of the
>> pictures are recycled, but a big part of it is my own fault for
>> expecting something else.  Anybody who buys two books by the same author
>>
>> that are both titled more or less "A History of John Deere Tractors" has
>>
>> it coming.  And as I've begun really reading the book, I'm starting to
>> enjoy it despite myself.  I think Leffingwell's heart is in the right
>> place and I trust the list's own Guy Fay to have helped him include some
>>
>> new and genuinely interesting stuff.  Given proper caution about not
>> necessarily taking the text as gospel, it's no doubt a very good book.
>>
>> But content aside, the packaging still rubs me the the wrong way.  I
>> respect a lot of his earlier books because they're high density--lots of
>>
>> well-written interesting text and his trademark great photos in a
>> reasonably small package.  I thought this new book, coming 11 years
>> after his other JD history and being physically a great big damn thing,
>> would be the same way--not just a revision but a major work, with enough
>>
>> new and better information to fill all those new and very large pages
>> and support that heavyweight price tag.  Instead a lot of it is just
>> bigger font size and more white space between each line.  Be careful,
>> Randy.  In your IH book you write about the big shiny Farmall 560 with
>> too many recycled guts and too few R&D hours...
>>
>>
>> Dean Vinson  --  Dayton Ohio
>>
>>
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