Official book collectors thread

I think most would consider a three volume book about Phil Hill to be a Ferrari book as it was not a biography, per se.

 

Mmmmm.... I think many would question that since an entire volume is entitled The Racing Autobiography.

https://phil-hill-book.com/the-book

 

I'd say this is a Ferrari book featuring Phil Hill, while Inside Track is the other way around- a Phil Hill book featuring some Ferrari's.



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I sincerely hope the delay is caused by Doug finishing the mythical volume 4 of B.R.M.

 

Since there was apparently no way to choose a cover jacket from the four available, I consider myself lucky to have got this one, and neither the bunch of clowns nor the ominous pseudo SUV:
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I have the same problem with for example the car design thread in creative and the 288 GTO picture thread. Plus a couple of others to. Will try the unfollow and follow again as you suggest, thanks.

 

I’ve tried that. It’s intermittent. I follow maybe 20 threads, of which about 10 are active. The only one I have a problem with is the book collectors’ thread. I’ve unsubscribed and resubscribed several times. Today the alerts for that thread are working. As long as it’s only one I can live with it.

 

The memoirs of Fritz Leirer, former official Ferrari dealer in Stein/AR, Switzerland. Cover photo shows Fritz and Rita Leirer with 07161, once owned by Enzo Ferrari. The Leirers bought it 22 October 1984.
Book will be published March 2023.

Marcel Massini

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Great! Thank you very much for the preview. As it is available for pre-order already, I instantly ordered it through the local bookshop. Said to be delivered on March 6.

 

Considering that it's been over 25 years since publication, has anyone ever produced an "Errata" sheet for the book? Doug Nye is a fantastic writer and we are all glad for his Ferrari-related work, but I think even he will admit to having made mistakes.

 

As for mistakes in FiC, I copied the review by Gordon Cruickshank in Motor Sport, January 1996:

Ferrari in Camera From Ascari to Villeneuve, Nye and Goddard. Palawan Press, £350

This is a book of legends: not only of the Ferrari marque and its fabled drivers, but also of the man who has captured this history on film: Geoff Goddard. Only the first two shots in this lavish volume are not by him, and ironically they depict the first time he ever saw a Ferrari. From there on, the broad pages overflow with scarlet paint, with hot oil and with racing rubber; with amazing 100mph closeups of gritted teeth and tensed biceps, with workshops chaotic with battered cars and anxious mechanics.

Goddard inserts chapter introductions, but it is the photos which drive the book, illuminated by generous captions from Doug Nye relating the “who” and the “why”. Some shots are almost poster-size, with terrific impact; all show Goddard’s eye for the scene as a whole, recording by-standers and heroes alike. Stunning action is interspersed with moving portraits — witness a troubled Musso on the morning of his death — so that even if you were there at the time, it’s hard to imagine you could have absorbed more atmosphere than is captured in this magnificent book. Works Ferrari drivers Phil Hill and John Surtees contribute forewords, and data lists of Ferrari models and drivers make it a work of reference, as well as of reverence. As to the repetition of the words “poll position”, I can only presume that this is the deliberate flaw which halts every Persian carpet just short of perfection. . . GC

 

I can't speak for all authors of course but I would imagine once they finish a major project such as FIC they would consider it done and dusted and be happy to move on to another challenge... looking forward, never back.

 

I find errors in a lot of books I own, more in the last few years compared to the 80s for example. I don’t think it’s the author’s mistake; it’s the editing staff that created the error or didn’t correct it.

 

Editing errors, when they can be easily self-corrected while reading, are not really serious - although one could blame the lack of attention... in the Keith Bluemel's F40 book for instance, it's stated in page 86 that the European models wishbones are marked 'M 4' while the US models ones are marked 'M 15 USA' - the text (confirmed by the photographs) on the next page states the other way round ('M 15' and 'M 4 USA', respectively).
Factual mistakes are more worrying, specially when you trust what you read because you do not have prior knowledge.

 

Exactly what happens with Cavallino magazine nowadays.

Marcel Massini

 

I've also seen factual mistakes in Vintage Motorsport, Octane, Forza, and many others, and much more so with all online only publications.

 

I just received an email from a British publication in which the “cannon” of a noted British architect is cited. The usage is questionable (typically applied to works of literature, not buildings) but excusable, but the spelling….

 

Just to clarify my point above I am referring to spelling errors etc. not factual errors. I’m probably not smart enough to catch the factual errors. The spelling errors I would think would be an editors mistake not the author; he or she may have misspelled a word but that is why we have editing. These publishers must be relying on computer spell check programs instead of humans reading the text.

 

Yes indeed. I've also seen many too many spelling and grammatical errors which seem to plague all automotive publications these days. I guess they don't do much, or any proof reading.

 

....an editor's mistake....Homer nods

As a sub-editor the only certainty is that we will all make mistakes and typos.

Be forgiving and merciful...

 

Which one?

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Yes but that is a problem in all written media now, far beyond anything to do with cars, a general decadence and it applies to seemingly every country. Everyday I read media from the US, UK, France, Switzerland and typos, errors appear increasingly. The general level of education, culture keeps dropping...Oh and proofreading is still done, but not as well and increasingly by unqualified people who may correct something but introduce another flaw.

 

THIS.
And then there's sometimes the complete lack of quality control. Sometimes it is just a financial question, sometimes people's ego is in their way.
See also that much discussed magazine...........

Marcel Massini

 

Yes for example while I am not a native English speaker I have had my book chapters edited by other non English speakers who felt they were qualified to do so and it can be a comedy of errors. Of course sometimes when a native English speaker edits my articles or book chapter misunderstandings may creep in which is why I always insist to see chapter and article PDF's so I can triple check everything. Then there is British English and American English, different vernacular: I don't write certain things the same way for Ferrari Market Letter as I do for Octane...