Not a whole lot of "general" Ferrari books have been released over the last few years of any note. I think the trend these days is to publish books on more specific topics to fill a gap in the marketplace relating to a specific model, era or activity. I look back over the last 10 or so Ferrari books released in 2019/20 and all fall under one of those specific categories. I did however buy this one released recently which might fit the bill, but it's not that great. Image Unavailable, Please Login
I wouldn’t recommend it strictly for reasons of personal taste: I just don’t care for Raupp’s style. Many people do, and I respect that, but it just isn’t to my taste. But then, I don’t really subscribe to the premise of the thread. Why try to impress people with a book sitting on a table?
To be fair, there is no mention of impressing people in the original post. My own definition of a coffee table book would be one that is a large and sumptuously produced and generally too big to hold up and read in a normal way (price is not relevant). So, therefore, I have many such books and none of my books are to impress anyone else. They are all purely for my own pleasure.
Your last sentence sort of encapsulates why I chose the Raupp book. I'm not a huge fan of the harsh, brittle style of photography either, but it's certainly eye-catching. I know 'coffee table book' isn't a derogatory term, but at the same time I'm not leaving the books I cherish lying around on a coffee table!
As doyler mentioned earlier, The Red Dream is a great coffee table book but I would just add to go for the metal cover edition to really have a book that stands out from the rest. Image Unavailable, Please Login
The Taschen photo art book is the ultimate collectors book… USD$6k without stand. It is about an inch thick, beautiful leather bound cover, all the page edging is silver. https://www.taschen.com/pages/en/catalogue/photography/all/66921/facts.ferrari.htm Here’s mine… Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login The stand can be bought separately (if you can find one) for about the same price as the book. I don’t own one, but here is an example Image Unavailable, Please Login Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Agreed, this could very well be the ultimate coffee table book. With the stand included it is a coffee table in itself. Taschen never offered the stand as a separate item, and the version with stand was 5 times the price of a regular copy.
Hoo boy, I was going to add another suggestion of 'Ferrari Legends' by Michel Zumbrunn, published by Merrell. I am dumbfounded at the idea of leaving a £5000 book lying around on a table for people to idly thumb through. I'd have it locked in a vault, accessible only by myself and only upon proof of white gloves and no UV light.
I agree, while I'm sure it's an impressive book, Taschen being a "coffee table" book might be a bit of a stretch. It's massive, uber expensive and weighs a ton.
The Taschen book, with or without stand isn't worth more than 500 bucks. The print quality is low. You can see shadows of the printing of the next page. The silver on the page edging looks nice but is not solid. Most of the pictures are nice content, although at least 60 percent of them are seen in cheaper books. The paper is nothing special. Very expensive for a rather poor product.
I agree with you. But Taschen, being a solid marketing machine, is able to sell a mediocre product at a premium price. So ultimately it maybe the ultimate coffee table. Its there to impress.
If anybody’s interested, I have many of these books for sale, just message me. Greg Austin TX Sent from my iPhone using FerrariChat
Thanks for your valuable contribution, especially since its one of only 5 posts you’ve made here. You couldn’t even fabricate the case for $500. What nonsense
I have this book and engine cover … I really wanted the stand. But as mentioned, it was ridiculously expensive. I was even goi g to commission an auto body fabricator to make me a stand but he didn’t have time. Can anyone else fabricate the stand? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Where do you think the stand is made, wiseguy? It's probably cost them around 50 bucks to make the stand. Maximum.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. This is not my kind of book, but Taschen will eventually sell each and every copy. I'm sure the marketing budget was higher than the production cost, let alone the fee for designer Marc Newson. Who cares, if you like it and can afford it, you buy it. End of story.
What must a book have to be eligible as a perfect Coffee Table Book? It has to be big and you don’t have to fear for damage when it is displayed? The first to mention an already damaged ultimate GTO book quits the room... Just a bad joke...
Hahahaha. Plus the GTO book is too specific. I think one of the criteria of a "coffee table book" is that it needs to be quite general on the topic for it to appeal to all your lounge room guests.
I also investigated having a stand made. The quote came in at over AUD$10k so I parked the idea Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk