Interesting book publisher

[Ed Rotondaro]

Hi:

While I was checking prices on another book on a popular website, it listed an intruiging title: "Iowa Class Battleships and Alaska Class larger Cruisers Conversion Projects 1942-1964: An Illustrated Technical History" by Wayne Scarpaci from Nimble Books.

Well I had never heard of this book, so I read the reviews and it turns out to be a very brief volume with more stats on the ships and pictures than actual narrative. One reviewer complained that it was not worth $1 per page (24 pages of text and additional pages of index, charts, etc. in a $24 book) What intruiged me the most was other titles listed that are published by Nimble books. The publisher himself had a blog posting describing some of his current titles. Apparently the company specializes in easy to read books on a wide range of topics. Since they are a small publisher, I doubt they will be widely distributed or discounted for that matter by retail establishments. One reviewer referred to the books as fan fiction after reading a title on a hypothetical meeting of TF-34 and Kurita's battleline at Leyte Gulf. So I'm not sure how much stock to put into this new publisher even though some of the titles are interesting.

Another new title from this company is "In the Shadow of the Battleships; Considering the Cruisers of World War II" by Richard Worth (one of the main honcos over on navweaps and a previously published naval author).

Has anyone seen/read any books from the Nimble Publishing Co?

[Mike Malanaphy]

Hi:

While I was checking prices on another book on a popular website, it listed an intruiging title: "Iowa Class Battleships and Alaska Class larger Cruisers Conversion Projects 1942-1964: An Illustrated Technical History" by Wayne Scarpaci from Nimble Books.

Well I had never heard of this book, so I read the reviews and it turns out to be a very brief volume with more stats on the ships and pictures than actual narrative. One reviewer complained that it was not worth $1 per page (24 pages of text and additional pages of index, charts, etc. in a $24 book) What intruiged me the most was other titles listed that are published by Nimble books. The publisher himself had a blog posting describing some of his current titles. Apparently the company specializes in easy to read books on a wide range of topics. Since they are a small publisher, I doubt they will be widely distributed or discounted for that matter by retail establishments. One reviewer referred to the books as fan fiction after reading a title on a hypothetical meeting of TF-34 and Kurita's battleline at Leyte Gulf. So I'm not sure how much stock to put into this new publisher even though some of the titles are interesting.

Another new title from this company is "In the Shadow of the Battleships; Considering the Cruisers of World War II" by Richard Worth (one of the main honcos over on navweaps and a previously published naval author).

Has anyone seen/read any books from the Nimble Publishing Co?

Hi Ed,

I have seen the volume on the Alaska and Iowa class conversions at my local hobby shop here in Portland. It is about 26 pages for $24.95. The focus is extremely narrow and I saw little that Friedman and Garke and Dulin haven't covered in their respective volumes on the subject. I'll have to ask them if they can get Richard's book as I have his volume on WW II navies and use it frequently as a reference.

[Ed Rotondaro]

Hi Ed,

I have seen the volume on the Alaska and Iowa class conversions at my local hobby shop here in Portland. It is about 26 pages for $24.95. The focus is extremely narrow and I saw little that Friedman and Garke and Dulin haven't covered in their respective volumes on the subject. I'll have to ask them if they can get Richard's book as I have his volume on WW II navies and use it frequently as a reference.

Mike:

Thanks for the info. I myself agree, since I have Friedman's books I doubt there would be anything new in this book. Worth's book could be useful since he does have a good knowledge of the topic. The high prices on these books remind me of many of the specialized titles from Concord Publishing (which you have probably seen in the hobby shop).

[Mike Malanaphy]

Mike:

Thanks for the info. I myself agree, since I have Friedman's books I doubt there would be anything new in this book. Worth's book could be useful since he does have a good knowledge of the topic. The high prices on these books remind me of many of the specialized titles from Concord Publishing (which you have probably seen in the hobby shop).

Hi Ed,

We have a pretty decent hobby shop here in Portland that does carry a lot of books of that type so you can take a look before you buy. There must be a market for them as there is a series on WW II warships that are in Polish.

I remember when Leeward Publishing started doing ship biographies with text and art work in the 70s. Some of these are particularly useful for modellers and contain info that you might not be able to find elsewhere. I'm kind of a ship camouflage buff and an outfit called Warship Perspectives put out four volumes by Alan Raven on RN camouflage a few years back. They were $22.50 each, but came out over the course of year, so to too spendy at one time.

I'm not a fan of paperbacks usually, especially for a work I'll use a lot, but books have become an expensive vice. Fortunately we seem to be in one of those publishing lulls before the next storm. :)

[Ed Rotondaro]

Hi Ed,

We have a pretty decent hobby shop here in Portland that does carry a lot of books of that type so you can take a look before you buy. There must be a market for them as there is a series on WW II warships that are in Polish.

I remember when Leeward Publishing started doing ship biographies with text and art work in the 70s. Some of these are particularly useful for modellers and contain info that you might not be able to find elsewhere. I'm kind of a ship camouflage buff and an outfit called Warship Perspectives put out four volumes by Alan Raven on RN camouflage a few years back. They were $22.50 each, but came out over the course of year, so to too spendy at one time.

I'm not a fan of paperbacks usually, especially for a work I'll use a lot, but books have become an expensive vice. Fortunately we seem to be in one of those publishing lulls before the next storm. :)

Mike:

I agree about paperbacks, for a serious reference book I prefer hardcovers since I know they'll last longer. My boys have frequently drag some of my hardbacks up to their rooms to flip thru before bedtime. No paperback could take the abuse.

One thing I like is that there has been a resurgence in re-printing good reference books in hardcover by the military specialty publishing houses. Ian Buxton's "Big Gun Monitors" has long fetched over $100 minimum on the used book market, but now Naval Institute Press reprinted it and it can be had for half that price (Chris can definitely get it for you at a discount. Shameless NWS plug for my boss;) Now if only they would re-print Oscar Parkes "British Battleships"!

I've seen the Polish naval books on line as well as a series of Japanese and Russian titles covering their own navies and foreign navies. Here's hoping we are on the verge of another great flood of naval books.