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Reviews
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Views
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Date of last review
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1
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22101
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Mon May 14, 2007
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Recommended By
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Average Price
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Average Rating
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100% of reviewers
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$75.00
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10.0
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Description:
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Hardcover: 336 pages
Publisher: Hugh Lauter Levin Associates; 1 edition (September 28, 2006)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0883631210
ISBN-13: 978-0883631218
Product Dimensions: 14.7 x 11.6 x 1.5 inches
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Keywords:
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jerry burton
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Hib Halverson
Technical Writer for Internet & Print Media
Registered: January 2001
Location: Southern California
Posts: 2135
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Review Date: Mon May 14, 2007
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Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Price you paid?: $75.00
| Rating: 10
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Pros:
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An outstanding Corvette reading experience.
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Cons:
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Clearly, the Chevrolet Corvette is a very popular subject for "coffee table" books about automobiles. In the first five pages of a keyword search using "Corvette" on Amazon.com, there were more than a dozen listed.
What makes Jerry Burton's new book, Corvette, America's Sports Car--Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow a standout from others in this crowded market is that, not only does it have a selection of gorgeous photographs and drawings from the General Motors archives and other sources, some of which have never before been published in a book, but it also has text which tells a comprehensive story drawn from exclusive interviews with the many engineers and designers who defied conventional thinking in creating America's Sports Car. With unparalleled richness, the book explores Corvette, both in terms of its design, engineering, and racing genealogy, as well as its impact on people and popular culture. Another reason this title is just a cut above similar works? While the technical aspects of the car receive some coverage, thankfully Burton didn't get bogged-down in nuts-and-bolts, gearhead issues which can be the kiss-of-death in a book like this.
A big part of why this book's appeal is so strong is that Jerry Burton brings significant journalistic credentials and Corvette expertise to the table. He's the founding Editor of prestigious "Corvette Quarterly" magazine and was just reappointed to a second term as Editor after spending several years in other capacities at the magazine's publisher, Campbell-Ewald Publishing. In addition, he's the award-winning biographer of Zora Arkus-Duntov, was on the founding Board of Directors of the National Corvette Museum and has been involved with the Corvette community for over 25 years. If you're ever read Burton's work in "CQ" or read what's known in our hobby as simply "The Zora book" (Zora Arkus-Duntov: The Legend Behind Corvette, Bentley Publishers, 2002) then you're familiar with his smooth, rich prose. Jerry has knack for focusing on the emotion and the mystique of the Chevrolet Corvette which is near unmatched in automotive journalism and it shows in this title.
Of course it's eye candy which makes or breaks a coffee table book. While such works can be successful with only average writing quality, they are failures when the pictures are anything less than excellent and Corvette, America's Sports Car has no shortage of exquisite images. In fact, you'd better have this book actually on a coffee table because those reading it will leaf-through the first few pages, then want to put their coffee cups down and begin to view the book's imagery intently.
Jerry Burton's writing, his insightful selection of photographs and drawings and the publisher's execution of the coffee table book style makes for an outstanding Corvette reading experience. The book's publisher, Hugh Lauter Levin, Associates, has a successful track-record of producing large format, hardcover books with a characteristic luxurious presentation. I marveled at the book's use of an actual C6 Corvette emblem on the cover. That Levin markets through high-volume, channels such as Costco Wholesale and Amazon ensures a reasonable "street price".
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Hib Halverson
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;)
Registered: September 2000
Location: CAC