A Quick Analysis of The Books I’ve Reviewed

The automotive books I review here make up my personal library. What I mean is, they’re books I’ve acquired over the years. None of these are submitted by a publisher or author, or anyone else, specifically for the purpose of being reviewed. As such, they reflect what interests me, or did at the time I acquired the book.

I’ve looked at the 50 book reviews I have posted (as of December 7, 2021, 51 books total, as the GTO Source books were reviewed together). I really wasn’t too surprised by the statistics I found. This is a fairly basic analysis, just simple criteria. I wanted to quantify what my collection is. I know my interests are very heavily American cars, especially pony and musclecars, and spanning generally from the late 1950s to the mid 1990s, and that was certainly borne out.

I began by looking at nations. That is, the subject material, are the cars from the US, England, Italy, etc. Next, the company of manufacture, the specific make, and perhaps even a specific model. So for example, Opentop Style – An A to Z of Convertible Autos features cars from all over the world and of many makes and models, and so it’s not categorized specifically for nation, make or model. General Motors: The First 75 Years of Transportation Products is about the American manufacturer General Motors, but encompasses all makes and models in the company and therefore classed as US > General Motors. Mustang Classics quite obviously is about a specific model, so it got classed US > Ford Motor Company > Ford > Mustang.

Beyond that, I categorized the books in terms of what the main subjects and themes were. That is to say, did the book include major passages on vehicle development, corporate issues, biographical information on the people involved? Or could one say the focus was on racing, or on collecting vehicles, or motoring in general? A book such as The Buick: A Complete History fits most categories – development and design, personalities, corporate, statistics, and even racing. Wide Open: Days and Nights on the NASCAR Tour is obviously about racing, but also deals with car development and personalities. Of course, these categories could be somewhat debatable, but it’s my blog and my analysis.

Finally, I wanted to see where the books were coming from, that is, the publisher. Again, I already had an idea of which publishers produced the bulk of the books I own, but it was interesting to break it down.

And so, the results…

Nation of automaker: Of the 51 books, 37 focus on cars built by US-based companies. The UK, Italy and Germany are the feature in 1 book each (the remaining books are not specific to one country’s automakers). I regret I have yet to acquire any books dealing in a meaningful way with vehicles of Japanese origin.

Corporation: The big player here is General Motors, with 16 books. Ford is a distant second with 6, including the biography of Henry Ford II. Chrysler is the focus in 3 books, while AMC, Pierce-Arrow, Packard, Jaguar, Ferrari and Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg have 1 book each. To be honest, I’d always considered myself more a ‘Ford man’, but it doesn’t surprise me there is a heavy GM bias. I am quite enamoured of many GM cars, and when certain books, especially histories of marques became available, I tend to grab them.

Make: Chevrolet leads with 7, Ford and Pontiac tie with 4, then Cadillac with 2. AMC, Pierce-Arrow, Plymouth, Buick, Oldsmobile, Packard, Ferrari and Jaguar each have 1. Chevrolet is simply a popular make and there are many books out there on their cars. Aside from my interest in Fords, I also own a Pontiac which accounts for its high standing.

Model: The Ford Mustang and Pontiac GTO are the subject of 3 books each, Camaro and Corvette 2 each, Barracuda, Ford F-Series trucks, Chev Corvair and Chevy Bel-Air/210/150 line each feature in a book apiece.

Vehicle type: I classed these as pony/musclecar (15 books), large/luxury (4 books), sportscar (3), racecar (2), convertible/open (1) and truck (1).

Of the 51 books, 18 could be considered chronicles. Vehicle development is a main focus in 25 books; corporate issues (company formation, leadership etc) is a focus in 19, and 15 can be considered to have significant biographical information on people involved such as Billy Durant, Harley Earl, E.L. Cord and Dutch Darrin. Ten books include a good amount of advertising and promotional material contemporary to the cars. Nineteen have large or recurring sections relating to statistics and technical aspects. General motoring is the focus in 4 books, racing is prominent in 12 books, and I considered pure ‘testing‘ to be in 1 book only (Barracuda Muscle Portfolio 1964-1974 which is a reprint collection of contemporary magazine articles and road tests).

It was not a surprise that Motorbooks International (MBI) is the publisher of the largest number of books, 12. Most of these were purchased new, and were stocked by my local big box bookstore. Crestline Publishing published 6 books, though only 2 that I’ve reviewed to date are from ‘the Crestline Series’ which was the impetus for this blog. Similarly, Automobile Quarterly published 4 of my reviewed books, though only 1 is actually an edition of the quarterly magazine. Publications International Limited (PIL) produced 3 books, while Krause, Lentinello, Bookman Dan and Michael Bruce Associates (MBA) contribute 2 each. Another 2 books are published independently. The remaining 16 books are from 16 different publishers, mostly a mix of American and British companies.

Finally, I call this a blog about old books about old cars. Now, with books, 20 years is not really very old. But, going by what is available in retail bookstores, it can be hard to find editions older than maybe 10 years. I do know that a number of my books are no longer in print, which can also be an indication of age. Anyway, what I found was my reviewed books break out this way… books published in the 2020s: 3; 2010s: 17; 2000s: 5; 1990s: 8; 1980s: 10; 1970s: 5; 1960s: 3. That makes half of the reviewed books older than 20 years. I counted these books by their edition date, so in fact, a couple books such as the Pierce-Arrow book is actually older as my copy is a 1977, but it is reprint of a 1930 edition.

So this confirms what I already knew. I currently have another 25 or so books that are unread/unreviewed, and these books are also fairly typical. They include a good number of publications from Motorbooks, PIL and Crestline.

With that said, I have endeavoured to broaden the scope. Those who have been following recent posts may notice that books on European makes and on racing have been recent reviews. In fact, I am currently working through a British book on Grand Prix cars from the period 1945-65. I do keep my eye out for interesting books, and truth be told, there are many I just have not pulled the trigger on acquiring. But, if you readers have any suggestions, books you’ve enjoyed or are curious about, please feel free to mention them. If I can find it, I may just pick it up.

Thanks for reading!