I have noticed over the last few months that when I go into bookshops or the main newsagent (W H Smith) that there are not many new titles that interest me and where there are they tend to be knock offs from Internet sites or retreads of older books.
However, I am nearly 67 and less than objective in my likes and dislikes so perhaps others have had a better experience?
Foyles the big London bookshop in the centre continues to have fewer titles in its military section. I know there are other more specialised sellers like Ian Allan but they are not in the centre.
I wandered into the Military and Technical Section on the third floor of Foyle's bookshop in London last week for a pre-Christmas browse.
In past years (ok before the Pandorica) I used to come away with a couple of titles I had not been aware of.
This year the section has shrunk somewhat. I found some books I had not seen before but these were either padded Internet style formats or stories about people rather than projects. (as an aside the excellent Forbidden Planet Sci Fi shop nearby is also heavy on people rather than equipment).
Home to my chaotic piles of books and models I am pleased to have bought in the days when they were more interesting.
This may just be me, so feel free to put me straight!
UK 75, before I was laid off with my colleagues during the pandemic, I worked as a book editor, and I have knowledge of the production side as well. Like you and many others I love books, and I firmly believe that books like novels, biographies, histories, etc. will be widely in use a thousand years from now. I remember when e-books were introduced and began their explosive growth, and there was talk of physical books becoming obsolete, but as you might know, e-book growth plateaued and since has slowly declined. (I suspect the current fuss over "Artificial Intelligence will soon replace book authors" is a similar flash-in-the-pan.)
American books like novels, biographies, histories, etc. that are simply black ink on paper are printed in the USA, but for full-color illustrated books on glossy paper, publishers search the world for the cheapest (not necessarily the most skilled and mistake-free, unfortunately) color printer available, as an economy measure. Like you, noticing the discrepancy between the color-illustrated books on aviation/space/naval/military subjects pertinent to 'Secret Projects' on my home's crowded shelves and what is available at bookstores today, I think there has been a severe decline in both quality and quantity of such books over the past four decades, and I fear for their future. For example, there is nothing available now in the USA like the excellent Arco/Salamander "Illustrated Guide To..." series, just right for a kid like me forty years ago with wide-ranging interests but limited budget. I have gotten out of the habit of browsing the few remaining aviation/space/naval/military books on Barnes & Nobles' bargain shelves when I visit, because I found through experience that those "
tend to be knock offs from Internet sites or retreads of older books". It's too bad.
Perhaps the authors of color-illustrated books who frequent this website, like the noted Chris Gibson, Scott Lowther, Bill Sweetman, James Jackson, etc., will wish to weigh in here about their own publishing experiences, especially contrasting today with yesteryear?
On the rare times I get to visit England, I do make it a point to visit the big Waterstones and Foyle's bookshops in London (and the delightful Heffers in Cambridge) and take my time browsing there. Your Forbidden Planet in London is the original, but I prefer the branch here in Manhattan. Happy Christmas to you, UK 75.
