To be honest, I’m not normally much of a book guy. It’s not that I don’t like books, I just don’t have time to sit down and read them most of the time. That means that long leisure reads are typically not going to happen for me. On the other hand, I love a good coffee table book that I can browse through for a bit every now and then.
In the interest of full disclosure, I have known about this book for quite some time now. The author, William Bevington, has reached out to me several times regarding the Panasonic segments within this book and he’s truly a man with a passion for these bikes. I also happened to befriend a gentleman by the name of Nick Ozerov who happens to be a collector of such epic scale it makes my head spin. The majority of the bikes featured in this book happen to belong to my friend Nick.
Upon first inspection you’re struck by just how much meat there is to this book. It has 240 beautifully printed pages in full color. The layout is very crisp and clean and the photography is visually stunning. As a lover of Japanese bicycles this book does not disappoint. It is a bit like a multi-layer cake with a lot of information being presented in each section.
It is evident that the author spent considerable time doing research and trying to nail down the facts and specifications for each presented model. Having focused on just Panasonic bicycles here on the Virtual Museum web site, I cringe at the amount of effort required to pull off an undertaking of this magnitude while meeting publishing deadlines etc.
Featured marques include:
- Araya
- Bridgestone
- Centurion
- Nishiki
- Panasonic
- Miyata
- Fuji
- San Rensho
- Lotus
- Tsunoda
- Kabuki
I was fortunate enough to do a pre publication review of the Panasonic content of this book for the author and was impressed by the depth of his research in terms of the people he had already been in touch with prior to contacting me. When I saw the page layouts and photography I had a very good feeling that this book was going to turn out nicely.
If you love a good coffee table book that is more than just glossy photographs with captions you should definitely pick up a copy of this book while it is still available.
Again, in the interest of full disclosure, I purchased my own copy and received no compensation for this brief review. If you do happen to purchase this book via the link at the right, the Panasonic Bicycles Virtual Museum web site will receive a small commission which may help offset our online expenses. Thank you!
– Darin Nederhoff
Founder, Panasonic Bicycles Virtual Museum
