6 January 2008
“Super Kabuto” and Rare Astrophytum
Posted by Stuart under: Books; Cacti .
Every now and again a book comes along that enlightens, educates, and inspires beyond your wildest dreams, containing such horticultural wisdom that it changes you as a grower forever.
This book isn’t one of them.
By Brett Nation, and his 8-year-0ld daughter Hadley (although it’s hard to imagine exactly what part she played in it) this is a coffee-table book of illustrations of Astrophytum plants, most of which are Japanese cultivars. The photography is adequate though not great - several images are slightly blurry, although there are some interesting forms amongst the plants themselves.
However, the best (or worst) thing about it is the accompanying text. Apart from the slightly New Agey introduction in which we’re invited to find inner peace with our plants, most of the descriptions of individual varieties appear to have been culled from eBay auctions. “***MEGA RARE! DON’T MISS***” and other such gems are sprinkled throughout more frequently than you might imagine. It’s hard not to chuckle.
So: an expensive and unintentionally hilarious picture book, which I bought online, unseen - to be fair to them, as a bit of vanity publishing it’s not at all bad, and quite professionally done, but it’s hardly worth the asking price, which I’m too ashamed of paying to repeat.
3 Comments so far...
Brett Nation Says:
17 January 2008 at 10:34 pm.
Thank you for your review of our book!
We regret you were disappointed, but we are glad you found some humor, in this book as this book was never intended to be the ASTROPHYTUM BIBLE.
My daughter and I are learning about cactus and succulents together as the INTRODUCTION implies. We wanted the world to see our collection of beautiful Astrophytum and the positive feedback has overwhelmed the negative by far. We have donated copies to local libraries and cactus societies around the world with great praise. There were some issues with the printer because of the heavy ink coverage on photos and we stated in the introduction there was a language barrier for translations. As an experienced professional designer I push the limits! This was not a get rich quick scheme, but we made our money back to produce a new book! This book is a worthy upgrade and has support from many growers around the world with plant identifications, photography and articles featuring 125 photographs!
If you would like to send us your contact information, I would be honored to send you a FREE copy of our new book for review. We think you will be pleased with the upgraded content and quality. Just let us know and thanks again for your review of our first book!
Regards,
~Brett Nation
PS—My daughter is very gifted and talented. She actually helped with the design process and photo selections of the book. She is also learning the names of these rare cultivars and has her own personal favorites. Not bad a bad start for newbies! How many father and daughter teams made such a positive impact for Astrophytum Lovers in a year do you know?
Brett Nation Says:
17 January 2008 at 10:40 pm.
QUICK SIDE NOTE: We guarantee you haven’t seen all the cultivars in our first book and we promise the new book will have even more rare cultivars most of the world has yet to see! Thanks again!
Stuart Says:
18 January 2008 at 9:02 am.
Brett, thanks for your reply to my post, and good luck to you both.
I stand by what I have said regarding the accompanying text. Regardless of any language barrier there are few excuses for printing text which makes little or no contribution to the overall book. Once translated, surely at the very least you could have rewritten it so that it was good English?
I do have an open mind, and will be pleased to see your second book. I will contact you separately.