Harley Davidson Lore: Origins Through Panhead, 1903-1965 (Harley-Davidson)

Rating:
Summary: Harley Collectible Book
Review: I feel this book portrays through the use of historical postcard type pictures an era of days gone by just like the title of the book says from Harley Davidson's birth in 1903-1965. Makes an excellent collectible for future generations to enjoy.

Rating:
Summary: The book looks & feels great inside & out.
Review: That Hog lover in your life will be delighted by this classy collection of American Iron photographs. & these are beautiful, historic photos from as far back as 1903. Because the bikes speak for their own beauty, the viewer is pulled back just enough to allow for appreciation of the photographs, too, presented as in a gallery with lots of space around them. Wagner respects them & the tales they tell enough to save his commentary for the final pages of the book. Harley Davidson Lore looks & feels great inside & out. Wash your hands before you pick it up.

Bob Rixon

Rating:
Summary: disappointing and too pretentious
Review: That Hog lover in your life will be delighted by this classy collection of American Iron photographs. & these are beautiful, historic photos from as far back as 1903. Because the bikes speak for their own beauty, the viewer is pulled back just enough to allow for appreciation of the photographs, too, presented as in a gallery with lots of space around them. Wagner respects them & the tales they tell enough to save his commentary for the final pages of the book. Harley Davidson Lore looks & feels great inside & out. Wash your hands before you pick it up.

Bob Rixon

Rating:
Summary: disappointing and too pretentious
Review: Was very disappointed with this book. Before writing this review I read a review of the other book in this series titled "Harley-Davidson Lore: 1966 to Present". That review is completely applicable to this book also. So instead of writing the same message in my own words I took the liberty of taking a little cut and paste action.

"I looked forward to reading this book to learn about H-D tradition, company exploits, and product development. My reason for writing this review is to let others with similar interests know that this book offers very little on those subjects.

What Herbert Wagner has done is to merely compile a set of photographs of such things as H-D advertisements, products, and events, and annotate them in as spartan a manner as you could possibly imagine. This book borders on being completely uninformative!

Just as dissapointing is the format that was chosen by the author and his publisher. The beginning of the book, comprising the vast majority of the pages, contains photos without text. The end of the book is a series of pages that duplicate, in thumbnail sized images, all of the photos found in the beginning of the book. Next to each of these miniature images you will find a few words of descriptive text. Interestingly, the text is so small that it challenges people (even those with eagle-like vision) to read without squinting or without reaching for reading glasses."

Couldn't agree more. Adding that also the pictures in the body of the book are way too small. Maybe 25% of the page is used for a picture, the rest is blank. Either they should have selected a larger page size (if the 25% is important) or they should have used a larger portion for the picture.