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SilverArrow

SilverArrow

Certified Ride Geek
For those of you who collect or own any theme park or amusement related books, which ones do you think are good or would recommend? (Or even which do you not recommend and why!?)

I've been looking at joyland books and they seem to have an amazing selection of reads!

I would recommend:

Creating my own Nemesis by John Wardley (as I'm sure quite a lot of people will) and also for individual american park histories, the Images of America park series books.


Can anyone recommend the best books on Blackpool and Alton Towers? There seem to be quite a number on both.
 
Most amusement park books are by minimal Enthusiasts, or by the GP, and often contain errors(The first BTR was at Six Flags Great Adventure for some reason). SO I can't really do any good.
 
GuyWithAStick said:
Most amusement park books are by minimal Enthusiasts, or by the GP, and often contain errors(The first BTR was at Six Flags Great Adventure for some reason). SO I can't really do any good.
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Haha.

You say "most" so maybe there still are gems out there.

I find i'm less keen on fact books (as they get out of date really quick and as you say aren't always correct) and more keen on the historical books.
 
I highly recommend Tales From The Towers by Nick Sim. It chronicles the history of Alton Towers, from it's stately garden beginnings right up to the present day. It's so interesting reading the details of how they developed Alton into a theme park. There's also a particularly excellent page on The Corkscrew...

Nick Sim also wrote another great book about Universal Studios, which is also well worth a read. All his books are incredibly well researched.

There's a book called Smoke and Mirrors which is entirely about Alton Towers Haunted House, which is quite a fun read too.
 
Yeah, Tales from the Towers is the only theme park I actually like, due to many being 20 years old, getting their facts incorrect and are usually only about American coasters.
 
Theme park books that are good are so few and far between, Tales from the Towers is really good though.

Other good ones...

Total Landscape (theory, design)
Spectacular Nature (SeaWorld, theory, zoo theory)
The theming of America (theory all in one place if you can't be bothered with postmodern theory that relates to attractions by Eco and Baudrillard)

I like theory.

Friend is publishing a book about theme park design. Looking forward to it.

DONT BUY the theme park design book by Alcorn its a marketing flyer for his course.
 
^So you've changed your mind since 2011 then? Unless you thought the rest was really bad haha.

A couple of weeks back I was recommended this book. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Theme-Park-Desi ... 1456309722

I opened it up today. I'm on page 9... and now I'm recommending it to you guys. It's good. It's informative and more importantly, it's interesting. The guy who wrote it also has an online imagineering class.
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I've read quite a few, as already mentioned Tales of the Towers and Wardley's biography are both good. Currently reading the Universal one by Nick Sim. I have read both Theme Park Design and Building a Better Mouse (it's about Epcot) by Steve Alcorn. I actually thought they were both pretty good. They're a bit of a tough read though; the style is very informal and some of the chapters are very short.

I have also read Alton Towers: Past and Present by Michael Fisher. It's more about the history of the Towers than the theme park and is difficult to get through at parts, but worth a look if you're interested in the park.

The final one I've read is Coasters 101 by Nick Weisenberger. It's a very short but fun book which contains "an engineer's guide to roller coaster design". It didn't really tell me an awful lot I didn't already know, and it's not as technical as the title suggests, but still good fun.
 
I too have done the Tales From The Towers (with the fantastic Corkscrew page- thanks Radaxian ;) ) and the Haunted House book. Both were great.

I've also got the Joyland Books' "Pleasureland Memories" about Southport. It's great to see the park build over the decades, really interesting, but it's a bit dry at times. Worth it though to follow the changes that a park can go through in terms of infrastructure and ride development:
http://www.joylandbooks.com/books_new/p ... review.htm

Then the other book I really love is "The Golden Age of Rollercoasters in Vintage Postcards". It was a present from Tomatron after one of his US trips many years ago. Best present ever!

The book is pretty simple, there's not a lot of textual substance, but the sheer volume and quality of the post cards is superb. There are a huge number of rare shots of so many rides across the US you will never have known existed. It's well worth picking up if you have any interest in wooden coaster history:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Coasters-Vintag ... 0738523380
 
Brookes said:
^So you've changed your mind since 2011 then? Unless you thought the rest was really bad haha.

A couple of weeks back I was recommended this book. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Theme-Park-Desi ... 1456309722

I opened it up today. I'm on page 9... and now I'm recommending it to you guys. It's good. It's informative and more importantly, it's interesting. The guy who wrote it also has an online imagineering class.
Click to expand...

I've read quite a few, as already mentioned Tales of the Towers and Wardley's biography are both good. Currently reading the Universal one by Nick Sim. I have read both Theme Park Design and Building a Better Mouse (it's about Epcot) by Steve Alcorn. I actually thought they were both pretty good. They're a bit of a tough read though; the style is very informal and some of the chapters are very short.

I have also read Alton Towers: Past and Present by Michael Fisher. It's more about the history of the Towers than the theme park and is difficult to get through at parts, but worth a look if you're interested in the park.

The final one I've read is Coasters 101 by Nick Weisenberger. It's a very short but fun book which contains "an engineer's guide to roller coaster design". It didn't really tell me an awful lot I didn't already know, and it's not as technical as the title suggests, but still good fun.
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Yeah, it just.... Didn't go anywhere after the intro? Like its all suggestions that don't actually work in the real world?

Wardley's book I loved until the point where he starts lying so not to offend the current design team...

The coasters 101 book was just written by an enthusiast, kinda expected that to be lacking.
 
^Which bit did he lie about? I can't remember the details as I read it a while back.

Thanks for the suggestions on the towers ones, I think I'll try and get both at some point but might start with the Tales from the Towers one if it's still available.
 
I'm guessing you like Blackpool Pleasure Beach - I reccomend Century of Fun. Fantastic book, produce in '96 for the centenary. I also suggest checking out Riding On Rainbows, which is literally the history up until about 2010.
 
SilverArrow said:
^Which bit did he lie about? I can't remember the details as I read it a while back.

Thanks for the suggestions on the towers ones, I think I'll try and get both at some point but might start with the Tales from the Towers one if it's still available.
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Just, his enthusiasm for Thirteen and Smiler and how wonderfully successful they are. Wish I had a copy of it to quote from, but alas I borrowed it when I read it.

I'm sure on the closing page he literally says Smiler is better than Nemesis and as if he believes that. As if. Just trying not to offend the team there now. Which is understandable, but I dunno why he didn't just avoid talking about it at all? He spoke to openly about the warts of his own work, but not a bad word is said about the newer stuff. Thirteen he couldn't scramble away from quickly enough - I remember in the CF interview he just kept saying how he hadn't really done anything with it, just the original concept was his (the only good thing about it) and kept being like "well Candy and her team deserve all the praise for this! not me guys! not me! I didn't do this! D:"
 
Joey said:
SilverArrow said:
^Which bit did he lie about? I can't remember the details as I read it a while back.

Thanks for the suggestions on the towers ones, I think I'll try and get both at some point but might start with the Tales from the Towers one if it's still available.
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Just, his enthusiasm for Thirteen and Smiler and how wonderfully successful they are. Wish I had a copy of it to quote from, but alas I borrowed it when I read it.

I'm sure on the closing page he literally says Smiler is better than Nemesis and as if he believes that. As if. Just trying not to offend the team there now. Which is understandable, but I dunno why he didn't just avoid talking about it at all? He spoke to openly about the warts of his own work, but not a bad word is said about the newer stuff. Thirteen he couldn't scramble away from quickly enough - I remember in the CF interview he just kept saying how he hadn't really done anything with it, just the original concept was his (the only good thing about it) and kept being like "well Candy and her team deserve all the praise for this! not me guys! not me! I didn't do this! D:"
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Ah OK, yeah I vaguely remember those parts now that you mention them. I guess he's stuck in an awkward position with giving out opinions on recent projects.

Thanks for the recommendation
 
Theme parks books I own:

Disney in Detail
Ripley's Believe it or not! Amusement Park Oddities & Trivia
Amusement Park Rides - Martin Easdown
Heart Stopping Roller Coasters
Coasters 101 An Engineer's Guide to Roller Coaster Design - Nick Weisenberger
Creating My Own Nemesis - John Wardley

All of these books were gifts. I would recommend them all. They are all different and good in their own way.
 
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