Hi Charlie, I was at the public library today and checked-out a book on building birdhouses and feeders...not yours, sorry. However, in the bibliography it mentioned your book Making birdhouses & feeders, 1985. I couldn't help thinking 'hey I know that guy from the rec'. I'll look for yours next time. Good job. Joe
You may have to look hard. I'm pretty sure the publisher is selling out stock on hand and taking it out of print. Too bad. It's only been paying royalties for 19 years. It's a decent book, but if I ever get organized here, I'll be doing a similar book on birdhouses, sans feeders, either as a PDF download or a CD, or both. About 1/3 done and hung there what with moving, reconstituting the rest of my business, etc. Doing the design and writing is a lot of fun, but the blinking layout and such stuff is somewhat less fun for me. I'm coming to appreciate my editors' efforts more each time I get into the project.
By the way, the publisher's rationale makes sense. Durned near everything these days is done in color, while that book is done in black and white, with VERY rough drawings done on a portable drawing board that was sitting on my kitchen table at the time. Most of the building was done on a Shopsmith, and the photography was done with some strange light set-ups (I had had my second fire the month the book was due, wiping out all first attempts, so I did the book in a month in a rental farmhouse with a great kitchen, really decent downstairs [the only time I've had a 20' x 20' "office" with wainscoting] and some chilly bedrooms).
Charlie Self "It is even harder for the average ape to believe that he has descended from man." H. L. Mencken
Hey, don't forget to include the Floyd Wright, "FallingDownWater" Birdhouse, designed to perch on the edge of a birdbath.
The design is elegant, although projected maintenance costs are high.
Regards, Tom.
Thomas J.Watson - Cabinetmaker (ret.) tjwatson1ATcomcastDOTnet (real email)
Tom Watson responds:
Heh. Yeah. IIRC, when I was there a couple summers ago, they were at 4.5 million and counting for general maintenance and correcting architect's screw-ups, as compared to something under 150K to build the house, IIRC.
Charlie Self "It is even harder for the average ape to believe that he has descended from man." H. L. Mencken
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