Book Review: Roadside Relics by Will Shiers

by Murilee Martin

Published: December 1st, 2011

book review em roadside relics em by will shiers

It’s that time of year, with the clock ticking on your shopping for Hanukkah/Christmas/Kwanzaa and the ease of buying books online makes them such low-hassle gifts. You want to give that special car-freak on your gift list a nice coffee-table book, but everybody’s coffee table seems to be creaking beneath the weight of books full of photos of gleaming classic/exotic cars. Boring! The solution: this book full of photos of abandoned cars!

I admit it, I’m a sucker for beat-to-hell, forgotten cars in desolate landscapes.

Author Shiers drove all over the continental United States and shot cars in junkyards, on farms, near abandoned gas stations, and all manner of picturesque locations. The Upper Midwest and desert Southwest get special attention, but there’s at least one shot from each region of the country.

Each photo has a caption describing the scene in which the car was captured on film, plus a bit of the car’s historical background.

Shiers has the photography skills to make the whole package work; I’ve been through this book more than once (while other review books sit for months in my on-deck stack) and it’s going to live in a high-traffic spot on my office bookshelf.

Technically, this isn’t a true coffee-table book, in that it’s a large paperback, but who cares when you can get it for just $14.99.

I’m going to give this one a four-rod rating (out of a possible five OM617 rods). Murilee says check it out!

#Book #BookReview #BookReviews #Books #Junkyard #Photography

Murilee Martin

Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.

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2 of 20 comments

55_wrench on Dec 02, 2011

if it was a non-running heap, it couldn't by definition be a daily driver---but I get your point. My last DD soldiered on to 415K and looked horrible before I retired it..

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Tklockau on Dec 03, 2011

This was originally a coffee table book, as I got a hardcover copy for Christmas a few years ago. Great book, definitely a keeper.

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