bladeswitcher, your thoughts are good. I first handled it and put it down, but yesterday, with maybe more interest in those things, I picked it up again and enjoyed the immense effort and research that went into it.
I can forgive self published books and bow to the effort put into them and the cost of publishing. I try to buy EVERY book on our subject that the authors put out. I am sure not many make any money for their efforts . . .
I own the book but find it maddening to try to use. It's one thing to read a chapter and try to absorb what the author is saying. It's something else to try to use the book as a reference. I've had occasions when someone presented me with an old shotgun and I turned to Niles' book to find some information. Talk about a frustrating experience.
The writing itself isn't so bad (though it's not particularly good, either), but the editing is terrible. There is no adherence to standard rules of style. He mixes up capitalization, italics, bold face fonts and quotation marks in seemingly random and unnecessary ways. Particularly annoying is his practice of capitalizing and enclosing in quotations the word "Affordable" throughout the book. I suppose he believes he's created a new category of firearm and wants to milk it for all it's worth. Drives me crazy . . .
Again, if ever there was an author in need of an editor. The savings in paper and printing cost alone would have paid for a good editor's services.
ETA: I'm curious, have others found the author's research credible? Seems like he engages in a lot of speculation.
