The book Tiki Quest...

...if you collect Tiki you must get this book...you will be pleasantly suprised. I guarantee you will come away with more useful knowledge than you thought possible. BuY ThIs BoOk!

The Chicago Tiki Mafia
"Protection of Historical Tiki Urban Artifacts from possible extinction"

[ Edited by: La Tiki Nostra on 2003-09-05 17:11 ]

This book is a who's who of Tiki collecting. I like the sections on homemade tiki, postcards and matches. Boy I really love the Coco Joe's Volcano mug!!! Great layout very informative...

Yeah, Duke put out a great book. It's a big hit here.

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=5064&forum=1&41

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=5062&forum=4&4

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=5408&forum=1&0

Definitely a great book. I finally picked up a copy two weeks ago. And I've already worn it out.
Seriously.
Has anyone else had issues with the binding giving out? I've got pages falling out and everything. Fortunately, it's only a few pages, but I still hate it when my books fall apart. The odd part about it is that I wasn't unusually rough with it or anything. Paged through it a few times, and then two nights ago, I'm sitting there with a picture of a TikiBob in my lap.
Oh well....

YES!!! i thought we were the only ones. our book completely fell apart shortly after we got it. maybe there was a bad batch?? i've been meaning to take the "pages" to work and spiral bind them. it is frustrating, especially with how much we look at it.

On 2005-09-09 16:51, tikicleen wrote:
YES!!! i thought we were the only ones. our book completely fell apart shortly after we got it. maybe there was a bad batch?? i've been meaning to take the "pages" to work and spiral bind them. it is frustrating, especially with how much we look at it.

HA! I don't mean to laugh, but that's exactly how I feel. I love looking through my copy, and now I have to re-collate the pages everytime I do.
Spiral binding isn't a bad idea. I was thinking of just taking mine to a book shop and maybe getting it rebound. There's a place probably not more than 10 miles away that does it. Not sure if they could or how much it would cost, though.

On 2005-09-09 16:51, tikicleen wrote:
YES!!! i thought we were the only ones. our book completely fell apart shortly after we got it. maybe there was a bad batch?? i've been meaning to take the "pages" to work and spiral bind them. it is frustrating, especially with how much we look at it.

I had the same thing happen to my copy. I am extremely happy with the content in the book and Duke Carter did an outstanding job, but I expected the binding to last more than a couple of weeks.

For $34.99 retail (a rather hefty price for a 183 page book), Pegboard Press should put out better quality binding.

Yup, another "I thought it was just me!"

We might have an epidemic on our hands!
Before this goes any further, I want to say that I'm not trying to stir up trouble or anything like that. I dig this book, loose pages or no, and big props to Duke for putting it together. Just thought I should say something supportive.

Mine finally fell apart completely when I was doing the research to put my collection up on Ooga Mooga.

I thought I had just overused it.

I handle my copy of Tiki Quest and The Book of Tiki with white gloves and tweezers. :)

On 2005-09-09 16:51, tikicleen wrote:
YES!!! i thought we were the only ones. our book completely fell apart shortly after we got it. maybe there was a bad batch?? i've been meaning to take the "pages" to work and spiral bind them. it is frustrating, especially with how much we look at it.

Yup...same exact thing happened to me. In fact I mentioned it on the original Tiki Quest thread almost 2 years ago.

I'm going to buy another copy...just waiting until I find it for less than $30.00. I can't even begin to say how much use I've gotten out of this book. When I do get my 2nd copy I'll probably use my first copy to write notes & dates for the ones I've been able to score etc.

Once it comes apart you could always take it down to your local instant press (PIP or Kinko's if you don't have a local) and have them drill three holes in it for a ring binder. You can now remove just the section you need for trips!

Too funny. It happened to me as well. NOBODY PANIC!

I just hate it when I have the book on my lap and the pages fall out onto the floor and I have to put them back in order (I wish all my problems were that trivial).

I like Juno's idea of getting a second book and using the first for notes.

Same here. Still love it though.

Kinko's, and it cost me around $6.70 for a ring binder, but it is so easy to use now.

I like my tiki items to be in as mint condition as possible and I too handle them with the "white gloved" hand so to speak. But when you hardly look through it and the pages start pouring out the front of my book like it has, that makes me sad :( The funny thing is that I was looking at it today and yet more pages slid out.

It is an expensive book and too expensive to self-destruct like it does.

My copy is fine. But I did buy it several months after it came out.

Could we mount a class-action lawsuit against pegboard to get our books fixed? Just kidding.
I agree that's it's far too expensive to be falling apart. Most $6 mass market paperbacks hold up better. Too bad.
Still though, I had a good time looking through mine last night.

I just ordered mine a few days ago, now this thread bobs to the top.

Pegboard Press is Duke Carter -- Duke and his wife Amy could not find a publisher that was willing to put the book together they way they wanted it -- as a full-color, large picture, not-a-price-guide loving tribute to tiki collectibles. Rather than put out a book that didn't fit their vision, they put their money where their mouth was, and self-published under the name Pegboard Press. That's why the book costs a little more than you might be used to seeing for a paperback.

I'm sure Duke & Amy are just as disappointed, if not more so, that some of the pages fall out in people's copies. But in the end, it doesn't change that there's no other book like it, and I'd gladly pay twice the price for it.

On 2005-09-10 16:29, Humuhumu wrote:
But in the end, it doesn't change that there's no other book like it, and I'd gladly pay twice the price for it.

I couldn't agree with you more!

Pegboard Press is Duke Carter -- Duke and his wife Amy could not find a publisher that was willing to put the book together they way they wanted it -- as a full-color, large picture, not-a-price-guide loving tribute to tiki collectibles. Rather than put out a book that didn't fit their vision, they put their money where their mouth was, and self-published under the name Pegboard Press. That's why the book costs a little more than you might be used to seeing for a paperback.

I'm sure Duke & Amy are just as disappointed, if not more so, that some of the pages fall out in people's copies. But in the end, it doesn't change that there's no other book like it, and I'd gladly pay twice the price for it.

Now I remember…I completely forgot about that until I re-read the original Tiki Quest thread from a couple of years ago. I think I speak for everyone when I say how truly grateful we are that Duke & Amy even bothered to share their collection…let alone what it took to put together an actual book. Few people would have the patience to self-publish a book about their collection and I think that their true love for tiki is what drove them to complete such a project. I can’t even begin to say how much I’ve gotten out of Tiki Quest…and how many of us get REALLY excited when we find something that’s actually in the book???

Having said all that and having been thinking about this thread over the weekend I finally decided to do something about my copy which has more pages out than in. Here is the result…

Here’s what you do…carefully pull out the remaining pages of your copy, take $4.32 out of your piggy bank (taxes may vary), go to your local FedEx/Kinko’s, tell them you want the “coil binding,” wait 5 minutes and it’s done. Your copy of Tiki Quest is better than ever.

If you have a copy with this problem, spend the money and get it fixed. It will be your favorite book all over again.

Now if I could just find me one of those Tiki Quest mugs....

[ Edited by: Juno 2005-09-11 17:09 ]

Wow! Were we surprised to read this. We had a couple of people comment on problems with their binding when Tiki Quest first came out, but we thought it was an isolated issue and had not heard anything since. Until now.

First, we want to say how badly we feel that anyone has had any problem with their copy of Tiki Quest. Humuhumu is exactly right. We published Tiki Quest ourselves when we decided that there was not a publisher who shared our vision or would give us the control we wanted with the concept and aesthetic of the book. We decided to put our money where our mouth was and paid to print the book and to try and distribute it ourselves. We eventually were picked up by distributors Last Gasp and Islander Publishing Group (in Hawaii) who have helped get it in different shops, but all the books were printed in one run at Inland Press in Wisconsin.

Without boring you with all the details, we learned about EVERY aspect of doing a book from beginning to end. We wrote, photographed, and designed the book, then we took it to the printer who printed it in a 36 hour marathon session (that was one long press check!) and they also bound and boxed up all the copies. Once they were ready, we rented a truck, drove to Wisconsin, and brought them all back to our home where we unloaded all 5000 copies into our studio. We have boxed up and shipped out every copy that is currently out in circulation, but unfortunately we have not been able to inspect and test the binding on every copy before they were shipped. We have a few copies here in our office, studio and home which have NOT been treated gently and we have yet to experience any problems.

Since we are not a big publishing house like Chronicle, Simon and Schuster or Taschen, and were doing a relatively small run, we were not able to negotiate a discount price for printing. We also used a printer here in the states, which costs more than printing in China or Mexico. However, we thought the extra expense was worth it since Inland is known for quality printing—they do a lot of "heavy use" books like textbooks and travel/tourist books. They also did the binding in addition to the printing (which is not always the case, as some printers job out the binding) so it was all done in the same facility. We also paid extra for "perfect binding" (an ironic name if this is the result) which is supposed to help maintain the integrity of the cover, spine and binding. These factors along with the fact that it's full color throughout drove our printing costs so high that it had to be reflected in the cover price. Most copies have been sold at wholesale, and if you knew what kind of discount distributors demanded, you would understand why authors are paid such a minute percentage.

This is all irrelevant to someone who has paid good money for a book, and the expectation that it remain intact if treated with care is certainly reasonable. We'd be miffed if the same thing happened to a book we bought, regardless of price. We'll certainly let the printer know about the defective copies, not that they are likely to do anything considering it's a relatively small percentage of the books printed (we hope!).

Those of you who have (re)bound your copy are very ingenious, but you should not have had to resort to doing that to enjoy the book.

Although we did not personally print and bind the books, we are still very embarrassed and feel responsible for any quality issues. So as a remedy we'd like to offer a replacement to anyone who has had a problem with their binding. Just send your defective copy to us via USPS media mail (will cost under $2) at the address on the front page of the book and we'll send you a signed replacement copy at our expense.

Sorry about any inconvenience or hard feelings.
-Duke and Amy

On 2005-09-11 18:41, boutiki wrote:
Although we did not personally print and bind the books, we are still very embarrassed and feel responsible for any quality issues.

I can only speak for myself, but I don't think there is any need to apologize at all. Clearly a lot of people were put off at first, because they (myself included) assumed the book was put out by a professional publishing outfit. So, perhaps the recipients of any apologies should be the other way around.

Perhaps Tiki Quest is a victim of its own success. This book is so valuable to me (and I suspect for most people in this community), that it is subjected to heavy use. I consult this book at least four or more times a week... more than any other Tiki book in my library.

Maybe all of this is good for Tiki Quest, if/when the next edition... or volume comes out. To paraphrase the Six Million Dollar Man, 'We can build it better than it was before. Better, stronger, Tikier...'

No pages have fallen out of my copy, though the binding cracked a little bit at the front and the back of the book; very minor really, and nothing to complain about, but I'm half tempted to rip it apart and anyway and do the coil-bound thing just because it looks so cool, like a big cookbook.

-Sweet Daddy T.
Because crap doesn't buy itself.

[ Edited by: Sweet Daddy Tiki 2005-09-11 20:55 ]

Although we did not personally print and bind the books, we are still very embarrassed and feel responsible for any quality issues. So as a remedy we'd like to offer a replacement to anyone who has had a problem with their binding. Just send your defective copy to us via USPS media mail (will cost under $2) at the address on the front page of the book and we'll send you a signed replacement copy at our expense.

Sorry about any inconvenience or hard feelings.
-Duke and Amy

A very generous offer, but I'll decline, although a signed copy is indeed tempting. Anyway, I don't think this is your fault, and so I wouldn't necessarily expect you to fix it. I think you did a great job putting it together, and you definitely tried to make it a durable book. Personally, I'm glad you put the extra money into the printing, I love those thick pages and if it means a not so great binding, I'll accept that. I know that's not what you had in mind, but that's life, right? I don't think you have anything to be embarrassed about. It's more than generous of you to offer replacements, but I have to agree with some of the other folks that have said that it was amazing for you guys to even go through the trouble of making this book in the first place. I'll probably take mine to Kinko's and that'll be just fine. Juno's idea of coil binding just seems too cool.

Having not met either of you before, (at least I don't think I have) and not gotten a chance to express this in person, I'd like to say thanks for putting this together. Book of Tiki has been my favorite for a few years now, but I have to say that TikiQuest has, dare I say it, unseated it. I'm still in awe of a mug collection with even half of what's packed in that book.
I second the motion-- where can I get one of those cool mugs? :tiki:

Although my copy of Tiki quest is still intact, I have had other books fall apart on me, the only reason I could work out was due to heat and humidity as it had happened whilst reading in the Sun.
Like most things thatneed to last, keep in a cool dry place.
Good on you Duke for being such af fair person.

On 2005-09-11 22:59, TikiJosh wrote:
A very generous offer, but I'll decline, although a signed copy is indeed tempting.

I'm with TikiJosh. Thank you very much for the offer, but I'll be keeping mine as well. I wrote the whole thing off to "over-use" a long time ago anyway.

Thanks again for your offer Duke & Amy. It speaks volumes to the type of people you are.

I had a page come out for the first time about 2 weeks ago. I don't think you should hold yourself responsible. I was actually proud that a page fell out. This shows me that I really use this book a lot (3-4 times a week). Only if my books in college got this much use out of them... Thank you for the offer to replace it, but I do not feel it is necessary.

Duke!
Your overdue for a Calitikifornia book signing / visit.
Are you going to Hikilau?

I got mine coil bound at Kinko's last night. cost me $5.90. They even trimmed the rough edges on the pages. It looks great. It's almost like this book was meant to be coil bound!
Juno-- That idea was worth a million bucks!

I got mine a few months ago - signed already by Duke (ALOHA) - thanks and some pages are coming out too,
I'll keep my copy the way it is. thanks again for the offer Duke!

The reason that its happening is that the bind has a yellow glue that the pages are inbedded in. It the front of the book, the pages are in too shallow of glue and they come cleanly out.

I'll keep my book too but you could send me a Quest mug. The fuuny thing is, books like this, glue good and mugs like that, glue bad.

I got my copy at the Tiki Exotica 2003 in Chicago and have had no problems at all...well, except that I can't seem to stop spending on more Tiki!

Matty

On 2005-09-15 06:41, mattfink wrote:
have had no problems at all...well, except that I can't seem to stop spending on more Tiki!

Same here... Mine has been through some pretty rough road trips and give or take a few Slurpee spills, it's held up just fine... but the 1-800#, order form and prices are missing :wink:

-Z

I got this book for Xmas (for my squeeze). Pages immediately started falling out of it. We returned it to Amazon and got a replacement. The replacement book has the same problem. However, the Woman will not let me return the book again, she can't live without it.

On 2008-01-27 20:06, UrlScheib wrote:
I got this book for Xmas (for my squeeze). Pages immediately started falling out of it. We returned it to Amazon and got a replacement. The replacement book has the same problem. However, the Woman will not let me return the book again, she can't live without it.

Get it coil bound! I've never had another problem after I got mine done.

I am glad you posted here, Url. I had not seen this post. I bought my copy of Tiki Quest from Amazon.com a few months ago and the first few pages dropped out when I first opened it. I have been meaning to ask Amazon for a replacement copy but have been too busy using it. Now I won't bother. I makes me feel good that I have lots of company. It came signed already by Duke. Thanks. I will now take it down to Office Depot and get it spiral bound. Great idea. Too bad my parrot already took a chunk out of the cover. I wasn't too concerned since I figured I would be replacing it. Oh well, gives it some character I guess.

On 2005-09-09 19:12, Kenike wrote:
I'm going to buy another copy...just waiting until I find it for less than $30.00...

Here you go. Oh, and I too thought I was the only one.

On 2008-01-27 20:06, UrlScheib wrote:
I got this book for Xmas (for my squeeze). Pages immediately started falling out of it.

Yep, me too. Pages were falling out within days of my purchase. I found this thread a few weeks back and took my book down to the local PIP Printing store, where I had it coil bound in about 5 minutes. Cost me a whopping $2.75 after tax! In addition to getting my pages back in order, the book is much easier to use now because it lays flat.

The results:

I bought my copy from the Tiki Magazine booth at Tiki Oasis 06 and shelled out quite a few clams (plus the exchange rate at the time meant quite an investment) for the copy signed by duke and otto and it was sealed in a plastic bag and in brand-new mint condition.. When it arrived home in Australia in a box that i sent with a bunch of mugs etc and i finally got to read it, it practically fell apart and have not really touched it since for fear of destroying it.. i have never looked right through it and was pretty pissed about it actually..
But now i think i might do that spiral binding thang and feel better about it already...

Im gonna go read that sonofabitch!

We picked our signed copy up at the Mai Kai during the 2005 Hukilau. Ours has been well used ever since and has lost pages. We've bought additional copies for our parents, who now have begun tiki hunting for us as well. I hadn't thought about the spirl bound, but I will have that done ASAP.

LDT

am i the only one that can read a book without breaking it's back??....or maybe i have dukes personal copy, cause my pages ain't been fallin out and i reference it alot when i sell mugs on ebay...

Mine began to disintegrate almost immediately. I never thought of the spiral route until I saw this thread. Mine will get done within the week. Don't sweat it Duke! My only issue with it, is that it has cost me boucoups $$$ hunting for its treasures.

I was thinking to give mine the spiral treatment. Most of the book in together. Do you take it there and bind it still together and after pull it apart. The side of the book has to be cut out?

On 2008-02-11 18:53, teaKEY wrote:
I was thinking to give mine the spiral treatment. Most of the book in together. Do you take it there and bind it still together and after pull it apart. The side of the book has to be cut out?

If you can do it without tearing them, carefully pull out the remaining pages before you take it in to get spiral bound. You'll be left with just the spine of the book that you can discard. Be sure to keep the pages in order!

On 2008-02-11 18:53, teaKEY wrote:
I was thinking to give mine the spiral treatment. Most of the book in together. Do you take it there and bind it still together and after pull it apart. The side of the book has to be cut out?

I tried carefully removing my intact pages (which was most of the book) before taking it in for binding, and it couldn't be done without tearing. PIP printing simply cut the spine out (yes, it is now gone) before binding, and I would guess only took 1 or 2mm of each page along with it. I didn't notice any significant page loss after this process, which took just a few minutes.