Picks!

This means a lot to me to find a new copy of this book since the author of this book was a good friend and my neighbor. He told me about his many adventures across the United States meeting with people and gathering information for this book. He gave me a copy and to this day, as I read it I can still hear his voice and recognize his wit and good humor I have enjoyed for years in our many conversations. Anyway, the copy he gave me got a little damaged during our recent move and I thought I would look for it on Amazon. And sure enough, there it was. I was really surprised to find a "New" copy of this book. I knew it is new because with every new copy you got a pick stamped with the title "Picks!" on it in the pages as you can see in the picture I've attached. Thank you again for a wonderful surprise. D. Arizona

This is a good book for the little information it has. It could have been written alot better than it is. Alot of picks are not even mentioned. Mr. Hoover need to revise the book. I just started collecting about 9 more this ago and I know more than the book does. So it's good if you like to see pictures. But other than that I wouldn't buy it again if I had the choice.

I bought this book as a "coffee table" book; it's good for that, and very interesting. But there is a ton of history in it, too...helped me to identify several oddball picks I had managed to collect, over the years. My favorite was one highly colored, highly patterned pick that seemed to have been molded from a half dozen pieces from several different picks. I discovered that what I had is actually fairly pedestrian, although you don't see them very much anymore...a Clown Barf pick. That, I find, is the official name for it. After I thought of all the colorful candies you might find at a circus, and having overindulged, might very well get sick later, I could see why those picks are so named.

Its funny but true: when you happen on a pick shape and material you like, you tend to make sure you dont run out of them anytime soon. And so it goes. This fun little book will have many happy months of bathroom reading (!) after I've gone through it a few times first. Well written, in a style that does not take itself too seriously but is also not mindless or silly. Get it! Its cool.

Good book. Provides a good history of picks. A bit biased on D'Andrea (which, at least now, is a very minor player in the pick world). Gives good insight on pick materials.

Very short but very informative, husband is enjoying it

Purchased this for my son who makes and sells guitars. Found it fascinating and interesting.

This book will be a Christmas present for our teenaged, great-nephew, guitar player. I am certain he will love it.

".... Picks. Funny little things. Nobody takes them seriously - confined to the musical periphery as picks are. Unnoticed. Humble. Overshadowed by performer and instrument. Residual servants that go about their task without fanfare, never to be included in a bow or curtain call. Ready to serve without notice. Asking nothing ...."Thus begins what must be the most unusual and yet surprisingly fascinating book which is aimed at anyone who plays a guitar or any fretted instrument. (Banjos and mandolins feature heavily in the origins and development of picks).I never knew this book existed until I landed on it by accident and, as the author quite rightly assumes, I never really ever gave many thoughts to picks as being worthy of much consideration beyond finding the type that suited me .... and therein lies the history and fascination of this book because the history of pick design, development, materials and style is much, much longer and more complex than I ever dreamed .... going back to the days of prehistory and the possibility of arrowheads being used to pluck bowstrings to make primitive musical sounds).Now be honest - have YOU ever thought of that possibility as you slipped your own preferred pick between your thumb and forefinger and played that first note or chord? And how about those times when your pick slips from your grasp and disappears into the darkness or goes somersaulting through the air in a neat parabola? How often have you considered the efforts and ingenuity of pick-makers as they fought to solve the problem of 'the flying pick'?No. I thought not. But Will Hoover did and thus he set out on his quest to discover everything he could about picks - or should that be 'plectrums' or maybe even 'plectra'? Even that consideration is in this little book whose chapter headings and themes are ...Arrowheads and eight-string banjos.The ballad of John Wesley Hyatt and Frankenstein's plastic.The pick with the crooning tone.Plectrum pioneers and the Flying Pick Affair.The golden age of plectrums 1925 - 1955Hail rock 'n' roll and the Great Pick ExplosionCollecting picksThe care and feeding of a vintage celluloid plectrumPromotional picks - get 'em while they're hot!A brief history of thumb and finger picksPickin' picksThe book is sumptuously illustrated with so many picks of so many colours made with so many different materials that I begun to wonder why picks and not guitars aren't featured in major auctions of musical instruments. I also realised that during my time as a guitar-nut, I've owned several types of pick which are now quite collectible and I still have one which doesn't even seem to be featured in this book's pages. I also found out that it would be a good idea for me to gather together all the picks that I do have (and some go back to the late 1950's and early 60's) to see if any of them are actually made of cellulose. I won't explain why here - read the book to find out - but there's a good bet that if you buy this wonderful little book and if you have some old picks in your guitar case, or tucked into the strings on the headstock of your guitar or (more worryingly) if you know there are some old picks '...somewhere around your home...', then like me you'll see them in a sudden and different sort of light.'Light' being the operative word!Oh yes - one final thing. If you buy the book as new, you also get a free pick. (Surely you wouldn't expect anything less?)So - this small volume is a treasure trove stuffed with unsuspected histories and fascinating facts. It's well written and is to be commended to anyone who plays any instrument with a plectrum.Now then .... where on earth did I put that old pick because if it's made of cellulose ...................

excellent