Thursday 27 October 2011

One Reason To Buy The Oxford Companion To Beer?

It's been an exciting week for the OCtB, with Garrett Oliver taking exception to comments on Martyn Cornell's blog about the accuracy of several of the entries. Personally, as somebody who can't smell a rat about some of this stuff, I wouldn't be buying it until I feel more confident that the inaccuracies are being addressed in a 2nd edition. My Xmas list has Amber, Gold & Black on it, instead.

Then I saw this...

Incentive? I doubt it. I guess for good or ill, Garrett is forever bound to this project. And I hear there's no truth in the rumour that Horst Dornbusch chipped in for the snazzy cardboard box...

4 comments:

Leigh said...

I, too, am waiting for the 2nd edition. Although that will be raked over the coals too. Ding Ding - Round 2....

Bailey said...

As I've said in a couple of places, if they'd avoided the big obvious mistakes (i.e. the 20-odd myths Martyn Cornell listed in an appendix to The Story of the Pint) the criticisms would have been quieter and a lot of the smaller issues would have gone largely unnoticed.

I reckon the second edition will get a much warmer welcome.

Sid Boggle said...

I tend to agree with the general view that a project like this is welcome, and it seems that Garrett Oliver has been the lightning rod for the main criticisms (not helped by his spitting the dummy out), when perhaps it should be OUP who answer questions about lack of editorial rigour.

Like I said at your blog Bailey, somebody like me needs to be able to trust that the book is as definitive as possible, or it isn't worth the investment. I don't understand the view that it's better than nothing as it is.

Mike said...

Appointing a 'celebrity' as editor, rather than an editor, was clearly a big mistake on the part of OUP. Having Garrett as editor of the second edition will only compound the infamy.