Why not? The fact that no one cared to check, or edit the book and let me pay more than 20 pounds for it, is saying something.
Well, authors donât always have influence on who picks up their foreign rights and what kind of product they produce. Today itâs entirely possible that edition is simply picked up by a fast moving publisher who doesnât care - or hasnât got the funds - to invest in a proper translation and edit job.
In the late 90s I picked up a small and comparatively obscure tome by Siegfried Tesche, âJames Bond - Autos, Action & Autorenâ. In it I found many small and big details I didnât yet know (that Raymond Benson had taken over from John Gardner; that Kingsley Amis had once pitched a story about an older Bond skiing who is approached by the daughter of a US senator kidnapped by one KGB Colonel Moriavsky and that Glidrose warned him off to write it; many more).
This book was then and still is a treasure trove of information and was massively expanded and updated since. A bad translation would no doubt sink that book and its authorâs reputation - but the treasure would still be there, the information still valuable to us fans.
Edit: Thatâs of course not to say we should buy badly edited books. Or that books in general need not be produced to better standards of content, language and so on. But itâs really difficult to gauge the merits of a publication from the translation alone. Practically all the Fleming canon had for a long time subpar translations in German, with significant parts of text entirely missing.
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I have looked it up. I bought it a couple of years ago on the English Amazon. Itâs also on the Spanish Amazon in the original Spanish language, meaning it is an English translation, but without any quality control and it is published by Nielsen UK.
It looks like the writer is, or at least at the time the book was written, a teenager, so perhaps he indeed had no input or say at all on the English translation and was happy that it was released at all.
Which of course does not mean that it is not scandalous that a publisher does not care at all that the book is practically unreadable in the English translation and that fans spend their good money on it.
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Some of the books I own:
The Essential Bond
James Bond: The Man and His World
The James Bond Encyclopedia
The Complete James Bond Movie Encyclopedia
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang: The Unofficial James Bond Film Companion
The Secret World of 007
The Art of Bond
The James Bond Archives
James Bond: The Legacy
Adrian Turner on Goldfinger
The Making of OHMSS
The Making of The Living Daylights
The Making of Licence to Kill
The Making of Goldeneye
The Making of Tomorrow Never Dies
The World is Not Enough - A Companion
Filming Die Another Day
Bond on Set - Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace, Skyfall and SPECTRE
No Time To Die - The Making of the Film
Being Bond
Bond on Bond
Bond By Design
James Bond Movie Posters
All About Bond
Designing 007 - 50 Years of Bond
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I have them all! I think Iâm a bit addicted to buying books about the James Bond films. When another one comes out, I have to have it, I even bought that very expensive book by Taschen about Ken Adam, bought it with my holiday money, but now I think afterwards: itâs actually not worth the price, so many more sketches and drawings than in other, cheaper books are not included.
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Something that would excite me is an updated Secret World of 007 which includes cross sections for Skyfall, SPECTRE and No Time To Die. In depth making of books are also welcomed, particularly for movies that donât usually get as much attention.
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I wonder whether Bond films, with all the reference books and interviews already out, still support new ones. What can they still offer which has not been released already?
Only one thing comes to my mind: release the full screen tests for every Bond casting session 
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Henry Chancellorâs outstanding Fleming work: https://www.amazon.com/James-Bond-Official-Companion-Flemings/dp/0719568153
Charles H.'s books, certainly
Dr. OIiver Bucktonâs Fleming biography at https://www.amazon.com/World-Not-Enough-Biography-Fleming/dp/1538138573 and DAF book at Sorry! Something went wrong! (full disclosure, I contributed to these books)
and the awesome, superb, always invaluable James Bondâs Cuisine at https://www.amazon.com/James-Bonds-Cuisine-Worlds-Greatest/dp/1500957712 and Playing Games With James Bond at Amazon.com (the best Bond reference books of all history, full disclosure, I wrote these books)!
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New book on the way:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/James-Bond-Will-Return-Perspectives/dp/0231207417/ref=sr_1_1
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Ai! You could have kept quiet about this. Now I have to buy this one too! 
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With chapter list.
Moonraker (1979) and the Canvas of Escapism, by Steven Gerrard
The (Clown) Suited Hero: James Bond, Costume, Gender and Disguise in Octopussy (1983), by Claire Hines
No Time to Die (2021) and The Spy Who Loved #MeToo?, by Terence McSweeney and Stuart Joy
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140 dollar for the HC is a lot of money.
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Does anyone know/have this book and is it any good?
âMy Life as a Mankiewicz: An Insiderâs Journey through Hollywoodâ (Screen Classics) from 2012.
about/ cowritten by screenplay writer Tom Mannkiewicz (DAF, LALD and TMWTGG).
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It is told in a typical insiderâs fashion, some background info on the work for EON, but since Mankiewicz wrote for so many others, Bond is only one small part of this book.
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I second the nomination of Adrian Turnerâs Goldfinger. Definitely essential. So is Kingsley Amisâs James Bond Dossier, still the most enjoyable book written about the novels.
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Countless of books have been written about the Bond film series as a whole (such as Licence to Thrill: A Cultural History of the James Bond Films and Some Kind of Hero: The Remarkable Story of the James Bond Films ) but far fewer books exist about specific Bond films. Here I am trying the compile a complete list of such books. Please let me know if you are aware of any book (or magazine) thatâs missing from this list. Also, I would love to read your thoughts about any of them! The list in order of the Bond films they are about.
DR
A Bond for Bond: Film Finances and Dr No (Charles Drazin)
Dr. No: The First James Bond Film (James Chapman)
FRWL
From Russia With Love (BFI Film Classics) (Llewella Chapman)
GF
The Goldfinger Files: The Making of the Iconic Alpine Sequence in the James Bond Movie Goldfinger (Steffen Appel, Peter Walty)
Goldfinger: The Ultimate A-Z (Adrian Turner)
The Ultimate Film Guides: Goldfinger (Brian Dunbar)
TB
The Battle for Bond (Robert Sellers) - okay, I am cheating, this is about both Thunderball, NSNA and other attempts to remake the film
CR (1967)
The Making of Casino Royale (Michael Richardson)
YOLT
The Definitive Story of You Only Live Twice: Fleming, Bond and Connery in Japan (Graham Thomas)
On the Tracks of 007: You Only Live Twice 50th Anniversary Guide to Japan (Martijn Mulder)
OHMSS
The Making of on Her Majestyâs Secret Service (Charles Helfenstein)
LALD
Roger Moore as James Bond: Roger Mooreâs own account of filming âLive and Let Dieâ (Roger Moore)
TSWLM
James Bond, the Spy I Loved (Christopher Wood) - cheating again, this is about both TSWLM and MR
FYEO
James Bond For Your Eyes Only Special Annual (Tony Crawley and John Brosnan)
AVTAK
A Close Look at âA View to a Killâ (Andrew McNess)
TLD
The Making of The Living Daylights (Charles Helfenstein)
He Disagreed with Something that Ate Him (Cary Edwards) - covers both TLD and LTK
LTK
The Making of Licence to Kill (Sally Hibbin)
GE
The Making of GoldenEye (Garth Pearce)
The World of GoldenEye: A Comprehensive Study on the Seventeenth James Bond Film And Its Legacy (Nicolas Suszczyk)
For England, James: Notes on the Visual Impact of GoldenEye (Nicolas Suszczyk)
TND
The Making of Tomorrow Never Dies (Garth Pearce)
Tomorrow Never Dies - Technical Journal
TWINE
The World is Not Enough: A Companion (Ian Johnstone)
DAD
Beyond The Ice: The Case For and Against âDie Another Dayâ (Nicolas Suszczyk)
Bond on Set: Filming Die Another Day (Greg Williams)
CR
Bond on Set: Filming Casino Royale (Greg Williams)
QOS
Bond on Set: Filming Quantum of Solace (Greg Williams)
SF
Bond on Set: Filming Skyfall (Greg Williams)
SP
Anderson & Low: On the Set of James Bondâs Spectre (Anderson & Low)
Blood, Sweat, and Bond: Behind the Scenes of Spectre (Curated by Rankin)
NTTD
No Time to Die: The Making of the Film (Mark Salisbury)
One of the most important Bond reference books in my opinion is The Lost Adventures of James Bond: Timothy Daltonâs Third and Fourth Bond Films, James Bond Jr., and Other Unmade or Forgotten 007 Projects by Mark Edlitz. A must read for any Bond fan.
Two other Bond biographies that I hope to get soon are Tall, Dark and Gruesome by Sir Christopher Lee and The Cinematic Connery: The Films of Sir Sean Connery by A.J. Black. Both have some chapters devoted to their James Bond adventures.
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Thereâs also a book about DAF:
âThe Many Facets of Diamonds Are Forever: James Bond on Page and Screenâ
I have no idea if it is any good, the same question I have about "A Close Look at âA View To a Killâ.
Anybody?
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Itâs a collection of essays about the film and book of DAF. Some are very much on the academic side, while others can be enjoyed by the general reader. Iâm a contributor to the book, so my opinion is hardly objective, but I think there are several excellent essays. Unfortunately the book is published by an academic press and thus rather expensive, but folks can use inter-library loan to check it out.
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The AVTAK book is very good. It does make you realize how much AVTAK actually is worthwhile for the series. Highly recommended.
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The book is very fine, and I should have recognized the hand of Revelator in its pages. Luckily, the editor advertised a coupon in this community when it was first published, so I snagged a discount.
Not that I am a DAF obsessive or anything.
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