Joined: Mar 09, 2006 Posts: 809 Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Posted: Tue Aug 29, 2006 4:08 pm Post subject: Disney Books
Hey all,
I wanted to share some Disney books that I've read over the years, both good and bad. I've read a lot on the parks, and Walt Disney the man, so this is kind of a random collection.
Highly recommended
The Haunted Mansion: From the Magic Kingdom to the Movies by Jason Surrell - Fantastic book about my personal favorite ride over the years. Discusses in great depth how the ride concept changed over the years, through Walt's death, with tons of photographs and lots of historical detail. At only $15, it's well worth it. The second half of the book is about the movie; just skip that part...
Remembering Walt: Favorite Memories of Walt Disney by Howard E. Green and Amy Boothe - I absolutely loved this book. A ton of quotes by those who knew walt most. Some very interesting stories. Does a nice job of having some negative ones as well as some positive ones.
Mouse Tales and more Mouse Tales: (A Behind-The-Ears Look at Disneyland) by David Koenig - Excellent book on working in Disneyland, with a ton of small stories about funny stuff that's happened in the park from a cast member's point of view.
The Magic Kingdom: Walt Disney and the American Way of Life by Steven Watts - Fantastic book. Probably the most detailed and even book on Walt Disney the man from childhood to death. Contains a ton of good anecdotes about his major animators as well. Very highly recommended.
101 Things You Never Knew About Disneyland: An Unauthorized Look At The Little Touches And Inside Jokes by Kevin Yee and Jason Schultz - Another winner. The book is just that - each page has a different fun fact about the park.
Magic Quizdom: Disneylandia Minutiae Semper Absurda: Kevin Yee, Jason Schultz - Very similar to 101... but in a quiz form. Some common material, but I liked 101 a bit better as it goes into more depth.
Since the World Began: Walt Disney World The First 25 Years by Jeff Kurtti - I think this one is out of print, but is very good. It runs down each park, giving a brief description on each ride/land. Not really trivia, but some fantastic photos. Makes a good coffee table book, as it's rather large.
Walt Disney Imagineering: A Behind the Dreams Look At Making the Magic Real: by Imagineers - Probably the best of the Disney design books, it's large with the most artwork/concept photos of any book. Definately worth a read.
Good
Walt Disney and the Quest for Community by Steve Mannheim - Every Epcot fanatic should have this book. It's about Walt and where he was getting the ideas for Epcot, the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow, not EPCOT Center, the theme park. Gets a bit bogged down on urban planning stuff, but was cool to see what Walt wanted Epcot to be.
How to Be Like Walt: Capturing the Disney Magic Every Day of Your Life (How to Be Like) by Pat Williams, Jim Denney - This is kind of a self-help book, but I figured I'd give it a shot. It had a lot of good anecdotes about Walt's life and was worth a read.
The Walt Disney World Trivia Book: Secrets, History & Fun Facts Behind the Magic by Louis A. Mongello - Good trivia book, but I liked the Yee/Schultz series better - more details behind each answer while this one is more of a question and answer one.
Walt Disney: An American Original by Bob Thomas - The Disney company version of Walt's Biography. Good, but I'd recommend the Watts book over this one. Worth a read, though.
Mouse Under Glass : Secrets of Disney Animation and Theme Parks by David Koenig - Basically, Mouse Tales, only discussing the animated films instead of the parks. Runs down every animated film from Snow White, giving interesting facts on each.
The Imagineering Field Guide to Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World by The Disney Imagineers - A very short read with some good concept drawings. Brings to light some very conscious park design decisions that you'd take for granted.
Designing Disney's Theme Parks: The Architecture of Reassurance - Not too mind blowing, but a solid book, with some good pictures. I honestly can't remember much about this one.
Hidden Mickeys: A Field Guide to Walt Disney World's Best Kept Secrets (Hidden Mickeys: A Field Guide to Walt Disney World's Best Kept Secre) by Steven M. Barrett - Lists all of the hidden mickeys. Good companion while roaming the park.
Designing Disney: Imagineering and the Art of the Show by John Hench - Written by the legend John Hench, it has tons of concept art providing the backround for many park decisions. It didn't really grab me like some of the better trivia books did, but lots of pics, and, hey, it was written by John Hench.
Disney's World: A Biography by Leonard Mosley - In terms of being interesting, this book should be under the excellent category. However, I've come to doubt a lot of what's in it. It seems to have a slant against Walt as being a tyrant who brow beat poor Ub Iwerks constantly (a main theme through the book). However, where there's smoke, there's some fire, so I'm sure there's some truth to some of it. A worthwhile read.
Walt Disney by Neal Gabler - For all of its 700-some pages, this didn't really break much new ground. Largely factual, it didn't really strike me as the most entertaining book.
Uhhh... I wouldn't recommend these
Spinning Disney's World: Memories of a Magic Kingdom Press Agent - I fought with myself to determine which pool this should be put in, and after thinking about it a while, I became so frustrated with his need to name drop and talk about people that were so inconsequential to the story, I decided to plunk it down here. Basically, this is a random rambling of various stories, most of them semi-interesting, but a lot of junk about how his job was done, which overpowers the good stuff. Give us more stories about Walt and less about your press buddies - if he mentioned Eddie Meck again, I was about to light the thing on fire.
Walt's Revolution!: By the Numbers by Harrison Price - Very little material on Disney. A lot of crap. Save your money. This is the one book that I totally didn't care for.
Disney: The First 100 Years by David Smith - Written by Disney master historian Dave Smith, this one is more of a walk through the years that the parks have been open, discussing what happened in each one. Not bad, but any Disney enthusiast would be bored.
All customer service books - I've purchased and read several books about the "Disney Way" of doing business and their approach to customer service, hoping to gain some understanding of the behind-the-scenes operation of the company itself. Each one that I've read is full of stupid acronyms, buzzwords ("pardigm"), and other uninteresting stuff (at least for me). For interesting stuff on Walt/the parks, I'd stay away from these.
Last edited by kmiller15211 on Wed May 09, 2007 2:44 pm; edited 5 times in total
Interesting list. thanks for providing. I may look for some of these.
I've read Mouse Tails and More Mouse Tails. They are good, but I felt something was missing. Still I'm rereading them, so they must be pretty good.
I've read Walt Disney: An American Original by Bob Thomas. Liked it a lot. Some of the stories are ones I've heard before. Reread this one several times.
I have The Magic Kingdom: Walt Disney and the American Way of Life by Steven Watts but have not started it. Based on this write up, I'll have to give it a start.
Walt Disney's Railroad Story by Michael Broggie. A wonderful book, that provides background into one of Walt's favorite interests... Trains. Fantastic book, Great stories, Wonderful pictures.
Joined: Mar 09, 2006 Posts: 809 Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Posted: Wed Aug 30, 2006 3:27 pm Post subject:
The Bob Thomas book was good, but I think the Watts one includes all of its stuff and goes even further. It also gives good insight to a lot of the colorful animation personalities such as Fred Moore, T. Hee, Peter Ellenshaw, Bill Walsh, Ben Sharpsteen, and others. One particular story I liked was Walt dressing down Sharpsteen in front of a roomful of animators while watching an old clip that Sharpsteen had animated a long time ago. At the time, Sharpsteen had moved on to be a director/producer and Walt was poking fun at how bad the animation was calling it the "Rubber hose school of animation". Shows how difficult it was to work for Walt and you'd better have a thick skin.
My only fault of it is that it could've had more about the park (given the level of detail for the rest of the book).
Joined: Nov 09, 2005 Posts: 1316 Location: Doyville, Ee-arth
Posted: Tue Jan 16, 2007 9:12 pm Post subject:
i, too, love the brogge 'train' book and surrell's hm book. brogge was a good buy...i got it for my dad's birthday years ago, and he LOVES and refers to it all the time!
Joined: Mar 09, 2006 Posts: 809 Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Posted: Sun Mar 25, 2007 2:58 pm Post subject:
Just finished the Neal Gabler book - good, but not great. I love the little stories that explain Walt's character, which this book lacked, for the most part. Maybe it's just that I've heard this all before.
Just started the Roy O Disney book by Bob Thomas. So far, it has been more of the same.
Joined: Nov 09, 2005 Posts: 494 Location: In the middle of the magic!
Posted: Wed May 09, 2007 2:18 pm Post subject:
Honestly... I have about a 1/5 of that list of books in my own book self _________________ Attention travelers, please remain seated. Your vechile will be rotating backwards. -Spaceship Earth
Spinning the world is a great fun book of little stories, nice little jaunts down memory lane.
I think the stories would be perfect if shared with you by the author over a nice drink. A good "have a drink and chat" style.
If you are looking for light reading, fine. If you want in depth Disney, I'd recommend Mouse Tales.
Still looking for an opinion from anyone on "The Disneylands That Never Were"
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brogge was a good buy...i got it for my dad's birthday years ago, and he LOVES and refers to it all the time! 
