I have to hand it to my mother in-law, she’s really gotten better with her gifts for the most part. She’s gotten past the part of just getting anything skateboard related, and she’s really thoughtful about it. Still, I totally cracked up when I go this in the mail from her for Christmas. Not only do I already have Disposable, but it happens to be the second edition which has a quote by me on the inside dust jacket! I got an extra giggle because my mother in-law is an author herself. All in all it brought me unexpected joy, which is the purpose of giving a gift in the first place. Sidenote: I just realized the type alternates colors on different editions of the book.

This has been stated so many times before that I don’t even know how to say it any other way now, but my primary impetus for beginning work on what would eventually become The Disposable Skateboard Bible was to tie up a few loose ends that I wasn’t able to find or include in the first book—several of which were only made possible in the years following its publication. For this reason perhaps that’s why I dragged my feet for two and a half years to compile material for the Bible, because just when I was about to theoretically call it done I would inevitably find one more board or story to follow up on, e.g. the random time I met Rich Harbour’s daughter at a backyard Banta party. I could have gone on indefinitely in this manner had I not finally committed to a delivery date with the publisher in April 2009, and it was an oddly bittersweet moment to at long last say, “It is finished.” Not only that but I kind of felt like a dink for calling it the “Bible” when I knew there were still a few outstanding historical pieces to the puzzle. Seriously, God left Himself a really, really big loophole with that ambiguous book of Revelations.

A lot of people are excited about this book. Disposable was reprinted in several editions with additions. The Disposable Skateboard Bible (Or Disposable II, depending on where you look) is available from Gingko Press. I’ve got conflicting information on cover art and page counts, but I’ll find out soon enough when my copy arrives in the mail. (Update: The Gingko site has prerelease information and graphics, as they are in the middle of a site re-design.) The scope of the book is supposed to be broader. I asked Sean Cliver if the new book encompassed the first one, and here’s what he had to say:

…it’s an all-new book. a complement to the first, really. 1) Includes 60s/70s stuff; 2) Includes a lot more 80s stuff that didn’t fit the first book; 3) Includes new artist/rider stories from like VCJ, Greg Evans, Art/Steve Godoy, Gator, etc.; 4) much more of a “collector” bias in its opening words. on that note, it’s also far less wordier than the first book with more pages devoted to board images (a total of like 2500 i think?).

Can’t wait to see it. He’s been working on this for a few years now, and with high level the bar was set at by the first Disposable, I’m guessing this one is going to be…. brilliant as well. I was going to say “anything but disposable”, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. Except I just did.