Favorite Books on Disney About This Page:

[Nimros]

Okay - I'm ready for some really interesting books on Disney. On Walt, the Parks, Imagineering, you name it!

Point me in the right direction - what are your favorites?

[wvugrrrl]

Just finished Realityland, by David Koenig. It's really good in that it gives a pretty unbiased viewpoint of WDW from the very beginning, all the way through Eisner and today. It definitely doesn't pull any punches, but at the same time, the criticisms and some of the less than rosy stories it tells aren't told out of malice. They're just fact. I really enjoyed it because it gave a behind-the-scenes look at the building of the Magic Kingdom and Epcot (and later touches a little less lengthily on MGM and AK), as well as the colossal headaches caused by developers, unions, management, etc. It just gives you all the dirt without making you feel like a sleazeball.

I also got DBF several Disney books for Christmas (as they're the only things he says he has time to read. ) He said The Disney Mountains was really interesting, and he also liked the 3 "Imagineering Field Guides" I got him (one for AK, Epcot, & MK), because he said he can't wait to really "see" all of this new information up close.

[graygables]

My favorite will always be the Bob Thomas biography Walt Disney, an American Original. It's old school and charming and makes me happy to read it. I read Disney War awhile back (took me FOR ever and I'm a fast reader!), but I found it depressing.

[TheGoof]

My absolute favorite book on Disney parks, is "Disneyland: Inside Story" by Randy Bright. However it is unfortunately out of print, and very hard to come by. But if you can get a copy, believe me if you enjoy Disney parks, you will love this book.

This book tells the story of Walt and his dream of a new park, the pitfalls that they ran into as they tried to get this dream off the ground. It was published in 1987, and is difficult to find, although there are used (expensive!) copies available on Amazon.com. I would never part with mine!

It has tons of pictures, and talks about the creation of all the attractions up to the point that it was published. It is a mostly positive view, written by a major insider, but it does talk about some of the miscues.

If you cannot find this book, the Walt Disney Treasures: Disneyland: Secrets, Stories and Magic DVD (2005) contains a lot (but not all!) of the same information, and has nice interviews to boot.

Here is the link to Amazon.Com's wrieup on it: (In the interest of full disclosure, I wrote one of the four reviews the one from September 12, 1999.)

Amazon.com: Disneyland: Inside Story: Books: Randy Bright

[Shell_of_the_South]

I agree with Dawn - my favorite bio of Walt is Walt Disney: An American Original By Bob Thomas
Amazon.com: WALT DISNEY: AN AMERICAN ORIGINAL: Books: Bob Thomas

I bought Amazon.com: Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination (Vintage): Books: Neal Gabler a good while back, but I never finished it. I know a lot of people have enjoyed it, but it seemed too tedious or something to me, I never could get into it.

[lukeandbrookesmom]

I just read Disney War - it's a look at the inside corp world. It was interesting.

[Nimros]

Thanks everyone! I found some at my local library and I'll check Amazon for the rest.