Disneyland: The Nickel Tour / Bruce Gordon & David Mumford : 5 of 5

I've read many times that this is the best book on Disneyland ever published, so I bought it over a year ago, but it takes me a long time to get to huge coffee table books! I finally started reading this just before my last trip to the park, and now that I've finished it I can agree with the public opinion - this is an incredible book. "Nickel Tour" refers to the original price of Disneyland postcards, and this book is designed to be a collectors guide to the thousands of postcards produced over the last 50 years. Of course, to present all of these cards (which are some of the best photography of the park available), you have to tell the history of Disneyland, and the authors have written tons of detailed text to do just that. I've never read a better description of how the park has evolved - they discuss where different figures have moved and what buildings were recycled (such as the Fantasyland Theater becoming Pinocchio's Daring Adventure), and describe lots of great attractions that are gone forever. They photos are fantastic (and they really make me want to collect postcards!) and include everything from sketches to costumed characters to just about every major attraction. This is definitely an essential Disneyland history book - it's just disguised as a collector's checklist!