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400-page Vancouver Games Commemorative Book already a bestseller

mr.x

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mr.x Flag Bearer Level 5

mr.x

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With Glowing Hearts book already a Canadian bestseller

400-page history of 2010 Games will be in bookstores next week

By Jef Lee, Vancouver Sun June 8, 2010 6:25 PM

Ali Gardner lovingly ran her hands over a massive white book, casually flipping the pages as colleagues from the Vancouver Organizing Committee looked over her shoulders and oohed and awed.

It was an odd response from a seasoned group of Olympic organizers, who had each spent years involved at a micro-level in organizing the Vancouver 2010 Games.

The object of their interest was a 400-page coffee table book about Vancouver's Games that Gardner, the editor, had just finished and brought to Russia as a gift to the International Olympic Committee.

For Vanoc vice-presidents Burke Taylor, Dorothy Byrne and Taleeb Noormohamed, it was the first time they'd seen the book, titled With Glowing Hearts. Flipping through the pages, they were time and again surprised by what they saw and the memories of the Vancouver Games came flooding back.

The book, published by Wiley & Sons, has already become a Canadian bestseller: Vanoc says it has already received 14,000 orders and is now expecting it will exhaust its 17,500 first edition print run.

IOC president Jacques Rogge will get the first of the five books shipped to this mountain town near the Black Sea resort of Sochi, the site of the ski venues for the Sochi 2014 Games.

It's also where Vanoc is giving a weeklong debriefing to Sochi, the IOC and other organizing committees about the highs and lows of its operation.

For Gardner, the book is an absolute high. It was the culmination of the work of six contracted photographers, as many writers, and several designers. It is the first tabletop book an organizing committee has put on sale to the public for years.

Ordinarily, all an organizing committee is required by the IOC to do is produce a book as a record for internal purposes.

But Gardner said With Glowing Hearts started as a project two years ago and has become another example of how Canadians embraced the Games.

"It's meant to capture everything that you might have hoped to see during the Games if you were there, and some of the things you might not have seen that were behind the scenes," she said.

Taylor, the vice-president of culture and ceremonies, said this was the first time he'd looked at the book and it brought back some great memories. It also revealed to him things that he hadn't been aware of at the time of the Games.

The book, weighing more than 2.7 kilograms, includes more than 1,500 photographs.

There is also a special tribute to Nodar Kumaritashvili, the Georgian luger killed during a training run on the opening day of the Games.

There are also pictures of Leo Obstbaum, Vanoc's creative director, and Jack Poole, the chairman of the board, who both died in 2009. The book will in Canadian bookstores next week. It is also available online through Amazon and the Vancouver 2010 website.

jefflee@vancouversun.com

Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/sports/With+Glowing+Hearts+book+already+Canadian+bestseller/3121024/story.html#ixzz0qKKVpPNA

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mr.x Flag Bearer Level 5

mr.x

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Is it just me, or did they take this for sale off the Vanoc site? I clicked a direct link from google and it didn't exist. I found it on Amazon for $53. Is that a reasonable price for the book?

It's 400 pages long. It's the size of a university textbook. It's a hardcover. It has photo-quality paper. It has 1,500 high quality coloured images.

Totally worth it.

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flying.jay Bronze

flying.jay

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Just made my purchase on Amazon. Can't wait! Thanks to Mr. X for getting the word out. I had no idea this was already available. I'm still wondering why it's not on the Vanoc website. But oh well...gonna bring back some amazing memories.

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jawnbc Gold

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Got an email from Vanoc offering a special deal to Team 2010 members...$.50 more than Amazon.ca

:(

I ordered mine from amazon.ca, along with the torch relay book and Canadian Press book.

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jawnbc Gold

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So my 2010 mega book order arrived today from Amazon.ca:

  • Commemorative Book
  • Path of Northern Lights torch relay book
  • Canadian Press Olympic Diary

In reverse order:

Canadian Press book is decent overview of Team Canada. On balance I wouldn't recommend it to hardcore fans; in fact the special Maclean's issue is superior...and cheaper.

Path of Northern Lights I really only got for my memory box. Still, very kewl to see myself in the list of 12000+ torchbearers (John Egan)! :)

The Commemorative Book? Well...it's really big. And the cover's a tad flimsy. But I read it nearly cover to cover and it brought tears to my eyes more than once. Heartily recommend it, especially since it was only $54 from Amazon. Really, really nice job. Ali Gardner should be right proud of herself and her team.

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baron-pierreIV Cauldron Lighter 20000 Club

baron-pierreIV

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X, your subtitle for this thread, "An Olympic Organizing Committee first to create such a book..." isn't quite correct.

There might be other instances, but I do know that Los Angeles 1984 issued 2 such editions.

1. The Gold Book...a limited edition of only 500 copies. Full description here: http://www.olympicsource.org/new_page_6.htm ; and

2. There was the cheaper, plush-covered one but also the padded gray-green leatherette cover & binding...which indeed was called "The Commemorative Edition of the Games of the XXIIIrd Olympiad of Los Angeles" (or something like that). My copy is in a storage box which I am too lazy to dig out right now. That might have gone for like $50 when it was originally released. I got a used copy from a Library for I think $7 or $8 only. But it was definitely a heavy, deluxe, great pictorial edition of the LA'84 Games. I am sure a few other Games had issued such commemorative editions as well...but I just don't know exactly which ones did.

[somebody just sent me today a digital copy of a Special book that Disney put out for all the Ceremonies volunteers of the 1960 Squaw Valley Games. It's called The Pageantry Book (altho softcover only), and I believe some 4,100 copies were sent out because Squaw Valley 1960 used some 4,000 performers in its OC. But its along those similar lines of 'Commemorative" editions."]

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jawnbc Gold

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^ nice review. But the cover for "With Glowing Hearts" is flimsy? I thought it was a hard cover? lol.

Ha!

It has a paper sleeve that features the look of the Games--and it's beautiful. But it's not laminated. Any idea where I could find a clear booksleve for it? I want it to be a coffee table book, but don't want the cover to get trashed.

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SkiFreak Flag Bearer Level 3

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So my 2010 mega book order arrived today from Amazon.ca:

  • Commemorative Book
  • Path of Northern Lights torch relay book
  • Canadian Press Olympic Diary

In reverse order:

Canadian Press book is decent overview of Team Canada. On balance I wouldn't recommend it to hardcore fans; in fact the special Maclean's issue is superior...and cheaper.

Path of Northern Lights I really only got for my memory box. Still, very kewl to see myself in the list of 12000+ torchbearers (John Egan)! :)

The Commemorative Book? Well...it's really big. And the cover's a tad flimsy. But I read it nearly cover to cover and it brought tears to my eyes more than once. Heartily recommend it, especially since it was only $54 from Amazon. Really, really nice job. Ali Gardner should be right proud of herself and her team.

If you want to complete your 2010 library, there's also these books:

O Siyam: Aboriginal Art Inspired by the 2010 Plympic and Paralympic Games - released by VANOC

Miga, Quatchi and Sumi: The Story of the Vanouver 2010 Mascots - sure it's a kids book, but for completists it's good to have.

Canadian Gold: 2010 Olympic Winter Games Ice Hockey Champions by Andrew Podnieks

I've so far got them all even the ones jawnbc listed, except for the commemorative book which is on order.

From the Calgary books I got:

XV Olympic Winter Games by Lloyd Robertson and Brian D. Johnson - this one occasionally shows up at used book stores

Canada at the Olympic Winter Games by Wendy Bryden - excellent book on the history of the various sports and a preview for Team Canada's involvement in Calgary.

I'm looking for:

Share the Flame - the '88 torch relay book. I think I've seen this one once in a used book store. Harder to find then the other commemorative book.

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flying.jay Bronze

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Just received my book today...and wow is it gorgeous. Yeah...the cover is flimsy, but it is what I expected in a hardcover. I went through most of it and was amazed at the quality. I'm more than thrilled with this purchase. It's an amazing memory to have of the games. Ms. Gardner should be very proud.

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SkiFreak Flag Bearer Level 3

SkiFreak

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Got my book today. Wow! Excellent! This makes up for the butchered ceremonies on the CTV DVD set. Can't wait to look thru it thoroughly this weekend. B)

But what's this talk of flimsy covers? Mine's fine. It's not flimsy at all.

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mr.x Flag Bearer Level 5

mr.x

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I passed by a book store today and they were selling it...took a peak at the new book (which I already bought on Amazon), it's absolutely gorgeous - and heavy too.

I kinda wish the cover was laminated.

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