A friend on another list passed on a warning about these books. She was
given one as a birthday present, and discovered that the books are
worthless and a scam.
Apparently "Hephaestus" is not so much listed as the publisher as the
author - and of many, many thousands of books. These books are printed
versions of material 'scraped' from free websites such as Wikipedia.
Those which seem to be fiction books by famous authors are actually
commentaries. Some authors have already spotted this and are trying to
campaign against it, so that their readers are not misled into buying
them. [More information here:
http://culturewarreporters.com/tag/hephaestus-books/ ]
But there are also many non-fiction titles on offer. I have checked by
googling for 'Hephaestus books' and 'lace' and found some immediately on
Amazon. There is not enough information to decide what the contents
are, but the confused titles imply that no real human being would put
these subjects together into one book, for example this book for £8.74p:
"Lace, Including: Tatting, Bobbin Lace, Needle Lace, Crocheted Lace,
Broomstick Lace, Cambric, Doily, Chantilly Lace, Armenian Needlelace,
Filet Lace, Tonder Lace, Punto In Aria, Point De Venise, Point De
France, Alencon Lace, Argentan Lace, Hollie Point"
(sorry, I can't do the authentic 'o' in Tonder, nor 'c' in Alencon).
Here is the 'Product Description':
"Hephaestus Books represents a new publishing paradigm, allowing
disparate content sources to be curated into cohesive, relevant, and
informative books. To date, this content has been curated from Wikipedia
articles and images under Creative Commons licensing, although as
Hephaestus Books continues to increase in scope and dimension, more
licensed and public domain content is being added. We believe books such
as this represent a new and exciting lexicon in the sharing of human
knowledge. This particular book is a collaboration focused on
Lace.<br/><br/>More info: Lace is an openwork fabric, patterned with
open holes in the work, made by machine or by hand. The holes can be
formed via removal of threads or cloth from a previously woven fabric,
but more often open spaces are created as part of the lace fabric.
Lace-making is an ancient craft. True lace was not made until the late
15th and early 16th centuries. A true lace is created when a thread is
looped, twisted or braided to other threads independently from a backing
fabric."
Let the buyer beware! And also authors.
Linda Walton,
(in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, U.K.).
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