From the perspective of a lighter amateur, the first two volumes in this series deserve more raves than I can cram in this site. The books are informative, colorful, comprehensive, and interesting and the photography is superb. The layouts are imaginative and give importance where importance is due. Text is in Japanese and in English. It's important to understand while reading this that the author is considered to be Japan's leading dealer in Zippo and its fortunes are his fortunes.
Enthusiastic prose can have deep roots.
As usual, Imai's books are a model for exciting book-building with its 360 pages crammed with tons of interesting text, old ads, and glorious color photos. If you just want a crash course in Zippo, buy the 1st volume in this series. Glorious bookmaking, but of little use to anyone, in my opinion, except for the author who, by these, is perpetuating the Zippo mythos. This is the most blatant, with the look of the other books, but the contents of a sales catalog. Zippo was quick to realize the collectibility of their lighters, much like Matel and Barbie, and is feeding the frenzy.