Help finding the rare book "Lagos: How it Works"

March 5, 2011 3:47 PM

Help finding the rare book "Lagos: How it Works"

There is an instance of the book on amazon
http://www.amazon.com/Lagos-How-Works-Rem-Koolhaas/dp/3037780851
But it is out of print, and while I can find some referrences on Koolhaas's website, I can't seem to find a copy ANYWHERE. Legal, pirated, used, new, expensive, cheap...nothing. It all comes up dry.

Any recommendations on how to find this book?

posted by wooh to Food & Drink (11 answers total)

This is strange. As you probably already know, Bookfinder doesn't know of any copies for sale online. So I checked WorldCat to see if a university near you might have a copy you could look at, but there isn't even a record for this item in WorldCat. One wonders how it got an ISBN, or whether it exists at all. I can't think of any reason why at least one academic library somewhere would not own a copy, since it doesn't appear to be an exhibition catalog or a piece of ephemera (and most academic libraries holds onto those as well).

A number of other things do come up for "ti:lagos au:Koolhaas," including the 2003 documentary from First Run/Icarus Films, the 2006 documentary from the MIT department of architecture, the 2000 Lagos Handbook from the Harvard Graduate School of Design, and so on.
posted by Nomyte at 4:08 PM on March 5, 2011

Harvard has 4 copies (not surprising, since it was part of the Harvard Project on the City). I would try to arrange an interlibrary loan.
posted by jedicus at 4:09 PM on March 5, 2011

Those four Harvard copies all say "on order" so they may not be available via ill.
posted by Forktine at 4:16 PM on March 5, 2011

I don't see it on the publisher's website, either.
posted by Forktine at 4:24 PM on March 5, 2011

have you tried Alibris.com?
posted by easily confused at 4:39 PM on March 5, 2011

Alibris, AbeBooks, BookFinder, and pretty much every other aggregator I could think of turns up nothing.

If none of the Harvard copies are available for ILL in a reasonable timeframe, you could try contacting the author directly. He might have a spare copy he could part with. You could also try contacting the publisher.
posted by jedicus at 4:49 PM on March 5, 2011

Did you see the question on the Amazon discussion board for the book? Seems like there were some problems getting it out.
posted by candyland at 4:59 PM on March 5, 2011

Consider calling Rem's office at OMA and asking to buy a copy. I think that's your best bet. I have heard he has at least 300 copies on remainder.
posted by parmanparman at 5:14 PM on March 5, 2011

Powell's doesn't have it either, but you can sign up to be notified when/if they get a copy. I've found some pretty obscure out of print books that way:

http://www.powells.com/biblio?isbn=3037780851
posted by DrumsIntheDeep at 5:39 PM on March 5, 2011

This book doesn't actually exist — that Amazon item has been there for years now.

I know the designers on the project and, even though they finished the book, it never came out. Rem decided not to publish it in the end.
posted by interrupt at 5:46 PM on March 5, 2011 [3 favorites]

Harvard has 4 copies (not surprising, since it was part of the Harvard Project on the City). I would try to arrange an interlibrary loan.

Those four Harvard copies all say "on order" so they may not be available via ill.

Yeah, not my library but I can tell you that record was created in January 2007 when the order was placed. We don't have them, and from the other comments here there doesn't seem to be any reason to expect them soon.
posted by Horace Rumpole at 1:48 PM on March 6, 2011