John Birmingham speaks of his new book, Dopeland', to Australian review site, theblurb. He says, " it would just allow me to travel around the country surfing, bonging on and eating lots of greasy food and they'd pay me a shitload of money to do it and my legal fees if it all went wrong."" Sounds like his dream project? Whether Birmingham's latest offering is hailed as a contemporary non-fiction masterpiece, a useless commodity adding more fuel to Australia's cannabis debate, or simply an excuse for John to pay tribute to some dope smoking years by getting trashed (for the sake of literature), it is an stimulating addition to the Australian book market. This essay will look at Dopeland' as a market commodity, and examine all sorts of fine details, which have come together to form the latest work by a fine Australian author.
Dopeland' was released by Random House Australia on May 1st this year, under it's Random House imprint. It is available for retail sale at a price of $29.95 from major bookstores such as Angus & Robertson, Borders, Dymocks and QBD as well as individual booksellers such as Coaldrakes Bookshop in Milton. These booksellers have chosen to keep the book at recommended retail price. It is only Internet booksellers such as boomerangbooks.com.au that choose to lower the price - in the case of Boomerang, down to $25.46. .
The front cover's blurb is "Taking the high road through Australia's marijuana culture-. The back cover starts to reveal more of the humorous nature of the book by saying, "Packing a bag full of cash from his nave publishers and a long list of dodgy underworld contacts from Perth to Cairns, JB steps out on a mission. To seek out new friends, with big bags of dope, and boldly smoke where no-one has smoked before."" The fonts and layout of the book's interior are easy to read- green has been integrated with the standard black text and interesting headlines are used to grab attention.