If you’ve ever been to the little island of Malta you’ll have noticed at least two truths. The Maltese are mad (in a passionate, hilariouly, brilliant way) and they are into their motors.

In fact, the latter part is taken into their culture right to the heart. And as well as blasting little birds out of the sky with rifles, all things automotive obsesses your average Maltese heart in the same way as food, love and intrigue remain the quotidian passions of your typical Parisien.

A brilliant little book edited by Maltese writer Emma Mattei brings out this seldom focused upon aspect of her homeland — and this is just a little part of its broad and deep appeal.

Two photo essays and a little bit of ruminatively well-written text will take you through the details. The roads are in pretty poor condition and there’s not much total mileage of them anyway, and the wheezing, belching buses transport a lot of the punters around the island.

But even if you don’t care a stuff for cars, this little book is really worth getting hold of. It’s a truly uncommon guide to a place and its people.

Available from Miranda Books

Images © Michael Furman / courtesy Assouline

We’ve just caught wind of a limited edition volume which due to launch very soon in the states that looks like it’s going to be the ultimate gift or purchase for the petrolhead who can put their money where their mouth is.

This beautiful looking piece of print will feature 100 of the most incredible cars eer imagined, and is put together by Wall Street Journal’s motoring correspondent Dan Neil.

It is due to sell for $650, so you cna either start saving now or pray that father Christmas will be very good to you. It is printed on cotton-heavy paper and comes in a black rubber presentation box with a cutout metal plate in a custom tote bag

The author vehicles chosen to feature in this stupidly high-end book by publishers Assouline will embody a will to “explore the limits of what is possible in speed, luxury and decadence.”

Superb and beautiful fuel for the ongoing automotive dream mill.

In case you’ve been buried under a rock these past years, you can’t help have noticed that there’s a real Hot Rod revival going on, with vintage events cropping up all over the place.

Core festivals like the Hayride are becoming more and more popular – and the forties and fifties are becoming the decades referenced by the most creative recyclers of culture.

And amid a subculture that lives and breathes on heritage brands, there’s something about those Moon eyes.
We hate using the word, but this brand really is iconic.

Great timing then, for French– based connoisseur of Rod Culture Laurent Bagnard to bring out a book that delves into the venerable archive of the Moon’s brand history.

Dean Moon, born in 1927, was one of the genuine pioneers of Hot Rodding, and built a company that became synonymous with the coolest bolt– on accessories, particularly those foot– shaped gas pedals (with five toes and all) those matt silver moon disc wheel trims.

But while these very visible trinkets probably made the company most of their money, Mr. Moon was apparently responsible for hopping up many successful dragsters and Bonneville rides.

In the sixties, according to the author Moon– equipped engines were even known to make it into Formula one cars.

The book is sure to become a must-have for the car culture geek.

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There are so many car and bike culture books out there, it’s hard to pick a single volume or a series of books that stand out. So many of them are written by experts with an almost blinkered view of the subject matter to which the respective book relates, that outside the cloistered world of the aficionado, they have little appeal.

The books by Rin Tanaka on the other hand, are some of the most entertaining, beautifully produced books on the subject that offer a kind of visual narrative of the bits and pieces of car, bike and surf culture.

Tanaka is a collecting aficianado of material culture that references Harleys, helmets, hot rods – as well as skate and surf culture. He documents every possible manifestation of how these things have been marketed and consumed by people with passion, and draws broad lines that join the dots of things as disparate as Selvidge denim and Moonlight Risers.

Especially worth checking out is the Harley Davidson book of fashions, which is nearly impossible to get hold of in the UK, but all the more sweet when you finally manage to track it down.