Book review

Apologies for this late response to the enquiry about Compcros publishing 

Compcros is based in Lagos and is run by Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju.

I have been mapping the development of this project on this group, on Facebook, LinkedIn and Blogger as it has progressed in the last one to two years, if I have the timeline correct.

Prof. Abiodun, the author of the book, and I, met through this group in the context of essays of mine  I posted here on Yoruba aesthetics which built on Abiodun’s work but did not reference his latest, 2014 book to which he directed me but which I could not afford at its 80 pound price, leading me to return the book after purchasing it from Cambridge UP’s flagship bookshop on Trinity Street, Cambridge, UK, an awesome bookshop, selling only books by Cambridge UP but with the prices often prohibitive for many, being cutting edge books definitive for various disciplines and meant for institutional purchase, as a staff of the bookshop informed me when I wondered why the prices were so high, a story I’ve told in an essay posted here and on other platforms.

Cambridge UP does publish books across a price range of some flexibility, ranging from their Canto paperback classics, which includes Soyinka’s great Myth, Literature and the African World and Cambridge Handbooks, series at the cheaper price range, to such magisterial works as the Cambridge Kant editions, the latest word in Kant translations, among their majestic offerings in Western philosophy, and such texts  in non- Western fields as Biodin Jeyifo’s Wole Soyinka book in relation to post-colonialism, Abiodun’s book, Falola’s work on autoethnography, these being works belonging in the higher price ranges.

Compcros’ vision is to learn from such pioneers as Cambridge UP, building upon and perhaps even improving on the quality they have cultivated across centuries by providing a more personalized service than Cambridge UP might be able to do as well as to deliver such quality at lower costs of production and sale globally.

The printing facilities are available  in Lagos to deliver the best global standards. Editorial oversight of such quality also exists here, as demonstrated by the contribution of the editor of the second edition in contributing to catalyzing the new, autobiographical preface and in editing it, and, under the direction of the author, in putting together the reviews of the first edition, published as the conclusion of the second edition, additions taking the second edition to new heights.

Great thanks

Toyin