Why are there so few books about prog?

Boy, six years on and nothing's changed on this front! I'm reading the 2011 revised edition of the Stump book, the defensiveness is driving me crazy--and there's nothing else! There's an untapped market for one of our more thoughtful posters, methinks.

There was that book Yes Is The Answer And Other Prog Rock Tales recently

Will Romano put out a 246-page Mountains Come Out The Sky: The Illustrated History Of Prog Rock on Backbeat Books in 2010. Includes lots of recent stuff (an entire concluding chapter on "progressivity" in the 21st Century) and the long discography in the back (297 albums) casts a wide net -- includes several obscurities from all eras, and also stretches the definition around albums by Tool, Radiohead, Sigur Ros, Mars Volta, Queensryche, Pet Sounds, Music From Big Pink, etc.

Beyond and Before: Progressive Rock Since the 1960s by Martin Halliwell and Paul Hegarty
The Strawberry Bricks Guide to Progressive Rock by Charles Snider
Prophets & Sages: An Illustrated Guide to Underground and Progressive Rock 1967-1975 by Mark Powell
Mountains Come Out of the Sky: The Complete Illustrated History of Prog Rock by Will Romano
The Music's All That Matters by Paul Stump
Rocking the Classics: English Progressive Rock and the Counterculture by Edward Macan
Citizens of Hope & Glory: The Story of Progressive Rock by Stephen Lambe
Rock Progressivo Italiano: An introduction to Italian Progressive Rock by Andrea Parentin
Progressive Rock by Jerry Lucky
Progressive Rock Files by Jerry Lucky
Mean Deviaton: Four Decades of Progressive Metal by Jeff Wagner
Listening To The Future by Bill Martin
Yes Is The Answer And Other Prog Rock Tales by various
The Billboard Guide to Progressive Music by Bradley Smith
Progressive Rock Reconsidered by Kevin Holm-Hudson

...Actually quite a lot of books but the reviews to most are very mixed (the Jerry Lucky books had quite a few negative reviews); some books are mostly top 100 album lists (fine by me). Most of these books will have someone complaining about omissions of certain bands but Billboard Guide omits lots of canon bands and includes Throbbing Gristle and lots of other odd choices. Some books also accused of not being discerning enough.

Progressive Rock Reconsidered sounds like an interesting analytical book. I'm pleasantly surprised that there is a book on italian prog.

I wish I hadn't missed the book on Scandinavian stuff when it was still at a reasonable price.
THink there was also one on South America though maybe that was more garage/psych.

Asbjornson's Cosmic Dreams at Play at least covers most of Europe, not sure if anybody else has done similar. Not sure if I'd agree with everything he wrote anyway.

Which books on Scandinavian and south American music?

http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2011/342/5/2/vance_the_best_show_puppet_by_devilevn-d4iiuhr.jpg

I think the Scando one had a title along the lines of Encyclopedia of Progressive Rock in Scandinavian Countries. But I will have to look it up when I get to a computer instead of a phone.

I was able to check out the discography in that Will Romano book using Amazon's "look inside" feature. Surprised to see my high school buddy's private press job show up at #266. Cathedral -- Stained Glass Stories. That's going pretty deep. Never actually heard it, and maybe I never will because it's one pricey record. I think it came out after my high school years and we'd lost touch.

I will check out that Romano book. Thanks, Chuck!

This Stump book is hilarious. Heavy Brit-focus with some continental stuff thrown in, but nary a definition of Prog in sight! He just spent three pages on Rush, and 2 1/2 of them were on Ayn Rand! I'm certainly getting enough out of it, though -- I'd never heard National Health or Egg.

any of these have a good recounting of the drug exploits or sexual liaisons of prog musicians?

any of these have a good recounting of the drug exploits or sexual liaisons of prog musicians?

As one might expect from the salacious title, Fifty Shades of Crimson contains (albeit brief) nods to Fripp's bouts with promiscuity and venereal disease: "as the band's success grew, he found he was expected to 'carelessly and frequently rut'". Meanwhile a female friend of the band calls Greg Lake "a great big ego - a penis on legs". This connects with something I read in another book, describing ELP's habit of "passing around" any female unlucky enough to enter their orbit.
As for drugs, the author Pete Tomsett suggests that Wetton's cocaine addiction was one of the factors causing Fripp to end the group in 1974.

Lol "expected to"??

Is there anything Fripp has ever done that he can't portray as something he was reluctantly dragged/pressured into?

Apologies, I left out a qualifier: "as the band's success grew, he found he was pretty much expected to..."
The book treats KC and solo music in a refreshingly down-to-earth way, he discusses Fripp's spiritual and philosophical concerns without mystifying them. I'm in the later chapters now, and there's so many former members by this point, that Tomsett has to jump from Fripp's soundscapes, to Asia, Earthworks, Gordon Haskell, etc.
He has some interesting KC/Fripp top ten lists in the appendix which I may copy to another thread.

Literally every account I’ve ever read of Greg Lake makes mention of what a horny bastard he was back in the day

Also a thorny bastard

He has some interesting KC/Fripp top ten lists in the appendix which I may copy to another thread.

― Halfway there but for you

i'd definitely be interested!