Shooting e-Books

Status
Not open for further replies.
D

dovedescending

Member
Joined
Mar 10, 2010
Messages
575
Location
NW Georgia
I was given a Kindle for Christmas, and I'm looking for cheap or free e-books on shooting with which to fill it. I'm looking particularly for classic stuff: articles or books by the likes of Fairbairn, Sykes, Cooper, Askins, and others of their ilk. With the exception of Massad Ayoob and perhaps a few others, I don't much care for modern gun writers. Anybody know where I can find some of these?
 
Good luck with the Kindle thing.

I do not plan on getting one, because I believe there are too many old books that still need reading, and many of the older books I find second hand are out of print. The ebook is a subtle and perfect way of selectively eliminating entire libraries of perfectly good information. You will find plenty of newer and popular books of course.
 
The ebook is a subtle and perfect way of selectively eliminating entire libraries of perfectly good information. You will find plenty of newer and popular books of course.
Click to expand...
Actually, sites like http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/ and Gutenberg are dedicated to preserving paper libraries in electronic form.
Specifically so that they won't get lost when Aunt Edna cleans her attic. ;)
I like paper books and magazines a lot, always have. But the shear convenience of having a personal library in pocket-size is just too cool to pass on.

Here is the link to a few gun ebooks located at Amazon (not free of course):
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_nr_p...h+books&ie=UTF8&qid=1328706152&rnid=618072011

To find specific free ebooks, try Googling the 'title' along with 'free ebook download'. I have downloaded thousands of vintage books in electronic form....entire book collections by authors like Burroughs, Ringo, Turtledove, Curris, etc. I keep around 1,500 books on my old 3G Kindle at any given time. I even download the vintage book covers with all that great artwork and use them as screen savers on the Kindles.
There is a wonderful free program called Calibre which converts pretty much any form of eBook into any other form. Then you just plug your Kindle into your PC and load the books to it.

The downside to the Kindle platform (or any of the small tablets) for reading gun type books and magazines is the page size and the picture size. Even my Fire doesn't do it well, although it is better at this than my older K3G. 'Text only' books are great though.
However, A lot of 'gun books' may simply not be available in electronic form yet...even in an electronic pirate version. IIRC, 'Guns & Ammo' magazine is available for the Fire.
 
Google books has a TREMENDOUS number of shooting books that are in the public domain. Many of these are 19th century books, but as far as I'm concerned, W.W. Greener's The Gun and Its Development is requisite reading for all firearms enthusiasts.
 
Monster Hunter International by Larry Correia. Awesome series made by a gun nut, for gun nuts.
 
Good luck with the Kindle thing.

I do not plan on getting one, because I believe there are too many old books that still need reading, and many of the older books I find second hand are out of print. The ebook is a subtle and perfect way of selectively eliminating entire libraries of perfectly good information.
Click to expand...

Interestingly, Amazon does not require Kindle users to take an oath of abstinence with regard to paper books.
 
not nearly as much fun as shooting the real thing.
Click to expand...
I also thought that this thread was about blowing holes in a Kindle. Dang.

But I disagree. Shooting a flat screen device would give me more of a thrill than a bundle of paper.
 
I resisted the Kindle thing at first. My kids gave me an Aluratek reader for Christmas in '10 and I changed my mind pretty quickly. There are a least 2 million books in the public domain, all free. The reader uses SD cards which is pretty neat but you have to have a computer to download books.

This year I got a Kindle for Christmas. :cool: It's even easier than the Aluretek to load books on.

I have no idea of the total number of books available for these things but it's mind boggling. Some are free, some are really cheap, and all are cheaper than the paperback version and you don't have to have a place to stack them.
 
On my kindle I have three books by Ayoob Jim cirillo the standard catalog of colt firearms the gun digest on revolvers to name a few. I can read them on my kindle or my kindle app on my iPhone and iPad and my PC.
 
If you like 1911s, then see if "1911: The First 100 Years" by Patrick Sweeney is available in the e-form. I don't have a Kindle or anything like that... I prefer a physical book myself... it makes me look smarter than having an empty bookshelf:neener:
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top