FREE/BARGAIN - Non-Fiction - 2015

[GtrsRGr8]

How many of you grew up as a fan of author Laura Ingalls Wilder, either of her books, or of the television series Little House on the Prairie (from a book that she wrote by the same name), or both?

Well, if you did, you especially might be interested in a free pdf ebook offered by Notgrass, a publisher of homeschool materials. It is called Laura's Little Houses: A Guide to the Laura Ingalls Wilder Historic Sites, by Ray and Charlene Notgrass, et al. "It provides information on twelve sites related to Almanzo and Laura Ingalls Wilder and their families."

This is a quality, though short (<32 pages), work. It is packed with photos, the great majority of which are in color. The descriptions of the sites, etc. are necessarily short, due to the brevity of the ebook, but there's certainly enough to make a Laura Ingalls Wilder fan want to visit these places for herself/himself! One thing that I appreciate, too, is the presence of numerous links throughout the text that you can follow to get additional material. The ebook was published not very long ago (2013), so maybe very few of those links are "dead" ones. Or, maybe with this being an ebook, the publisher keeps the links updated??? Well, let's not be unrealistic. ha.

You might wish to be aware of the fact that Notgrass publishes materials for homeschoolers from a decidedly "Christian" perspective. That doesn't seem to come out much, if any, in the text of this book, however.

Requesting the ebook will cause you to start receiving Notgrass' twice-monthly email newsletter, also. They say that "you may easily unsubscribe at any time," though.

One webpage that you can go to to request the ebook is http://www.notgrass.com/notgrass/lau...le-houses.html.

[GtrsRGr8]

I wonder how many of you realize that you now can get the entire 11th edition (1910-11) of Encyclopaedia Britannica from Amazon (in the Kindle mobi format) for free?

Some of you may not see the reason for my excitement. This edition is not recent. Nowhere close to it. And, generally, we want to get the most recent encyclopedias and dictionaries possible--for which should be obvious reasons. But, I said "generally."

I remember a professor in college telling us students (this was (long) before the advent and widespread publication of ebooks) that if we came across a set of the 11th edition of the EB we should grab it. The reason (one of the reasons anyway) that he gave was that the 11th edition was written by some of the most outstanding scholars on earth at the time (Wikipedia has an article, dedicated to this one edition alone, with some great additional information).

I was "sold" on the value of having the set, but I never felt that I had room in my budget to buy a physical set of it, even if I was fortunate enough to find one. Then, there was the issue of the physical size and weight of the monster!

Well, I ran across the whole set of Kindle mobi's of the 11th edition of EB on Amazon just a few minutes ago. I've known for some time that you could buy the set, but this is the whole set for free!

To get the set, I suggest that you first follow this link. The set, made up of numerous volumes, is further broken down by having numerous ebooks cover each volume. Unfortunately, I know of no way to download all of the ebooks at one time--you will need to download each ebook manually.

[brouer]

Originally Posted by GtrsRGr8

I wonder how many of you realize that you now can get the entire 11th edition (1910-11) of Encyclopaedia Britannica from Amazon (in the Kindle mobi format) for free?

Had a look at a random section, and it didn't have any images and the formatting looked rather sparse.



The HTML version on Project Gutenberg which, incidentally, seems to have the same volume/slice splits (perhaps it is the source) looked *much* better.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by brouer

Had a look at a random section, and it didn't have any images and the formatting looked rather sparse.

The HTML version on Project Gutenberg which, incidentally, seems to have the same volume/slice splits (perhaps it is the source) looked *much* better.

This is something that works a lot better as PDFs because, as you rightly say, the originals are full of tables, diagrams, pictures, etc. PDF (page scans) are available from:

https://archive.org/details/Encyclop...11-1922.33vols

[koland]

New batch free from Nisyros:

http://www.amazon.com/s/?url=search-...lisher=Nisyros

[AnemicOak]

Some new non-fiction deals from HarperCollins in the US. Links are to Amazon US, but these deals should be available at other retailers too (may not have dropped everywhere yet)...


Life in a Medieval City by Joseph & Frances Gies - $3.99

For students, researchers, and history lovers, a look at day-to-day life in a rarely explored era. "About life and death, midwives and funerals, business, books and authors, and town government.

Deadliest Sea: The Untold Story Behind the Greatest Rescue in Coast Guard History by Kalee Thompson - $1.99

Soon after 2:00 a.m. on Easter morning 2008, the fishing trawler Alaska Ranger began taking on water in the middle of the frigid Bering Sea. While the first mate broadcast Mayday calls to a remote Coast Guard station more than eight hundred miles away, the men on the ship’s icy deck scrambled to inflate life rafts and activate beacon lights. By 4:30 a.m., most of the forty-seven crew members were in the water. Many knew that if they weren’t rescued soon, they would drown or freeze to death.

Two Coast Guard helicopter rescue teams were woken up in the middle of the night to save the crew of the Alaska Ranger. Many of the men thought the mission would be routine. They were wrong. The helicopter teams battled snow squalls, enormous swells, and gale-force winds as they tried to fulfill one guiding principle: save as many as possible.

Deadliest Sea is a daring and mesmerizing adventure tale that chronicles the power of nature against man. Veteran journalist Kalee Thompson recounts the harrowing stories of both the rescuers and the rescued while paying tribute to the courage, tenacity, and skill of the dedicated people who risk their lives for the lives of others.

Bottom of the 33rd: Hope and Redemption in Baseball's Longest Game by Dan Barry - $1.99

From Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times columnist Dan Barry comes the beautifully recounted story of the longest game in baseball history—a tale celebrating not only the robust intensity of baseball, but the aspirational ideal epitomized by the hard-fighting players of the minor leagues. In the tradition of Moneyball, The Last Hero, and Wicked Good Year, Barry’s Bottom of the 33rd is a reaffirming story of the American Dream finding its greatest expression in timeless contests of the Great American Pastime.

No Way Down: Life and Death on K2 by Graham Bowley - $0.99

In the tradition of Into Thin Air and Touching the Void, No Way Down by New York Times reporter Graham Bowley is the harrowing account of the worst mountain climbing disaster on K2, second to Everest in height... but second to no peak in terms of danger. From tragic deaths to unbelievable stories of heroism and survival, No Way Down is an amazing feat of storytelling and adventure writing, and, in the words of explorer and author Sir Ranulph Fiennes, “the closest you can come to being on the summit of K2 on that fateful day.”

[GtrsRGr8]

Originally Posted by brouer

Had a look at a random section, and it didn't have any images and the formatting looked rather sparse.

The HTML version on Project Gutenberg which, incidentally, seems to have the same volume/slice splits (perhaps it is the source) looked *much* better.

Originally Posted by HarryT

This is something that works a lot better as PDFs because, as you rightly say, the originals are full of tables, diagrams, pictures, etc. PDF (page scans) are available from:

https://archive.org/details/Encyclop...11-1922.33vols

I just noticed that at the end of the Wikipedia article that I cited, in the "external links" section, there are several free sources for the digital (of course it's digital; I don't think that anyone is going to give you a physical one. (ha)) set. Among them are the two sources that brouer and HarryT mentioned, Gutenberg.org and Archive.org. (BTW--if I am understanding it correctly, and the information is up-to-date, the Gutenberg set ends in the middle of the "M's" and, so, lacks a good ways being complete). BTW--the free set of Kindle mobis at Amazon is not mentioned for some reason. Hmmm . . . .

I love Archive.org. But there are several annoying features. One of the most annoying ones comes into play when the volumes of a set are listed. Many times the volume numbers (or ranges (ex.: "Mumbo Jumbo - Myanmar")) are mentioned in the descriptions, but many times they are not. When they are not, that makes it more difficult and time-consuming to "collect" all of the volumes of the set--much more difficult and time-consuming when the set has many volumes. One very nice thing about the listing on Wikipedia for the Archive.org volumes is that one or more people have taken the time and gone to the trouble to provide a link for every single volume.

So, Mobilereaders, you have absolutely no reason now not to get your very own personal set of the Eleventh Edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. (ha). And, there are benefits to having it even if you don't read any of it. Imagine, for example, if you casually mention to your intellectual or academician friend, "I have a set of the 11th edition of the EB." You will make such an impression on him/her! (ha).

[HarryT]

It's not difficult at all to download it from archive.org. There are 33 volumes, and links to all of them on the page I listed. What did you find to be difficult about it?

BTW, you're very much exaggerating the difficulty of getting a printed copy, at least in the UK. I bought mine from eBay for about £30 ($50).

[GtrsRGr8]

Originally Posted by HarryT

It's not difficult at all to download it from archive.org. There are 33 volumes, and links to all of them on the page I listed. What did you find to be difficult about it?

BTW, you're very much exaggerating the difficulty of getting a printed copy, at least in the UK. I bought mine from eBay for about £30 ($50).

I hadn't followed the link that you gave nor had I found the webpage on my own earlier, either. The webpage looks interesting, I'll really be looking it over.

Playing around with it for just the few minutes that I had, I did find it difficult to locate the volumes, though. For example, the first link for the "Read Online" format took me to volume 10; the first link for the "Full Text" format took me to volume 18. I feel pretty sure that the links following the first one would take me sequentially through the remaining volumes. But where are the links for the first 9 volumes and first 17 volumes, respectively? There aren't 33 (the number of volumes of the EB) links for any of the formats, except for the "Pdf" one. All of the rest of the formats have less than 33 links--the "Kindle" format, for example, has just 22. To me it's more than a little bit confusing.

I had based my criticism of the Internet Archive, a few posts back, on my experiences in the past trying to locate on the Internet Archive the volumes needed to make complete sets of other dictionaries and encyclopedias. I extrapolated that situation to finding the volumes of the 11th edition of the EB. I shouldn't have done that. It may be that the volume numbers of all 33 volumes of the 11th edition of the EB are stated in the descriptions of the individual volumes and it would be relatively easy, then, to compile a complete set. But I rather doubt it.

About what I implied about the difficulty in getting a physical copy of the set . . . . I was not as clear as I should have been. I took the course, whose professor made the comment that I referred to, in late 1984. I was thinking of the situation at that time then, and after that for a considerable period of time, before the use of personal computing devices was widespread and people had all kinds of search resources at their fingertips. Back then, if you had wanted a title like the 11th edition of the EB, you basically had one reasonable option: get a used book dealer to do a search (I suppose that they used some early, rudimentary kind of computer network to do that). That involved some hassle, and then you had to wait for a while to see what, if anything, that the used book dealer came up with. Sure, if I decided right now to try to find a set of the 11th edition of the EB, I feel fairly confident that I could find one within a few minutes using the computer that I'm using now.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by GtrsRGr8

There aren't 33 (the number of volumes of the EB) links for any of the formats, except for the "Pdf" one.

Sorry, I should have been clearer that it was the PDF links specifically that I was referring to. You're right - the other formats appear to be incomplete - but the PDF volumes are all there, and all have meaningful names, such as (for volume 4):

04.EncycBrit.11th.1910.v.4.BIS-CAL..pdf

I was able to download the whole lot in about half an hour. Apologies for the confusion.

The PDFs display very nicely on my iPad Mini.

[GtrsRGr8]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Sorry, I should have been clearer that it was the PDF links specifically that I was referring to. You're right - the other formats appear to be incomplete - but the PDF volumes are all there, and all have meaningful names, such as (for volume 4):

04.EncycBrit.11th.1910.v.4.BIS-CAL..pdf

I was able to download the whole lot in about half an hour. Apologies for the confusion.

The PDFs display very nicely on my iPad Mini.

Thanks.

If you ever want the set in a format other than pdf, I think that a resource near the bottom of the Wikipedia article that I referenced would be helpful. At Wikipedia, you have a list of all of the individual volumes, with individual links to the respective volumes at the Internet Archive. On the page at the Internet Archive for each volume (I'm assuming--it's this way on the first page) you have the option to download the volume in any one of eight formats:
- Read Online
- Pdf
- B/W Pdf
- ePub
- Kindle
- Daisy
- Full Text
- DjVu

If I download in mobi, I think that I'm going to do it via Wikipedia/the Internet Archive, instead of using the Kindle ebooks at Amazon that I mentioned in my first post. I took to heart what someone wrote about those books having poor formatting and containing no images.

[BobC]

British Post World War II Military Campaigns - The Bloody War of Aden:

This book is part of an ongoing series, which describes the exploits of Mark “Mac” Hudson, who held senior rank in British Special Operations Groups. Mac experienced an amazing, but often bizarre military career, which spanned several decades and was held in a number of hot spots of operations around the world; from Cyprus in 1955 to the Falklands War in 1982.

This volume describes the Aden Insurgency, which began in December 1963, and lasted until the end of British rule in the region in 1967.

The book describes how Mac fought the Arab terrorists by using psychological warfare and dirty tactics by pitching one military organization operating in the Federation of South Arabia against the other. Aden soon became the scene of violent atrocities performed by both the Arabs and the British – a bloody battle ground staging a war that neither side would ever win.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/British-Post...dp/B00TNB11R8/

BobC

[Froide]

Originally Posted by BobC

British Post World War II Military Campaigns - The Bloody War of Aden:

This book is part of an ongoing series, which describes the exploits of Mark “Mac” Hudson, who held senior rank in British Special Operations Groups. Mac experienced an amazing, but often bizarre military career, which spanned several decades and was held in a number of hot spots of operations around the world; from Cyprus in 1955 to the Falklands War in 1982.

This volume describes the Aden Insurgency, which began in December 1963, and lasted until the end of British rule in the region in 1967.

The book describes how Mac fought the Arab terrorists by using psychological warfare and dirty tactics by pitching one military organization operating in the Federation of South Arabia against the other. Aden soon became the scene of violent atrocities performed by both the Arabs and the British – a bloody battle ground staging a war that neither side would ever win.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/British-Post...dp/B00TNB11R8/

BobC

Also free in the US of A: http://www.amazon.com/British-Post-W.../?tag=mr061-21

[koland]

New batch from Waxkeep, at least the first few of which are first-time freebies (actually, I believe all 61 are):

http://www.amazon.com/s/?url=search-...lisher=Waxkeep

[GtrsRGr8]

Charles River Editors has four more free ebooks that they're offering today. Typically, if not always, these markdowns only last to midnight EST, I think. Sorry about posting these so late in the day--I just ran across them.

Here are the titles. For the sake of time . . . okay, actually because I'm lazy, (ha) I'll give all of the titles and then a single URL where you can find links to them all:
- The Controversial Flight and Capture of Rudolf Hess: The History and Legacy of the Deputy Fuhrer's Mysterious Peace Mission to Britain.
- The Battle of New Orleans: The History and Legacy of the Last Major Battle of the War of 1812.
- The Post-War Division of Germany and the Construction of the Berlin Wall: The History of the Cold War Split Between East and West.
- American Legends: The Life of Duke Ellington.

Here's the linky.