Andrew
08-12-2009, 11:30 AM
I don't know why I didn't think of this before, since I've used "Google Books" before for older work (science) books. But a link dudley supplied got me to poking around there again, and what I found was great. You can get full (i.e. download) pdf versions of a bunch of really neat old books, for free. You won't find stuff written in the last 50 years, typically, but you can find old stuff from the 1800's. Reading these books on a computer screen is far from ideal, but in most cases the alternative would be to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars for a rare collector's version of the book. To me, in my current financial situation, free is better!
Anyway, I downloaded about a dozen books last night, including among others Marbury's "Favorite Flies and their Histories" and Dimock's "The book of the tarpon".
I'd certainly suggest others interested in fishing (fly or not) history to check these out. Type in a title of interest, click on "overview" and if the entire book is available for free, you'll see a "Download" button. It will also point you to other related books, which is how I found most of the others.
Anyway, I downloaded about a dozen books last night, including among others Marbury's "Favorite Flies and their Histories" and Dimock's "The book of the tarpon".
I'd certainly suggest others interested in fishing (fly or not) history to check these out. Type in a title of interest, click on "overview" and if the entire book is available for free, you'll see a "Download" button. It will also point you to other related books, which is how I found most of the others.