Wednesday 23 March 2011

My Electronic Military Library - So far....




For my 50th birthday last year SWMBO gave me a Sony PRS 600 ebook reader. This has proven to be an absolute delight as I have been able to download (for free) a veritable library of books that I would otherwise either have no chance of buying or, to be frank, of not wanting to splash the cash! Aside from the complete Sherlock Holmes, Brigadier Gerard, Professor Challenger, a smattering of Sabatini, Dumas, H.G.Wells, Jules Verne etc I have also managed to acquire a number of really useful military titles. These are as follows:

Some Priciples of Maritime Strategy by Julian Corbett
Major Operations during the American War of Independence by A.T. Mahan
Sea Power in the War of 1812 (Volumes 1 and 2) by A.T Mahan
The Gulf and Inland Waters - The Navy in the Civil War (Volume 3) by A.T. Mahan
The Influence of Seapower of History 1660 to 1783 by A.T. Mahan
The River War by W.S. Churchill
The Story of the Malakand Field Force by W.S.Churchill
Afghan Wars 1842 and 1878-80 by Archibald Forbes
The Story of the Barbary Corsairs by Stanley Lane-Poole
The Balkan Wars by Jacob Gould Schurman
Montcalm and Wolfe by Francis Parkman
Famous Sea Fights by John Hale
and of course, Little Wars by H.G. Wells.
Most of these came from http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page but there are many other sources of free ebooks. Whilst a reader will never replace that wonderful freshly printed aroma of a new book; nor will it ever be a substitute for the sheer pleasure of just browsing in a bookshop it is certainly a valuable resource and for portability has no equal.
The Gulf and Inland Waters title is really good and has been a valuable addition to my small collection of books covering the naval actions of the ACW.

2 comments:

Conrad Kinch said...

Great Battles of the 19th Century is also worth a look. It's by Henty, Forbes, Atteridge et al.

David Crook said...

Hi CK,

Many thanks old chap - I shall certainly look out for that one!

All the best,

DC