Books - collectable - usable

A place to keep track of reference material - any particularly useful books, articles, etc. should be listed here.
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Richard Hull
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Books - collectable - usable

Post by Richard Hull »

I know that most on this list acquire books for knowledge only, but a few acquire for knowledge and the sake of collectability as well. For collectability, condition, completeness of editions and printings are also assests. I mix and match these goals. While not even remotely an anally retentive collector, some books that are especially good or fascinate me, I seek to obtain in most editions, if not printings. I doubt if I have 6 different books in this category. I DO collect in quantity sometimes as trading stock or to let my pristine copy of a book reside in my nice technical library while an old highlighted wreck of a copy is in the lab's library for immediately reference in the heat of battle. These are stained with everything from acid to pepsi.

Unfortunately, about 5 wonderful books elude me due to price and rarity. I do have 3 of them in xerox GBC bound (I have a GBC binder). Needless to say, I don't really need those 3 xerox'd versions in original form for the contained knowledge, but the possesion of rarities is a nice touch to any fine library.

Tim Raney and I sort of revel in our libraries, which are quite similar in many ways, though small by most reference library standards, (<200 books). You can rest assured that there is nothing but valuable hard nose science books in them that relate to the doing and the physical realities of making stuff work or happen.

Others on this list also have libraries of sorts as well. Those young enough and smart enough might do well to start at a younger age than we, a valuable reference library. Well bound, paper books may, one day, be a thing of the past. The older texts are rich beyond the imagination in detailed processes not found in many post 1960s books.

Richard Hull
Progress may have been a good thing once, but it just went on too long. - Yogi Berra
Fusion is the energy of the future....and it always will be
The more complex the idea put forward by the poor amateur, the more likely it will never see embodiment
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Mike Veldman
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Re: Books - collectable - usable

Post by Mike Veldman »

The thing I like most about the older references is the research contained within seemed to be accomplished with more readilly available materials and equipment, and the actual concepts are more than likely presented in words without using math as a language. So much of what I read in the later stuff will substituite pages of formulae for an adequate discussion of the physical of the experiment. My day job causes me to suffer through this quite a bit. I get a lot of the "we can't tell them using a framastat from a 57 plymouth, a wobulator from a maytag washing machine and a heat element from a bunn commercial coffee maker you clarified yogurt, we need to be more high tech, if we tell them that anyone could make one." The trend towards "materials unobtanium" is rediculis to me. And the obutse discussion of the concepts has been a point of contention with me since college. Anyway, rant aside I just wanted to echo the value in collecting old texts for ones own research library.
mike
I tried to contain myself, but I escaped.
raneyt
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Re: Books - collectable - usable

Post by raneyt »

Guys,

Well, my technical library is just about at the 300 mark. I don't have multiple copies of any. I just ordered two on direct energy conversion and energy conversion (1970's texts). I have a mix of old and new. Another book due is on machining practices.

If I can't find the information in my library, I can find it on the Internet. If not, I'll do an experiment. Fun way to keep busy.

Reagrds,

TIM RANEY
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