3 Free eBooks - January 2015

There are so many good eBooks available these days. My favorite source is the Internet Archive because it brings together other repositories and displays them in several formats. I like the ‘Read Online’ format when I am read on my laptop and PDF when I reading on my tablet. The Kindle and Full Text formats often are not as good because the transition from the image to digital text is not corrected….and I prefer to have the illustrations inact!

Bezold, Carl. Ninive und Babylon. Bielefeld und Leipzig: Verlag con Velhagen & Klafing. 1903. Available from the Internet Archive here. I wondered as I looked at the black and white photographs how many of these items were still whole and close to where they were originally found. In the early 1900s archaeologists carted items back to their native countries. The trend now it to keep items of material culture closer to where they are found --- although that is problematic when wars erupt and the museums and sites are caught up in the destruction such as in Iraq and Syria in recent years.

Burn, Barbara (editor). Masterpieces of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. 2006. Available from the Internet Archive here. So many treasures….a ‘coffee table’ book with lots of wonderful photographs. Last month I included a Degas ebook from the museum (and from their site); I was surprised, and thrilled, that so many of the museum’s books are also on the Internet Archive!

Bois, D. Atlas des plantes de jardins et d'appartements exotiques et européenes. Paris: Klincksieck. 1896. Available on the Internet Archive here. I can’t resist books of botanical prints. Many are easily recognizable - like the hibiscus below.