Kitebuilder.com

[KiteSquid]

On subject of buying new and used books, I thought I would share some of my favorite shopping outlets that I could only access due to the internet.

NEW AND USED BOOKS

eBay is one of my favorite places to shop.

NEW BOOKS

Kitelines bookstore is the first place to shop for new books. No better place in the world for kite books of any kind.

http://www.kitelinesbookstore.com/

Best Book Buys is a Meta search of many book sellers. It is best for books that are in print.

http://www.bestwebbuys.com/books/

Book Finder is similar to above but searches some of the same and some different sites:

http://www.bookfinder.com/

ISBN.Nu is the same as above.

http://www.isbn.nu/

ECampus is a retailer whose prices are normally lower that Amazon, but be sure to compare prices INCLUDING shipping: http://www.ecampus.com


USED BOOKS

One of my favorite stores is Powel’s Used Book Store they are on the west cost so shipping to my home in Virginia is a little more:

http://www.powels.com/

ABE Books connects you to hundreds of used books stores. If the book you are searching for is out of print, this may be the best place to look for it. The book sellers have to enter their inventory so the book you are searching for may be on the shelf but not listed or listed and already sold. Read the instructions when purchasing. I have personally bought over a dozen books this way. They also have a wants page where you get an e mail whenever your book is newly listed. I have five books listed right now that I am looking for but have not been able to find at a reasonable price, so I am still shopping:

http://www.abebooks.com/

Also you can try bookfinder:

http://www.bookfinder.com/

Or go to addall:

http://www.addall.com/


ISBN’s

And last, but possibly the world’s largest library, your tax dollars hard at work, the Library of Congress. I wish you luck finding what you want as it is a HUGE inventory. I normally go here as a last resort to find an ISBN for a book. The ISBN is the most accurate way to find a book as it least likely to have typographical errors and is not subject to interpretation. Once I have the ISBN I then go searching at ABE or Powel’s.

http://www.loc.gov/


To support my kite mania, I sometimes want a book that is printed in a foreign language but I have a hard time finding foreign language books anywhere even using ISBN’s as most American book stores don’t stock them and I can’t speak those languages. I am always looking for kite building books in foreign languages, mainly Japanese and Chinese, to add to my library as I can get what I need from the pictures and diagrams.

So how do you find books
_________________
VR/
KiteSquid
AKA TakoIka
AKA Harold
King George VA


P.S. Yet another post by the Squid..... Doesent he ever shut up???

P.P.S. The wind is like the air, only pushier.

[Progcraft]

I have only one book on kites. The Magnificent Book of Kites by Maxwell Eden. This is also the only book I have ever bought sight unseen. I bought it based strictly on your recomendation. And, I'm not disappointed.

Thanks Harold for putting all that information up for us to use!! You the best!

A question. Would this book: http://www.kitelinesbookstore.com/02kb025.html be the same as The Penguin Book of Kites by David Pelham?

P.

[wdrwilson]

Wow,

That's great KS

I am with PC I have the The Magnificent Book of Kites by Maxwell Eden as well... also based on recommendations from other kitebuilders...

(Got it for my B-day last week)

Abes is great.. I just found a bunch of books I am looking for.. And they are local who'd of thought

Cheers,
BW

[KiteSquid]

Progcraft,

Yes it is the Penguin book of kites, or the hundred other names it goes by.

Published by Penguin

Written by David Pelham

I Love the book and along wiht one of the Maxwell Eden books, it is a MUST have.

I HATE the colors of paper it was originaly printed on. I dont know if this edition is diffrent, but a quick e mail to Valerie should tell you. BRIGHT COLORED paper..

There is a thead here somewhere that talks about the top 5 kite books to own...
_________________
VR/
KiteSquid
AKA TakoIka
AKA Harold
King George VA


P.S. Yet another post by the Squid..... Doesent he ever shut up???

P.P.S. The wind is like the air, only pushier.

[Mountain Man]

Well I have 2 books only !

Magnificent book of Kites - Maxwell Eden
Soft Kites and Windsocks - Jim Rowlands


Love both of them and eh Jim Rowlands as my frog Kite ! sometime this winter *grin*
_________________
Bernie
the Mountain Man
Paint the sky...
"Fly a Kite!"

[stevef]

One of these days, I'll get my complete list typed up - I have ALOT that are not on Squids list!

Actually, I am the keeper of Felix Cartegena's Kitebook library. I started cataloging them many years ago, but it kinda got put to the side.

Squid, now all you have to do is give us a database of what is covered in each of the books. I started something like that MANY years ago and actually messed with some software...... I could share it with you if youd like to contribute to it???

Gotta dig that up. It was pretty cool...

-s
_________________
Steve Ferrel
Measure once, buy twice!

[KiteSquid]

Stevef,

I was thinkin of basicaly bringing in the Table Of Contents of each book into a database along with the type of kite i.e. flat, bowed, figure, etc. Also to the types of materials used, so sombody could search for like a paper figure kite and see where some plans are.

I would also like to write up a SHORT review of each book in my library, kinda like what Valerie Govig has done a Kite Lines Book Store but that would take some time to get done.


Mountain Man,

Philip Le Riche has posted a collection of ettea for the Jim Rolands book colected from rec.kites. Here is the URL:

http://www.geocities.com/p_leriche/ffsurvey/fferr.html

Read several times before you build!!!!!!
_________________
VR/
KiteSquid
AKA TakoIka
AKA Harold
King George VA


P.S. Yet another post by the Squid..... Doesent he ever shut up???

P.P.S. The wind is like the air, only pushier.

[Stan]

I have been able to get anything I want from a public library.
Never owned a kite book.


Stan

[KiteSquid]

Stan,

That is GREAT, but I dont live at the end of the earth but you can see it from by porch

In the town I live in the library has 1 kite book and it is in the junivle section.

I am a glutton for information and love having my own library to look things up.

I want a copy of every kite builidng book ever printed and I will probally never reach that goal as there are some that are EXPENSIVE and hard to find, as book collectors are paying top dollar for Parakites by Wolgom ($300+ for a good condition copy) and boy scout collectors are paying big bucks for Paul Garber's kite book that was published by the boy scouts ($150+).

Oh well, it gives me someting to strive for.

I would love to be able to look at Steve F's and Valerie Govig's collections of kite books.
_________________
VR/
KiteSquid
AKA TakoIka
AKA Harold
King George VA


P.S. Yet another post by the Squid..... Doesent he ever shut up???

P.P.S. The wind is like the air, only pushier.

[stevef]

New Kite Making book:


Geared to the Novice Kitebuilder but it is in full color and has several nice pictures of some unusual kites. Unfortunately they fail to credit the kitebuilders so we dont always know who made the kite.

Plans are basic and include the standard Delta, Eddy, Square, Sled, Rokkaku, Cube, Conyne, and Snowflake, but use (mostly) up to date materials. There are also notes on the design of the trains, circoflex, tetrahedral, boats, and dragons.

No plans for stnt kites but there is a little discussion on dual and quad. Under the heading "A modern, fast double line stunt kite", there is a picture of a big clunkey dual lines with plastic tubing for fittings... so they are a little "off" in this area. But overall, for the ovice or the builder just getting started, it is a good book to add to the shelf. However, I still recomend the purchase of Eden's and Gregor's books first.

You can find it HERE
_________________
Steve Ferrel
Measure once, buy twice!