Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Books for Computer and Calculator Collectors Historians

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This is just a short list of books I think are very useful for computer collectors and historians. You can find all these on Amazon.com as used books.  You will always have this list available as a drop down tab at the top my blog.  I put it here as a post because some folks do not look at the tab. Their are many other useful books for computer collectors and if you have a favorite let me know and I will add it to the TAB 'Books for Collectors'.



The PC Pioneers by Bob Denton -ISBN 978-0-9569643-2-8 (2011) 550 pages
Massive amount of information and data - how Bob was able to do this is truly amazing to me. Great read.






"Dealers of Lighting - Xerox Parc and the Dawn of the Computer age"
by Michael A. Hiltzik , published by Harper Business
ISBN 0-88730-891-0  Copyright 1999 548 pages
This is a must read for history buffs -all about the activities of The Palo Alto Research Center - Steve Jobs and Bill Gates got many of their ideas from this group.





ISBN 1-56664-030-x  Copyright 1993 303 pages
This is a fun read and more about Stan's experiences
with microcomputers and the folks making history during his time.  I advertised in the Computer Shopper for many years for historical microcomputers and it was very effective.





"A Collector's Guide to Personal Computers and Pocket Calculators"
by Dr. Thomas F. Haddock published by Books Americana
ISBN 0-89689-098-8 Copyright 1993 365 pages
Very good reference for the early microcomputers and calculators with cross references that are useful to help identify historical microcomputers. This book is rare and is expensive to purchase on the used market. Dr. Haddock donated his personal computer collection to our "Bugbook Historical Microcomputer Museum in July 2003. We are very pleased to have Dr. Haddock's collection.



"Collectible Microcomputers"
by Michael Nadeau  - Published by  Schiffer Publishing Ltd.
ISBN 0-7643-1600-1 Copyright 2003 160 pages
This is a nice and useful book for computer collectors - the photos are of good quality and good description of each computer is very helpful. Currently on Amazon for about $12 used .




"The Complete Collectors Guide to Pocket Calculators"
by Guy Ball and Bruce Flamm Published by Wilson/Branett Publishing
ISBN 1-888840-14-5 Copyright 1997 204 pages
I have more then 1000 calculators in the Bugbook Historical Microcomputer Museum and have found this book very helpful   

"The Complete Historically Brewed"
By David Greelish , Published by Classic Computing Press
ISBN 13 978-0-615-53812-9 Copyright 2011 198 pages
The book  contains all the original 9 issues of  groundbreaking computer history published  in  his 'Historically Brewed' from (1993 to 1997) plus a lot more. David writes about his early interest and how he got his start in collecting and writing about microcomputers.

"the first Apple" by Robert j. Luther, published by MassMedia.mobi Press
ISBN 978-0-9891677-0-3 Copyright 2013 385 pages
 fresh off the press - book is full of interesting and often intriguing interviews of some of the folks associated with the start up of the Apple Computer Company & current Apple 1 owners. Bob has reason to believe the Apple 1 computer he purchased at a Sheriff's Sale in 2004 is the first one sold by the Apple Company to a consumer.  He interviewed many techies, historians and collectors of Apple memorabilia to document his Apple 1 computer. This is a great story of his fortunate find and being the winning bidder.


           Bob Luther tells you in his own voice what inspired him to write his book "the first Apple"

 "Things that count"
Here is work from Jim Falk - his web site http://www.things-that-count.com   Jim has just published Ebook "Things That Count" 195 pages you can down load free from his web site. Jim has a lot of publications and this looks like a new one published March 2014.
Creative Commons License This work by Jim Falk is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License Click on the logo to the left to see the terms on which you can use it.


 I am happy that we are having much warmer weather now it is possible to work out at our Chantilly Farm. We had amateur radio exam's today at our High School Radio Club 'N4FCH' and one person passed his exam for Technician license.  Our ham radio population here in Floyd County, Virginia continues to increase. Hope you enjoy the Computer Blogs -- I am having fun  writing them.
"by David Larsen" KK4WW Computer Collector/Historian

6 comments:

  1. Massive amount of information and data - how Bob was able to do this is truly amazing to me. Great read.
    where to buy a computer

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  2. I put it here as a post because some folks do not look at the tab. Their are many other useful books for computer collectors and if you have a favorite let me know and I will add it to the TAB 'Books for Collectors'.where to buy a computer

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You may be interested in the new website http://things-that-count.com and the free book on the history of calculators which can be downloaded from it.

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  3. Hi Jim - Thank you for this information about your new ebook. You are a prolific writer . Sounds like maybe you are heading into retirement and have more time for things of personal interest. I posted the info and hope to look over the ebook in more detail soon. Dave

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  4. Hi David, thanks for putting the book in your list. I am indeed in "retirement" which specifically means I only do what I want to - which as it turns out continues to be research and writing. http://things-that-count.net is just one of those, but as my most recent contribution is the one that gives me most pleasure right now. Of course, it is informed by the fact that I now have put together a nice collection which works two ways - with the collection helping structure the history, and the history in fact, helping structure the collection!

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    Replies
    1. Hi Jim - Thank you for the comment - your collection sound just great. Do you have any of it on display for the public or just private collection. Dave

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I look forward to your comments and will respond.