About six months ago I bought my first e-reader, an Amazon Kindle. To be honest I wasn’t sure if I was going to like it. I didn’t want another gadget that I had to update and troubleshoot when I wanted to do something as simple as read a book. The other big thing was the screen. Like many people I spend most of the day in front of a monitor and didn’t want another back lighted screen in front of me. So after reading about ten books I can safely say the Kindle is awesome. I love it plain and simple. It is very convenient and the e-ink screen is not like a computer screen at all.
One major advantage to an e-reader is being able to load free books. There are tons of free books online whether they be in pdf, epub (nook), or mobi (kindle) format. In order to convert and organize your collection you need to download a free program called Calibre.
I recently came across this free book from the EAA website and thought it was great. It is called Nine Lives by Malvern J. Gross. The book is written by a private pilot who spent most of his life flying. The author passed away in 2010 and I found this article from the Washington Post that does a nice job summarizing his accomplishments. I won’t make a big summary of the book here because that can be found elsewhere.
Mr. Gross was actually an early proponent for the development of Morristown Municipal Airport (KMMU). I thought that was neat considering I currently fly out of MMU and can see how big of an airport it has become and how he had a big role in making that happen.
I liked this book a lot because it shows how you can have a successful and exciting life in aviation without being a commercial or military pilot. Any regular Joe Pilot can break records and cross the country even with a family in tow. So give it a read I think you will enjoy it.
Update:
The EAA recently updated their website and broke the links for the ebook download. I have uploaded the book to my server to continue the author’s wishes of sharing it.