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Textbooks

A-Prompt Version 1.0.6.0 checked. WAI level 'double A'D

  • Included in this listing are both Free Online, and Free Downloadable texts [in various formats e.g. ebooks, .pdf, Word, …]
  • No Outright Recommendation is given for any textbook. Individuals must make their own decision.
  • Textbooks available for purchase at most bookstores Are Not Included.
  • Some textbook links are duplicated on specialist pages [e.g. Mathematics, Science, Economics].
  • Other Subjects includes all subjects not directly falling within the listed major learning areas [e.g. Pharmacy, Nursing, …].
  • Most books are suited to late secondary or, especially, Tertiary levels.
  • Textbook listing are provided under Major Learning Areas, then Specific Areas within these.
  • All sections will be expanded as we become more aware of suitable additions.

General Information

  1. Portals
    These provide listings of links to multiple texts. These may also include other documentation such as lecture notes and tutorials.
    • Bibliomania [Home Page]
      This is the main page, providing access to reference books, classic fiction/dram/… , literature book notes, study guides, articles, interviews and more.
    • CaféScribe
      ‘CaféScribe is all about helping students save money and get better grades. Our digital textbooks and Free MyScribe reader take you where traditional printed media can’t. Think of us as textbooks 2.0.’ You do need to purchase the textbooks, however.
    • Digital Book Index
      ‘Digital Book Index provides links to more than 130 000 title records from more than 1 800 commercial and non-commercial publishers, universities, and various private sites. About 90 000 of these books, texts and documents are available Free.’
    • eBrary
      ‘Discover over 20 000 full-text books in multiple academic and general interest subject areas, sheet music titles and reports. Use our advanced research technology, highlights, bookmarks, annotations and more.’ Note that unless your library has an agreement with eBrary, this is Fee-based.
    • Freeload Press
      ‘Publications available at the Freeload Press site are designed for use in college courses, advanced placement high school courses and for professional reference. Advertising allows us to offer many publications as Free or inexpensive e-book downloads. In some cases, inexpensive print versions of the textbooks [without advertising] are available for purchase.’ Extensive list of subject areas from ‘Accounting’ to ‘Study & Productivity Tools’.
      Highly Recommended !
    • Free Non-business Textbooks
      Probably better known for their business books, but these Free books cover areas from Anthropology to Software and Sociology and beyond. The links lead you to other sources, but cover a wide field.
    • Gradesaver
      [Free Online Study Guides]
      Extensive listing grouped alphabetically for easier access. Download each as a .pdf document. Also has links to articles, writing help and more.
    • Major Online Text Collections by Language
      ‘An increasing number of source texts of interest to researchers are becoming available in electronic format at various sites on the internet. Links to a number of these sites, organized according to language and/or subject [some sites are listed under more than one heading] are provided below. There are also references to specific texts, in particular for unusual languages and unusual texts.’
    • National Academies Press, The
      ‘Read more than 3 000 books online Free ! More than 900 PDFs now available for sale’. Areas from ‘Accounting’ to ‘Transportation & Infrastructure’.
      Highly Recommended !
    • Online Books Page, The
      From the University of Pennsylvania. You can browse by subject term, call number [often Library of Congress] or an alphabetical listing of all subject terms. From the general to very specific topics.
      Highly Recommended !
    • Open Text Book
      ‘Open Text Book is a registry of textbooks [and related materials] which are open - that is Free for anyone to use, reuse and redistribute. It is run by the Open Knowledge Foundation.’
    • Oxford Scholarship Online
      ‘From September 2007 scholars and students will have unrivaled access to online monographs in the core areas of : Biology, Business/Management, Classics, History, Maths, Linguistics, Literature, Physics and Psychology - in addition to the current list of available subjects : Economic and Finance, Philosophy, Political Science and Religion. The complete text of over 1 350 carefully-selected Oxford books available online for the first time.’
    • Perseus Digital Library, The
      ‘Perseus is an evolving digital library, … . Our primary goal is to bring a wide range of source materials to as large an audience as possible.’
    • Pink Monkey
      Study Guides, Booknotes, Online Textbooks for 15 subjects, Literature summary and considerably more.
    • Project Gutenberg
      ‘There are 20 000 Free books in the Project Gutenberg Online Book Catalogue. Project Gutenberg is the oldest producer of Free ebooks on the Internet.’ Covers both fiction & non-fiction. Also try the Australian version, which has some options not available at the US based site.
    • Slippery Rock University
      A compilation of links by the Bailey Library to sources of full-text books as well as several databases [including online versions].
    • Sparknotes
      Study guides [in booklet form] covering a range of areas, predominantly Language based.
    • Textbook Revolution
      ‘Textbook Revolution is the web’s source for Free educational materials. TBR’s mission is to drive the adoption of Free textbooks by teachers and professors. We want to get these books into classrooms.’
    • The Assayer
      ‘The Assayer is the web’s largest catalog of books whose authors have made them available for Free. The site has been around since 2000, and is a particularly good place to find Free books about math, science, and computers.’
    • The Free Textbook Project
      ‘The Free Textbook project is dedicated to creating and sharing educational materials that are Free in cost and Free such that everyone is Free to use, change, and redistribute the materials as long as they give everyone else the freedom to do the same.’
    • Wikibooks
      ‘Wikibooks, a Wikimedia project that was started [ ] with the mission to create a Free collection of open-content textbooks that anyone can edit. Since our founding, volunteers have written about 24 986 modules in a multitude of textbooks.- Grouped in major learning areas, then sub-directories.
    • World Wide School® Library
      A collection of books under major directory headings [e.g. Literature, Social Sciences, Non-English, …] then further sub-divided into sub-directories [e.g. Non-English — French, German, Italian, …].

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Education

  1. Teaching :
    • Blended Learning in K-12
      ‘This book, “Blended Learning in K12”, is an overview of the concept of “blended learning” and how it relates to the integration of technologies in the K-12 environment.’
    • Collaborative Teaching
      [Special Education for Inclusive Classrooms 2000 - 2001]
      10 chapters, References & Links. One chapter may not be relevant to Australian conditions [legal requirements].
    • Helping Children Learn Mathematics
      Quite small [52 pages] text covering reasons why some children are not learning mathematics as well as they should and how this can be overcome. Based on American study.
    • How People Learn
      [Brain, Mind, Experience, and School : Expanded Edition 2000]
      Self-explanatory.
    • Knowing What Students Know
      [The Science and Design of Educational Assessment 2001]
      Self-explanatory.
    • Taking Science to School
      [Learning and Teaching Science in Grades K-8]
      ‘Taking Science to School provides a comprehensive picture of what we know about teaching and learning science from kindergarten through eighth grade. By looking at a broad range of questions, this book provides a basic foundation for guiding science teaching and supporting students in their learning.’
    • Teaching with Style
      [A Practical Guide to Enhancing Learning by Understanding Teaching and Learning Styles]
      A book in .pdf format by Tony Grasha.

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Language [English]

  1. Portals
    Provides listings of links to multiple texts. These may also include other documentation such as lecture notes and tutorials.
    • Bibliomania
      This site contains study guides and links to novels by specified authors. For example the link to Charles Dickens has brief notes and links to 18 novels, 4 specific study guides and a set of further notes.
    • Bob Jensen’s Links to Electronic Literature
      Links organised in directories including textbooks, other books and authors, multimedia, journals and electronic books, to name a few.
    • Code of the Debater
      An ebook on the various skills and techniques of debating.
    • FreeBooknotes
      ‘Free book notes, chapter summaries, literature notes and study guides for 250+ books’.
    • Paradigm
      [Online Writing Assistant]
      ‘Paradigm is an interactive, menu-driven, online writer’s guide and handbook written in HTML and distributed freely over the WWW. It uses hypertext structure to create a web of links and text frames that you can navigate quickly and easily by clicking your desired choice. Paradigm is intended to be useful for all writers, from inexperienced to advanced.’
    • Read Print
      Primarily Literature, covering most of the famous classical authors from Louisa M. Alcott to William Butler Yeats. There are also other authors including Charles Darwin and Niccolo Machiavelli and links to articles related to the area.
  2. Australian Literature :

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Mathematics

  1. Portals
    Provides listings of links to multiple texts. These may also include other documentation such as lecture notes and tutorials.
    • Free Online Textbooks, …
      [Plus Lecture Notes, Tutorials, and Videos on Mathematics]
      Extensive listing, broken down into specific aspects of Mathematics. Each entry is clearly, and well, annotated.
    • Mathematics Books Online
      A selection of non-annotated links to both portals and individual titles.
    • Mathematics : Online Texts
      A listing of some 180 texts, compiled by the Open Directory Project. A mix of basic, introductory works with some more esoteric examples.
    • Online Mathematics Textbooks
      Nearly 70 links to online texts that are Free to use. They cover all areas of mathematics from Calculus to an Introduction to Vectors … .
    • Online Science and Math Textbooks
      Extensive listing, each with brief annotation. Also has connections to other textbook portals.
    • Textbooks in Mathematics
      ‘A list of links to useful mathematical textbooks available for Free on the Internet. They are all legal and maintained by their authors or by the legitimate publisher. All the documents are in English. They are in a printable format. You are Free to download, read and print them. Here are some links to other sites offering lists of Free mathematical textbooks.’ Covers everything from General Mathematics to Number Theory.
  2. Algebra :
    • Elementary Algebra with Applications
      An online text with similar contents to those in ‘Understanding Algebra’.
    • Elements of Abstract and Linear Algebra
      ‘This is a foundational textbook on abstract algebra with emphasis on linear algebra. You may download parts of the book or the entire textbook. It is provided Free online in PDF, DVI, postscript, and gzipped postscript.’
    • Linear Algebra [1]
      ‘This text, Linear Algebra, is Free for downloading. It covers an undergraduate first course, with a prerequisite of Calculus I. You can use it either as a main text, or as a supplement to another text, or for independent study. A separate file with all answers, fully worked, is also Freely downloadable.’
    • Linear Algebra [2]
      ‘An Introduction to Linear Algebra for Pre-Calculus Students,’
    • Understanding Algebra
      ‘This text is suitable for high-school Algebra [ ], … a refresher for college students who need help preparing for college-level mathematics, or for anyone who wants to learn introductory algebra.’
  3. Calculus :
    • Advanced Calculus
      A text by Lynn Loomis and Schlomo Sternberg. Available in .pdf format through Harvard University.
    • Calculus
      An online text by Gilbert Strang. From MIT Open Courseware. It also has both an Instructor’s manual and a student Study Guide.
    • Calculus on the Web
      Done by an American university, there are 7 books in this group from ‘Precalculus’ through to ‘Number Theory’ and ‘Abstract Algebra’.
  4. General Mathematics :
    • An Introduction to the Theory of Numbers
      ‘This book, … is an expanded version of a series of lectures for graduate students on elementary number theory. Topics include : Compositions and Partitions; Arithmetic Functions; Distribution of Primes; Irrational Numbers; Congruences; Diophantine Equations; Combinatorial Number Theory; and Geometry of Numbers.’ Written by Leo Moser.
    • Basic Concepts of Mathematics
      [Elias Zakon]
      ‘This book helps the student complete the transition from purely manipulative to rigorous mathematics. The clear exposition covers many topics that are assumed by later courses but are often not covered with any depth or organization … The many exercises and optional topics … allow the instructor to adapt this book to many environments and levels of students.’
    • Chaos Hypertextbook, The
      [Mathematics in the Age of the Computer]
      ‘I wrote this book for anyone with an interest in chaos, fractals, non-linear dynamics, or mathematics in general. It’s a moderately heavy piece of work, requiring a bit of mathematical knowledge, but it is definitely not aimed at mathematicians.’
    • Computational Introduction to Number Theory and Algebra, A
      ‘A book introducing basic concepts from computational number theory and algebra, including all the necessary mathematical background. … , the book will continue to be freely available online in PDF format under a Creative Commons license.’
    • Dave’s Short Trig Course
      16 chapters from ‘Who Should Take This Course ?’ via ‘Applications of trigonometry’ and ‘The trigonometric functions and their inverses’ to ‘Summary of trigonometric identities’.
    • The Golden E-Book of Graphs of Mathematical Functions
      ‘This free E-Book is an introduction to the transcomplex surfaces. It begins with simple algebraic and trigonometric tridimensional surfaces. It ends with an application of the equiangular spiral of the transcomplex exponential function to the problem of interplanetary journeys.’

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Other Languages [includes ESL/TESL/TEFL]

  1. Portals
    Provides listings of links to multiple texts. These may also include other documentation such as lecture notes and tutorials.
    • ESL : Online Textbooks
      From general to very specific, beginning courses to readers. Some require freely available plug-ins such as Flash players.
    • Teaching English with Information Technology [2005]
      11 chapters and four appendices covering all aspects of this.
    • Tell Me More
      ‘This is a complete online version of an English textbook written for speakers of Korean. Most of the textbook can be also used by non-Korean speakers. By Andrew Finch and Hyun Tae-duck.’ 12 chapters [12 each for students and for teachers] plus extra information.

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Other Subjects

  1. Accountancy :
    • Accounting Malpractice.com
      A primer to ‘address fundamental malpractice issues and new, emerging professional and legal liability risks brewing right now’. Online and can be accessed by titled chapters.
    • Financial Accounting
      Multiple sections and sub-sections. Downloadable .pdf format.
  2. Medicine :
    • FreeBooks4Doctors
      [Free Medical Books Online]
      600+ medical books available Free online ‘FreeBooks4Doctors ! is dedicated to the promotion of Free access to medical books over the Internet’. Full text, many from recent years and in several languages.
    • eMedicine, Welcome to
      ‘The original open access comprehensive medical textbook for all clinical fields, [with] 10 000 Contributors, 59 Specialties, 6 500 Articles.’
    • Medical Textbooks Online
      From Medic8® Medical Directory. A listing of texts under medical topics from ‘Anaesthesia’ to ‘Surgery’. Also links to other textbook sites and further medical information.
    • Online Medical Textbooks
      Annotated links to ‘Online medical textbooks, online medical reference, general medical textbooks’.
    • Student Bookworld
      ‘Free online medical textbooks and resources [from Anaesthetics to Transfusion].’ Links also to a small group of blogs.
    • Virtual Anaesthesia Textbook
      ‘The goal of the Virtual Anaesthesia Textbook is to organise all internet resources on anaesthesia into one concise, textbook style website.’
  3. Microbiology :
  4. Pharmacology :
    • Basic Pharmacokinetics
      ‘Go to the .pdf version of the book. Several universities have adopted this as a required text and it will be maintained for the foreseeable future.’
    • Clinical Pharmacology
      Entire textbook covering concepts, drug therapy [in the elderly], pharmacodynamics and pharmakinetics.
  5. Psychology :
  6. Statistics :
    • Concepts and Applications of Inferential Statistics
      ‘A Free, full-length, and occasionally interactive statistics textbook.’
    • Elementary Concepts in Statistics
      ‘The Electronic Textbook begins with an overview of the relevant elementary (pivotal) concepts and continues with a more in depth exploration of specific areas of statistics, organized by “modules”, accessible by buttons, representing classes of analytic techniques. A glossary of statistical terms and a list of references for further study are included.’
    • HyperStat Online Statistics Textbook
      18 chapters covering all basic topics, plus links to a glossary, financial analysis tools, exercises and problems, humour and more.
    • Introductory Statistics
      [Concepts, Models, and Applications]
      Extensive table of contents.
    • StatNotes - Online Textbook
      ‘Main’ and ‘Additional’ Topics. Note the copyright statement on the home page.
    • Statsoft [The Statistics Homepage]
      ‘The Electronic Textbook begins with an overview of the relevant elementary [pivotal] concepts and continues with a more in depth exploration of specific areas of statistics, organized by modules, accessible by buttons, representing classes of analytic techniques. A glossary of statistical terms and a list of references for further study are included.’

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Science

  1. Biology :
    • EverythingBio
      ‘Welcome to EverythingBio.com, a Free resource of biology related information [including textbooks]’. Use the Search Box and then select ‘Textbooks’ from Category choices, to access a wide range of texts from NCBI in the US.
    • Kimball's Biology Pages
      ‘The pages represent an online biology textbook. A[ ] disadvantage of printed textbooks is the inevitable delay between the time that new advances in biology are reported and the time that they can become incorporated in a printed book [often several years]. Material here can be updated promptly. [ ] Although some of this information has been drawn from the sixth edition of the author's text Biology published in 1994 by Wm. C. Brown, every effort has been made to adapt the material to the opportunities provided by an online text.’
    • On-Line Biology Book, An
      59 chapters based on ‘modified lecture outlines I have developed’.
    • MIT Biology Hypertextbook
    • The Online Books Page
      ‘A listing of Biology texts from a variety of sources.’
  2. Chemistry :
    • CHEMystery
      ‘We have created CHEMystery, a virtual chemistry textbook, to provide an interactive guide for high school chemistry students. In addition, CHEMystery allows you to further expand your chemistry knowledge by letting you interact with other Internet resources on the World Wide Web.’ Some areas have audio accompaniment.
    • The Basics of NMR
      Written by Joseph P. Hornak. Has 11 chapters from ‘The Mathematics of NMR’ through to ‘Advanced Spectroscopic Techniques’ plus Glossary, List of Symbols, References, Usage Statistics and more. 2002
  3. Genetics :
    • Genes & Disease
      18 sections of a book relating to different diseases and the relationship of gene science to them. Downloadable as a .pdf file.
    • new !Genes, Technology and Policy
      ‘This primer discusses the science and policy issues surrounding the use of modern biotechnology. It provides a snapshot of its benefits as well as concerns regarding its potential negative impact on the environment and on human health.’
    • Human Genetics
      Done by the Department of Molecular Genetics at the University of Illinois.
  4. Physics :
    • A Radically Modern Approach to Introductory Physics
      This is the 2004 edition and covers a vast range of information done in ‘chapters’. Under the GNU Free Documentation License.
    • Calculus-Based Physics
      ‘Calculus-Based Physics is an introductory physics textbook designed for use in the two-semester introductory physics course typically taken by science and engineering students.’ Done under the Creative Commons process.
    • Light and Matter
      Free, downloadable books on physics. Also Free software, Mac as well.
    • Newtonian Physics
      Downloadable in .pdf format by section or in toto. You can also purchase hard copies if you wish. There are also links [l/h side] to other online Physics texts including Conservation Laws, Optics, The Modern Revolution in Physics and more. Each can be handled the same way.
    • Online Physics Textbooks
      Covers texts on topics from Magnetic Resonance Imaging to Space Physics.
    • Physics231
      An extensive listing of information in the area of optics and light.
    • Space Physics Textbook
      Extensive chapters form this textbook online from a Finnish university. Presentation is in English.
    • Textbooks in Mathematics
      ‘A list of links to useful mathematical textbooks available for Free on the Internet.’ Scroll down to the sections on Mathematical Physics and Physics.’
    • Wikibooks : Physics Bookshelf
      ‘The open-content textbooks collection.’ Listed alphabetically, by level [middle school to postgraduate levels] and a range of external links.

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Social Sciences

  1. Economics :
    • Economics Net-TextBook, The
      ‘The Economics Net-TextBook is an online tutorial for students of economics classes of all levels. The learning environment [ ] encourages active learning. Economic principles are illustrated with online graphics [ ] providing an electronic blackboard that may be changed with a click. A text-engine generates embedded narrative explaining the concepts depicted by the graphical models.’
    • Free Business Textbooks Internet Library
      Covers areas such as Accounting, Economics, Finance, Marketing and Mathematics.
    • Library of Economics & Liberty, The
      Has an extensive section of online books from John Baden to Philip H. Wickstead.
    • Online Economics Textbooks
      Covers ‘General Economics’, ‘Introductory Economics’, ‘Macroeconomics’, ‘Microeconomics’, ‘Econometrics’, and a number of other specific aspects.
    • A PEDestrian's Guide to the Economy
      ‘As a handy reference source, it provides answers to many of the most asked, a few of the least asked, and some of the never asked questions about the economy.’
  2. History :
    • Australian Literary and Historical Texts
      ‘Welcome to the SETIS collection of more than 300 Australian literary and historical texts. This page includes a listing in alphabetical order by author’s name, as well as keyword search and browse by category pages.’ Includes explorer’s journals and more.
    • Historical Text Archive, The
      Contains 70 books [ebooks] listed in directories from ‘Africa’ to ‘World War II’.’
    • Internet History Sourcebooks Project, The
      ‘The Internet History Sourcebooks Project is a collection of public domain and copy-permitted historical texts presented cleanly [without advertising or excessive layout] for educational use.’
    • Manners, Custom and Dress …
      [During the Middle Ages and During the Renaissance Period]
      From Project Gutenberg.

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Technology & Computing

  1. Portals
    Provides listings of links to multiple texts. These may also include other documentation such as lecture notes and tutorials.
    • Free Computer Books, … [1]
      [Tutorials & Lecture Notes]
      Search through 9 major areas, each with multiple sub-directories [e.g. Languages has 34], links to Maths Books, IT References, Other Book Sites, FAQs and even IT jobs. Very extensive.
    • Free Computer Books [2]
      [For Programming, Web Development, Networking, Operating Systems, Admin., etc.]
      4 pages of links to sources of books, tutorials and other sources of information, with a heavy weighting on textbooks. Covers all areas as indicated.
    • FreeTechBooks.com
      ‘Free computer science and engineering books [+ lecture notes].’
    • O’Reilly Open Books
      An array of books, some now out of print relating to areas of computing and other aspects of technology. Most done under the Creative Commons process.
    • Science Ebooks
      ‘Science-ebooks.com has developed four Free interactive, online methods of teaching system troubleshooting.’ Also links to a collection of circuit animations and an ezine.
    • Tech Books for Free
      ‘Free books on technology subjects’ Exceptionally well annotated listing covering multiple pages. Some individual titles listed have been included below.
  2. Computing :
    • Building Accessible Websites
      A book by Joe Clark. Created in 2003 and covering all aspects of this important field.
    • Green Tea Press
      ‘Welcome to Green Tea Press, publisher of How to Think Like a Computer Scientist : Learning with Python. How to Think… is a Free textbook available under the GNU Free Documentation License. Readers are Free to copy and distribute the text.’
    • How to Build a Successful Website
      Contents range from ‘Choosing a Site Model’ through to areas such as an ‘Affiliate Program Primer’. Very extensive and full. Done in 2003.
    • How To Design Programs
      [An Introduction To Programming and Computing]
      ‘This introduction to programming places computer science in the core of a liberal arts education. Unlike other introductory books, it focuses on the program design process. This approach fosters a variety of skills — critical reading, analytical thinking, creative synthesis, and attention to detail — that are important for everyone, not just future computer programmers. All the book’s support materials are available for Free on the Web. The Web site includes the environment, teacher guides, exercises for all levels, solutions, and additional projects.’ From MIT, 2002 version.
    • Introduction to Machine Learning
      By Nils Nilsson from Stanford University. Available online via chapters, or as a .pdf download. Circa 2005.
    • Practical Theory of Programming, A
      ‘You can download the book in four parts, in your choice of .pdf or .ps format …. You can also download the lecture visuals, in .pdf format.’ Also available in Chinese.
    • Programmer's Introduction to PHP 4.0, A
      16 chapters from the Introduction through ‘Variables and Data Types’, ‘Strings and Regular Expressions’ ‘PHP and Dynamic Site Development’, to the final chapter on Security.
    • Software Engineering for Internet Applications
      MIT Press 2006. ‘This is the textbook for the MIT course ‘Software Engineering for Internet Applications’ … for juniors and seniors in computer science. We assume that they know how to write a computer program and debug it. We do not assume knowledge of any particular programming languages, standards, or protocols.’
    • Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs
      The complete book is available in HTML and there are also downloadable assignments, code, Instructor’s Manual, plus some other general information.
    • Web-Teaching, 2nd Edition
      20 chapters, a glossary and references [also URLs]. Chapters range from ‘Research on Teaching : Web Issues’ through to ‘Multimedia Classrooms : Lecturing’ and beyond. Covers every aspects of teaching and technology usage.

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The Arts

  1. Art :
    • Art, Design & Visual Thinking
      ‘An Interactive Textbook’ covering all aspects of art including elements, principles, creativity, media and more.
    • Art History
      A Preface and 9 chapters. From Wikibooks.
    • Out of Eden : Essays on Modern Art
      An introduction, 12 chapters and a selected bibliography are provided. Chapters include ‘Killing Moonlight : The Futurists’, ‘Matisse’s Broken Circle’ and ‘Notes on Photography’.
  2. Music :

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