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Did you know that the Library has a huge range of free nonfiction ebooks – 16,000 and counting! – which you can either read online or download for up to seven days?
To get started, browse our latest selection of ebooks and watch this space for new additions. You can also scan the list of past Ebookshelf titles or browse for even more free ebooks ! For tips and advice, watch our video on using ebooks.
To access ebooks from home, you need to be a State Library member with a Victorian home address. (Terms and conditions of use apply.)
And in the end: The last days of the Beatles And in the end: The last days of the Beatles Ken McNab
This is the story of the last acrimonious days of the Beatles, reconstructing for the first time the seismic events of 1969, the year that saw the band reach new highs of musical creativity and new lows of internal strife.
Two years after Flower Power and the hippie idealism of the Summer of Love, the sixties dream had perished. By 1969, violence and vindictiveness had replaced the Beatles’ own mantra of peace and love, and Vietnam and the Cold War had supplanted hope and optimism.
In the midst of this rancour, however, emerged the disharmony of Let it be and the ragged genius of Abbey Road , their incredible farewell love letter to the world.
The life and times of Ward Kimball: Maverick of Disney Animation The life and times of Ward Kimball: Maverick of Disney Animation Todd James Pierce
Besides Walt Disney, no one seemed more key to the development of animation at the Disney Studios than Disney's friend and confidant, Ward Kimball (1914–2002).
In this engaging, cradle-to-grave biography, award-winning author Todd James Pierce explores the life of perhaps the most influential animator of the 20th century, who worked on characters such as Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Jiminy Cricket, the Cheshire Cat and the Mad Hatter.
From the late 1940s to the early 1970s, Kimball established a highly graphic, idiosyncratic approach to animation and became the only animator to run his own in-studio production team largely outside of Walt Disney's direction. The studio allowed Kimball's work to incorporate high art and graphic design as a means of creating new animated forms, which resulted in films that received multiple Academy Award nominations and two awards.
Out-of-style: An illustrated guide to vintage fashions: 19th–21st centuries Out-of-style: An illustrated guide to vintage fashions: 19th–21st centuries Betty Kreisel Shubert
Ranging decade by decade from the 19th through 20th centuries, this book offers a simple way to date photographs and clothing. It also provides background that makes less-accessible histories of costume easier to understand.
This second edition, enhanced with a selection of new photographs, is a valuable resource for costumers, vintage fashion enthusiasts, social historians, genealogists and collectors of nostalgia items. The easy-to-follow format makes it a great browsing book for those unversed in fashion design and history.
The author is a noted fashion historian who has designed clothes and costumes for stage and screen as well as hotels, restaurants and casinos all over the world.
Practice: Journalism, essays and criticism Practice: Journalism, essays and criticism Guy Rundle
Known for his wild wit and irreverent commentary, Guy Rundle is one of Australia's sharpest and most entertaining minds. Practice distils his best writing on politics, culture, class and more.
Rundle roves the campaign trails of Obama and Trump, Rudd and Abbott; rides the Greyhound around a desolate America; bails up Bob Katter and Pauline Hanson; and excavates the deeper meanings of everything from Nirvana to Anzac Day.
Guy Rundle is writer-at-large for Crikey and was previously the editor of Arena magazine.
Public art encounters: Art, space and identity Public art encounters: Art, space and identity Martin Zebracki, Joni M Palmer
This lively collection is a mix of academic and practice-based writings that scrutinise conventional claims on the inclusiveness of public art practice.
Contributions examine how various social differences, across class, ethnicity, age, gender, religion, ability and literacy, shape encounters with public art within the ambits of the design, regeneration and everyday experiences of public spaces.
The chapters draw on case studies from the Global North and South, providing comprehensive insights into the experiences of encountering public art via a variety of scales and realms.
The Seventies: The personal, the political and the making of modern Australia The Seventies: The personal, the political and the making of modern Australia Michelle Arrow
The 1970s was the decade that shaped modern Australia. A tumultuous period of economic and political upheaval, it was also the era when the personal became political, and the boundaries between public and private life were torn down.
Women wanted childcare, equal pay and the ability to shape their own lives. In the process, the reforms they sought reshaped Australia’s culture and rewrote our expectations of government.
In her lively and engaging style, Michelle Arrow has written a new history of this transformative decade; one that is more urgent, and more resonant, than ever.
Everyday chaos: Technology, complexity and how we’re thriving in a new world of possibility Everyday chaos: Technology, complexity and how we’re thriving in a new world of possibility David Weinberger
Artificial intelligence, big data, modern science and the internet are all revealing a fundamental truth: the world is vastly more complex and unpredictable than we've allowed ourselves to see.
Now that technology is enabling us to take advantage of all the chaos it's revealing, and enabling us to harness the complexity of an immense amount of data around us, our understanding of how things happen is changing – and with it our deepest strategies for predicting, preparing for and managing our world.
Through stories from history, business and technology, philosopher and technologist David Weinberger finds the unifying truths lying below the surface of the tools we take for granted.
Breaking and entering: The extraordinary story of a hacker called 'Alien' Breaking and entering: The extraordinary story of a hacker called 'Alien' Jeremy N Smith
Hackers know everything about us. We know almost nothing about them. Until now...
The hacker now known as Alien entered MIT in 1998, intending to major in aerospace engineering. Almost immediately, she was recruited to join a secret student group scaling walls, breaking into buildings, pulling elaborate pranks and exploring computer systems. Within a year, one of her hall mates was dead and two others were arraigned. And Alien's adventures were only beginning.
Breaking and entering is a whirlwind history of the last 20 years of hacking and cybersecurity. As Alien develops from teenage novice to international expert, she joins the secret vanguard of our digitised world, and reveals the forces at work behind our everyday technology.
The PlayStation dreamworld The PlayStation dreamworld Alfie Bown
From mobile phones to tablets and PCs, we are now a generation of gamers. The PlayStation dreamworld argues that the world of videogames is a powerful arena for constructing our desires, one that needs to be protected from the reactionary forces of capitalism.
While cyberspace is increasingly dominated by big corporations, gaming, at its most subversive, can produce radical forms of enjoyment that threaten the capitalist norms endlessly repeated in our daily relationships with mobile phones, videogames, computers and other forms of technological entertainment.
Far from being solely for dedicated gamers, this book dissects the structure of our relationships to all technological entertainment at a time when such entertainment has become ubiquitous. We can no longer escape our fantasies but rather live inside their digital reality.
Honeysuckle Creek: The story of Tom Reid, a little dish and Neil Armstrong's first step Honeysuckle Creek: The story of Tom Reid, a little dish and Neil Armstrong's first step Andrew Tink
Honeysuckle Creek reveals the pivotal role that the Australian tracking station near Canberra played in the first moon landing.
Andrew Tink gives a gripping account of the role of the tracking station's director Tom Reid and his colleagues in transmitting some of the most-watched images in human history as Neil Armstrong took his first step on the moon.
Part biography and part personal history, Tink's book makes a significant contribution to Australia's role in space exploration and reveals a story little known until now.
Quitting plastic: Easy and practical ways to cut down the plastic in your life Quitting plastic: Easy and practical ways to cut down the plastic in your life Clara Williams Roldan with Louise Williams
Where do you start if you want to reduce the plastic in your life? Especially when most of us are wearing it, eating and drinking from it, sitting on it, walking on it, and probably even ingesting it.
The authors didn't quit plastic overnight, but in writing their book they have researched the issue from the grass roots up, speaking to people, and finding out what works and what doesn't. As a result, they've established a friendlier relationship with their local communities, and are eating healthier food and decluttering their lives.
The simple, practical tips in this inspiring guide will help you reduce plastic in your daily life and help the planet too.
One hundred patents that shaped the modern world One hundred patents that shaped the modern world David Segal
What would our world today be like without inventions like tarmac, aspirin, liquid crystals and barbed wire? This guide shows how inventions such as these have shaped the 21st century.
In his book, David Segal provides insights into how inventions, big and small, have had huge impacts on multiple spheres of our lives, from popular culture and entertainment to global health, transportation and the waging of war.
The book features patent documents dating from the mid-19th century to the present day that describe inventions and act as a rich source of information about the current state of modern technology. The inventions described in the patents are also placed in their historical perspective.
Space 2.0: How private spaceflight, a resurgent NASA and international partners are creating a new space age Space 2.0: How private spaceflight, a resurgent NASA and international partners are creating a new space age Rod Pyle
Fifty years since astronauts first walked on the moon, we're on the cusp of a new era in space exploration. We have sent robots to Mars, Venus, Mercury, Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus; sent telescopes into orbit; and charted most of our own planet – but what does the future hold?
No longer the exclusive domain of government entities such as NASA, space exploration is rapidly becoming privatised, with entrepreneurial startups building prospecting craft and even commercial lunar cargo landers to open this new frontier.
From NASA and the Russian space agency Roscosmos, to emerging leaders in the private sector such as SpaceX and Virgin Galactic, the book examines the new partnerships that are revolutionising spaceflight and changing the way we reach for the stars.
Old days, old ways: Stories from my radio days in the bush Old days, old ways: Stories from my radio days in the bush Alex Nicol
Alex Nicol takes us back to the old days in the bush, when booking into a country pub was likely to turn into an adventure, and when radio was the glue that held far-flung communities together.
From the wartime mates who helped each other build farms on their soldier settler blocks, to Possum, the legendary bush hermit who lived off the land on his own for 60 years, these stories are classically Australian, full of colourful characters and bush ingenuity.
With a bush yarn, it's all about the way you tell it – and as the voice of rural Australia for over two decades on ABC radio, Alex Nicol can tell a yarn with a punchline that will keep you grinning for the rest of the day.
On violence Natasha Stott Despoja
Every two minutes, police are called to a family violence matter. Every week, a woman is killed by a current or former partner. This is Australia's national emergency.
Violence against women is preventable – it is not an inevitable part of the human condition. In her book, Natasha Stott Despoja argues that it's time to create a new normal, and stop the slaughter in our suburbs.
The meaning of everything: The story of the Oxford English Dictionary The meaning of everything: The story of the Oxford English Dictionary Simon Winchester
Written by the bestselling author of books including The map that changed the world , this is an enthralling account of the creation of the world's greatest dictionary.
With its 15,490 pages and nearly two million quotations, the 1928 publication of the OED was a monumental achievement, gleaned from the efforts of hundreds of ordinary and extraordinary people who made it their mission to catalogue the English language in its entirety.
Simon Winchester celebrates this remarkable fea, and introduces us to the fascinating characters who played such a vital part in its execution, including James Murray, self-educated son of a draper, who spent half a century guiding the project towards fruition. We also discover why Tolkien found it so hard to define 'walrus'.
