Archery

Tim Baker's chapter on 'Bow Design and Performance' in volume one is easily worth the price of the book (or two or three). The result of years of bow making experiments (never sold a bow, just did it for the hell of it), Tim figured out and layed down the physics to an extent and with a clarity that blew away many of the myths that made people think bow-making was hard. This inspired thousands of regular folks as well as professional bowmakers to make excellent bows from wood they had growing in their backyards or could pick up at the lumber store! There are many more excellent chapters and authors in both volume one and two. All the basics are covered exceptionally well, though the changing authors makes the information a bit scattered. I recommend getting both, but if you can only afford one, get the first one. There is a third volume, which has some good additional info, but isn't nearly as essential.