Im just wondering if anyone has any direct experience building a 1919 in 308 with any of the various kits on the market.  Any experiences you had, pos/neg, along with any other advise when deciding on a kit would be of great help.

Just get an Izzy kit. Most of them have top covers that will work with both belts and links.

It's been almost two years since I built mine, so I have no idea of what is going on on the parts kit market right now.

1919a4.com/

I just purchased my kit from IMA. From what I hear only IMA and SARCO have kits left. SARCO has raised their price to $435 i think. IMA is still charging $299. I'm still in the process of learning how to build the kit. I won't build it until next year probably, so I'm just working on buying spare parts and ammo for it right now.

Can anyone recommend some good books on the 1919?

I have built a few recently. Prices are going through the roof on kits and tripods right now. I you want one and have the the cash buy it now. You can always build it later.
One word of caution. If you can't afford at least 1000 rounds of ammo every time you want to shoot it, you may want to reconsider. Except for test sesions I have never been able to shoot less than 1500 rounds at a time in mine.

Quoted: I have built a few recently. Prices are going through the roof on kits and tripods right now. I you want one and have the the cash buy it now. You can always build it later. One word of caution. If you can't afford at least 1000 rounds of ammo every time you want to shoot it, you may want to reconsider. Except for test sesions I have never been able to shoot less than 1500 rounds at a time in mine.

I did an 8mm conversion right after I built mine. Bought cases and cases of Turk and Romanian