New Books-13: "Reminiscences of Swami Brahmananda"

New Books-12: "Upanishads in Daily Life"

Courtesy: The Vedanta Kesari, Feb.2009

Book of the day-9: "The Mind of Mahatma Gandhi"

This is an Encyclopedia of Gandhi's Thoughts compiled by M/s.Prabhu and Rao. Gandhiji's thoughts on various topics like Truth, Peace, Fearlessness, Love, Non-Violence, Vegetarianism, Celibacy, Democracy, Simplicity, Sarvodaya, Trusteeship, Self-reliance and many others are available in this book in his own words. It has 15 chapters covering 96 subjects and runs to 496 pages.

The printed book published by Navjeevan Trust, Ahmedabad-380014, India and priced at Rs.100/- can be obtained from the publishers and other Gandhian booksellers.

An online version is made available through courtesy of MKGandhi.org.(http://www.mkgandhi.org/momgandhi/encyclopedia.htm)

Those who are interested in Gandhian Thoughts can give this a try.

Grateful thanks to M/s.Prabhu and Rao and MKGandhi.org.

Book News-24: "Gandhiji's Autobiography: 38 lakh copies sold!"

PTI, quoting Mr.Jitendra Desai, Chairman of the Navjivan Trust, copyright holders of Gandhiji's writings so far, says that nearly 38 lakh copies of Gandhiji's Autobiography, "My Experiments with Truth" have been sold so far.

Grateful thanks to PTI.

Interview-4: Professor S.Raghunathan

(Professor S. Raghunathan, MTech from IIT, KGP, is the former Director of Computer Centre, Alagappa University, Karaikudi, Tamil Nadu. He is a great lover of books and a principled teacher. He has varied interests – Books, Music, Education, Philosophy and Holistic Medicine. He has a wonderful collection of books and carnatic music. He is soft-spoken and is an inspiring counsellor. Now he resides in Bangalore and can be contacted on his mobile: 99029 52539).

1. What are your interests? What type of books do you read?
My interests are Books, Music, Philosophy, Education and Medicine. I study books which are inspirational and ennobling.

2. What book did you read last?
'The Power of Concentration' by Theron Q. Dumont.

(www.globusz.com/ebooks/Concentration/index.htm)

3. You are a busy man. How do you find time to read books or when do you generally read books? Is there a specific time which you devote to books?
I get up around 3 am and study up to 6 am daily. Whenever I am free and alone, I spend the time with books.

4. Which is your all-time favourite book(s)? Why?
Rajaji’s UPANISHADS

(http://kirtimukha.com/surfings/Upanishads/index.htm)

and Arian’s DISCOURSES OF EPICTETUS(http://classics.mit.edu/Epictetus/discourses.html) .

They teach us how to live life fully.

5. Who is your favourite writer(s)? Why?
My favourite writer is Rajaji. His books are all inspirational. His words are simple and at once powerful.

6. Is there an unforgettable book in your life?
My most unforgettable book is ENCHIRIDION OF EPICTETUS.

(http://classics.mit.edu/Epictetus/epicench.html)

7. Why do you call it unforgettable?

ENCHIRIDION taught me 'the art of living', especially, sections 1, 5, 11, 33, and 46.

8. Is there a book which you read again and again? If so, why?
I study repeatedly, James Allen's BYWAYS OF BLESSEDNESS

(http://www.globusz.com/ebooks/Blessedness/)

to draw inspiration and to recharge my personality.

9. Is there a book(s) which you feel everybody should read?
Those who study James Allen's BYWAYS OF BLESSEDNESS and live accordingly will be a blessing to the world around them.

10. Would you like to say something or add anything else to this interview?

Books like BHAGAVAD GITA or THIRUKKURAL are like PRANA, so essential to life, that they are always taken for granted!

(Grateful thanks to Professor Raghunathan for the above interview - Suri)

Public Domain: Europeana is back online

Good news to book-lovers! Remember Europeana, the portal which offered around 2 million digital items. It was launched on November 21, 2008 and crashed on the same day due to 10 million hits per hour! It is back now. As I have registered myself with them, they have sent a notification informing me that it is back in action again. So those who want to try, can click:

www.europeana.eu

As I have recorded in my earlier post, Europeana is a search platform for a collection of European digital libraries with digitized paintings, books, films and archives. The project was initiated by the European Commission. The Library contains around two million digital items, all of them already in public domain.

I repeat for the sake of bloggers, all the 2 million items are in the PUBLIC DOMAIN, which means you can use, re-use, distribute, re-distribute, excerpt and probably modify also; of course, with ncessary credit/attribution. Sort of bonanza, what you think!

The project aims to have 10 million works by 2010, when Europeana is due to be fully operational.

Public Domain: "The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi"

The Publications Division has so far brought out 100 volumes based on the collected works of Mahatma Gandhi. These run to 50,000 pages! For those who want to do a systematic study or thorough research on Gandhiji, this is a great boon. The good news is all these volumes are available online free. All these pages have been beautifully arranged chronologically and indexed conveniently for the benefit of the users.

They are available at:

http://www.gandhiserve.org/cwmg/cwmg.html

Grateful thanks to GandhiServe.org and the Publications Division of the Govt of India.

Public Domain: "Gandhiji's Works come to Public Domain!"

The copyright on the works of Gandhiji has expired and so his works come into the public domain. It is a good news to all book-lovers as well as those revere the Mahatmaji. They can now read his works free online and download, copy, distribute and even publish them.

The copyright for Gandhiji's works were with Navajivan Trust. As per copyright law, 60 years after the death of a person, his works automatically the copyright expires and the works come into the public domain.

Book News-22: "Sahitya Akademi awards for 21 Literateurs"

Seven Novelists, six poets, five short story writers and three critics have been chosen for the National Sahitya Akademi awards for this year. The coveted award carries a cash prize of Rs.50,000/- and an engraved copper plaque, will be given away on February 17, 2009.

The awardees are: K.A.Appan (a well-known critic for his collection of essays in Malayalam), Govind Mishra (for his Hindi novel, 'Kohre Mein Kaid Rang'), Rita Choudhury (Assamese novelist), Vidya Sagar Narzary (Bodo), Srinivas B.Vaidya (Kannada), Ashok Kamat (Konkani), Shyam Manohar (Marathi), Mitetr Sain Meet (Punjabi), Sarat Kumar Mukhopadhyay (Bengali), Champa Sharma (Dogri), A.O.Memchoubi (Manipuri), Pramod Kumar Mohanty (Oriya), Om Prakash Pande(Sanskrit), Jayant Parmer(Urdu), Suman Shah(Gujarati), Shri 'Kirat' (Nepali), Dinesh Panchal(Rajasthani), Badal Hemba(Santhali), Melaanmai Ponnusamy (Tamil), Nabi Aatash(Kashmiri), Hiro Shewkani(Sindhi).

Awards for Telugu and Maithili to be announced.

Source: The Hindu, Madurai (Date not available).

Grateful thanks to The Hindu.

Book News-21: "Cellphone Novels"

Cellphone Novels have become very popular in Japan. Most of the best-selling novels in Japan can be downloaded in mobile phones and a lot of Japanese are actually doing it. It seems to have become a favourite pastime of the Japanese. Further, the fever is catching up in the USA also. So another new use for the cellphone has been found. At this rate, the days are not far off when every individual in the world will be having a mobile in his pocket. There are many sites about cellphone novels now. I have given some links below, besides a link to the Wikipedia article on Cellphone Novels.

Wikipedia article on "Mobile Phone Novel":
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phone_novel

"Novels on your phone" from futureofthebook.org:
http://www.futureofthebook.org/blog/archives/2005/03/novels_on_your_phone.html

"Cell phones put to novel use" from Wired.com:
http://www.wired.com/gadgets/miscellaneous/news/2005/03/66950

New York Times article on cell phone novels from New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/20/world/asia/20japan.html

Blog about U.S. mobile phone novel site:
http://www.textnovelblog.com/

U.S. mobile phone novel website:
http://www.textnovel.com/

iPhone & mobile novel website:
http://www.quillpill.com/

Grateful thanks to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, Futureof theBook.org, Nytimes.com, TextNovelBlog.com and Quillpill.com.