Category: Books

International Book Fair

The International Book Fair is being held in the Kram Fair these days.
We went there yesterday, but as it was late, we only got to see part of it. So we went back today to check out the rest.

Publishers from many countries were present at the fair, but the most were from Lebanon, Egypt, Syria and Tunisia.

I love the book fair, and I never miss it. It’s just great to be between all of those books.
It always amazes me when I think how much knowledge there is in the world. And it makes me happy to see that there a lot of people who still read books and enjoy them.

We spent over 100 Dinars at the fair. A fact I only realized when I got in the car when we were going home. I guess we just got a bit carried away 😛

From what we say, we felt that most people were buying books about religion, novels and kids books.
Not much people were crowding the stands selling books about politics, unlike last year.

What I found funny though is how some people were buying these books that come in a number of volumes, and I’m talking minimum 10 volumes, when I could swear they’d never read them and that they’re just buying them because they’d look good in their librairies 😛

As for me, I bought 3 books about Islam (2 about Islamic teachings, ideals and laws and 1 which provides explanations for the Quran and it’s verses).
I also bought a novel by George Orwell called Nineteen Eighty-Four, which is a view by the writer of a future in which we’re all being watched over by Big Brother. That reminded me a lot of where we’re going today.
I loved George Orwell’s style ever since I read Animal Farm in school, and I’m sure this will be a great read.

I also bought 2 DVDs: The Two Towers and The Usual Suspects (Collector’s Edition). 2 great movies I’ve been dying to get on DVD.

We also bought Kalila & Dimna, a great book I actually have but can’t find. This book was originally written in Indian, translated to Persian and then translated to Arabic. It has a number of short stories using animals as it’s characters but that actually talks about politics, power, greed and other concepts from the real human world.

Another great book I used to have and lost that we bought today is The Book of Misers. This is a really funny book consisting of short stories about people who are anything but generous.

An interesting book my wife bought is called Genetic Engineering in the Quran. I can’t wait to read it too.

It pisses me off that I can’t find as much English books as I wish though. Even the Canadian and American stands had French books only 🙁
I only found some novels at some Tunisian publisher’s stands.
I understand why, but still it pisses me off 😛

I wish I could go back again and buy more books, but I’m going to do my best not to, because If I do, my finances will have a hard time.

Free Culture

Today I’ve started reading Lawrence Lessig’s book “Free Culture” about how big media uses technology and the law to lock down culture and control creativity.

Up to now it seems like quite an interesting read.
I’m rather interested in the topic the book discusses.

Lawrence made this book available for free download here.

I really like the initiatives writers like Lawrence and Cory Doctorow are taking by making their books free to download under a Creative Commons License.
I hope more people follow, not because I like to have stuff for free, but because this way I can learn about these books and get a chance to read them.

Eastern Standard Tribe Review

I finished reading Eastern Standard Tribe last night, and what a read that was.

As I said before, I didn’t really know what to expect before I started reading it, but the first pages gave me some high expectations, and well the book exceeded those expectations.

It’s a really fun read, and I love the way Cory portrays the future and makes it so close, so true and so believable.
I actually share the same vision he has and expect much of the same things to happen.

Also, now that I’m done with the book, the whole idea of a tribe choosing a certain time zone to live in instead of their time zone is really cool and makes a lot of sense.

Cory’s writing style is so catching and indulging. He keeps you inside of the story all throughout the book and paints the world it’s happening in around you.
This is really one of the best books I’ve read lately.

If you’re into futuristic fiction, this is a must.

Eastern Standard Tribe

I just downloaded Cory Doctorow’s book Eastern Standard Tribe yesterday, and started reading it late last night and early this morning.

Even though I’m still in the first pages of the book, It’s really caught my attention, and I can’t wait to read more.
I like the style it’s written in, and the flow it’s going through.

It’s supposed to be a sort of futuristic fiction about a new kind of social group emerging that chooses to abandon its local standard time to live and work in stop with another more desirable one.
I didn’t think that was interesting really when I read it, but when I gave the book a chance and read the first few pages, the style it’s written in captured me.

I will most probably blog again about this when I get deeper into it.