Books

Professor O L Nagabushana Swamy had translated Rilke's "Letters To A Young Poet" to Kannada. This came as a book last week, titled "ಯುವಕವಿಗೆ ಬರೆದ ಪತ್ರಗಳು" at Gandhi Sahithya Sangha, Malleshwaram. I usually stay away from public events, but this one was an exception. Rashtrakavi G S S was there, and so were several familiar faces. I also got a chance to meet several members from Sampada community.

I finally got my copy of Pro Drupal Development yesterday. Drupal has changed lives of many in past several years, and mine isn't different. It was not just the curiosity about what's in the book that made me buy it, but also the opportunity the book provides in filling gaps of what you might have overlooked in hurry. I've been reading through the book whenever I've had time for past one day. The book looks well structured and simple.

The final book in the Harry Potter series was the best of all. Mystery, magic, twists and turns - they were all there but with much more intensity. By the time I got my pre-ordered copy this morning at Strand Book stall, I had already finished reading the complete book.

Finally, something we had planned for a long time now has been getting its shape. [:http://sampada.net/docs/2898/the_best_of_sampada|Best of 'Sampada'] is a book that you can read on-line comprising of the very best Kannada articles posted during last two years on Sampada. All articles have been classified under the taxonomies they were tagged in. Feedback, suggestions for improvement [:http://sampada.net/contact|are all welcome].

[:http://dli.iiit.ac.in/|Digital Library of India] has been unveiled, but with a shocker of an interface. But not much can be expected out of a "Government of India" project, as they always manage to find just the right technologies (or people?) for their job (Why, e-governance in India is all ready to go Microsoft's way. When M$ boasts riches, we can all show our kids its logo and say that our government of poor people is one of their key customers). They use TIFF format for image scans of thousands of books probably from libraries all over India.

Carthik has made a list of very nice non-fiction books here: http://blog.carthik.net/vault/2004/11/21/non-fiction-books/ Check them out.