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Newsletter Number 2 • December 1, 2004
Many people go to their neighborhood independent bookstore because they trust the judgment and knowledge of the owner and the employees. Regular customers often walk in and ask the proprietor to suggest one or more books that he or she would enjoy reading. We hope you will trust our judgment and read some of the books we recommend. We select books we have read ourselves or which our loyal and knowledgeable customers recommend.
As your neighborhood bookstore on the Web, 21st Century Books 21stbooks.com we are doing our best to earn your trust and help you find great books. First and foremost we have selected hundreds of books which we believe have broad and general appeal. If you want more personal attention than is available from our website, please call Tony. If you prefer, email us and we will personally respond to your questions and/or concerns. We hope to earn your trust as you sample the books we recommend. We hope you will enjoy reading them as much as we have.
Great books are not necessarily new releases. We urge you to browse our Unique Categories to find books that have stood the test of time and which we think most of you would really enjoy reading.
If you are looking for a book or books in specific areas we believe our Subjects list emphasizes quality over quantity.
Tony has been proprietor of this bookstore for over 20 years and he really knows books. We encourage you to call him if you are looking for a special book for yourself or for a gift. This “personal touch” is where we distinguish ourselves from other online booksellers. 800 593-2665, or 641 472-5105 (I always look forward to walking into the store and asking Tony what I should read!)
We would like to encourage broad participation in this website. If there is a particular book or books that have made an impact on your life and you wish to write a few sentences or paragraphs about them, we would love to include your reviews on our website. We would love to have this website be more of a community effort. By reviewing a book that mattered to you or affected your life in a positive manner, you may be giving someone else a needed direction in his/her life.
Please send your reviews to: info@21stbooks.com. Thank you
Books we are recommending in this month’s Newsletter are: A Search in Secret India, Holy Cow, The Greatest Game Ever Played, and Mystics, Magicians and Medicine People: Tales of A Wanderer.
If you are looking for excellent gift ideas for the holidays please take a look at “Tony’s Picks” on the website, which has been updated for the holiday gift-giving season. If you want more ideas browse the gift section on the web or give us a call at the store. I highly recommend for gift giving Treasury of Spiritual Wisdom, mentioned in “Len’s Picks”
We have been waiting months and finally have received 40 copies of a book that I regard as one of the great classics of all time. A Search in Secret India, by Paul Brunton, is a book that I cannot recommend highly enough. This book was out of print and has been printed anew in India and is not easy to obtain. Brunton’s observations are treasures that everyone should share. This book is unique and combines the classic seeker’s journal with the objective writing of a leading journalist.
A nice contrast or complement to Brunton’s book is Holy Cow. This is a well-written, very funny, and thoroughly enjoyable memoir by an Australian newscaster who moves to Delhi to live with her boyfriend. She does a perfect job of catching the “Real India”, a world of total contrast and the juxtaposition of the ancient and modern, as well as the spiritual and material.
The Greatest Game Ever Played has just been released in paperback. Although this story is about golf it has tremendous universal appeal. I thought it was better than Seabiscuit, and urge you to read Lee Silverstein’s review which does justice to the greatness of this book.
I just read Mystics, Magicians and Medicine People: Tales of a Wanderer, by Doug Boyd. I am not sure if my review will have been posted on our website by the time you receive this letter, so I will give you a thumbnail sketch here. I read this book because I thoroughly enjoyed another book by Boyd (Swami) which I read and reviewed a couple of months ago. This new book had a profound effect upon me because the seven “scenes” the author presents are simple and straightforward vignettes about a number of interesting but not famous or bigger than life “guru” figures he encounters and gets to know. The subjects of his encounters come from different races, ethnicities, and geographies. Boyd interacts with Koreans, Japanese, Native Americans, and Caucasians. None of the subjects are “teachers”, but their teachings are profound. I found my heart, my mind, and my soul enlivened from reading about his experiences. Not only that, the book was engrossing and fun to read. If you buy this book, read it, and don’t enjoy it, send it back to us for a full credit. I am that confident in this recommendation. Just as the stories are cross-cultural, I am sure that the appeal of this book is universal and will be enjoyed by readers of any social, political, philosophical, or religious outlook.
