Distributors Books

This book was written by Sir Thomas Arnold who lived and worked as a professor of philosophy in Lahore, India (now Pakistan). He was widely traveled in the Muslim world. This book, now roughly 100 years old, is still relevant today, perhaps moreso now than ever.

He states his case that Islam was not spread by the sword, as is so stereotypically thought by many, but through preaching and daily commerce. While there has been military conquest by Islamic nations, the actual conversions to the Islamic faith were not done by the sword. This is a tough concept to grasp. Considering that Islam is considered an entire way of life, the military conquests are not outside of the realm of Islam.

The division between religion and politics leads to the schizophrenia we see today in many a Western nation's bumbling other countries, most recently America in Iraq. For the sake of analogy let us ask that if the citizens of Iraq were, for example, to convert to Christianity could we say that they were converted by the sword? Or did the conversions come once the military maneuvering was done? If a host of missionaries ride in on the coattails of the military, would history lead us to believe that conversions were done by the sword?

This analogy obviously falls apart because Christianity is not a faith that embraces politics under its name and America is not based upon a religious ideology but the question is worth considering. Did those who converted to Islam do so for fear of the sword? Or did victory come militarily/politically first (and wherever there are men there are politics) and then the faith spread?

Arnold makes his case that it was not the sword that led to the majority of conversions to Islam. It was the strength of the faith of the ordinary individuals who lived it. The book is not light reading and is very dense but it is interesting and it is definitely worth reading to get some balance on how the spread of Islam is viewed. He is not naively glowing in his approach but is very balanced in his report. Vital for those who really want to understand truth on their own terms.

Update: This book has been repackaged and is interestingly retitled 'The Spread of Islam in the World - A History of Peaceful Preaching' and is available through Astrolabe's website.

This book is a collection of essays on channel relationships in retailing and other sectors of industry. The contents include empirical research on wholesaler/distributors' and manufacturers' perceptions on manufacturer-wholesaler relationships. The book provides a good overview of the subject of marketing channels.

A great book for an overview of Soviet policy regarding Siberian indigenous groups. Kuoljok compiles pure Soviet policy into one publication. Interesting that what the soviets said they were doing was often different from practice.

I am a student at a university and try to complete my thesiss.

A terrific read! Central Asia, the giant blank spot in most people's mind, was explored by the great British-Hungarian traveller, Sir M. Aurel Stein. His book, originally written in 1912, remains one of the best and most interesting sources of information on the region. It has hundreds of photos, wonderful tales of adventure, and a mountain of information that will provoke and delight anyone interested in the region.

And what a region. Once a major route between the silks and technology of China and the markets of ancient Rome, trekked by Alexander the Great, now buried in sand and the indifference of centuries. Stein's discoveries astonished his contemporaries. Modern explorers can use this source book to plan adventures to areas long cut off to the West.

It's nice to have an updated set of EU GMPs in book form. The problem is that the regulations continue to change, so the printed copy is never quite current.

This book is a collection of postcards and photographs that were used to ridicule and poke fun at Blacks in the late 1800's and early 1900's.
I met the author and she said she was walking in a mall in Lexington, KY and they were have a "flea market" type sale in the mall. She saw two white women looking at items and laughing so she went over to see what the joke was. Shockingly, "we" were the joke. The women were looking at these postcards of Black women dressed as "mammies", Black men being ridden as horses, etc...... These postcards had been in someones home and family for years and they were selling them in public like this.
The author began buying and collecting items like these and decided to publish a series of books to remind people where Black have risen from. It wasn't that long ago that it was ok to refer to us this way and it wasn't long ago that it was ok to publicly display these items and laugh at them in public.
A good book to have around for when your Black children take for granted all that you are able to provide for them and wonder why they don't have trust funds or 2 week vacations to Cancun like their white counterparts. We are just rising above some of these stereotypes to be able to work and achieve our hopes and dreams as do other Americans. Great reminder to us all to keep striving!

Good books by book sellers are hard to find, and this one is not only good, but definitely a pleasure to read. I wish it had included more details about how to succeed in the business of selling books, but I quickly realized that the author lived in an entirely different era than the one we have now of internet book selling. The author started in business at a time when the world was not sure that television would last and many wiser than he had not survived in the business of selling books.

Originally published in 1962, this book is the autobiography of Brent Stuart, a successful Chicago book seller. His venture into book selling started after World War II, when as a young man fresh out of the Army, he opened a small book and music store. He admits he knew almost nothing about business, and he shares what he learned while struggling to survive. He also shares about the people he knew, many of whom were very helpful to him in his early years. He drops a lot of names, no doubt many of whom were very well-known in that era, among the most famous of whom are Katherine Hepburn, Gore Vidal, and Ernest Hemingway. Unfortunately, the book does not have an Index, which would be helpful when one is looking to find an interesting part that is worth reading aloud to friends.

One of the parts of the book I found most interesting was his account of his business and social dealings with Dr. Lionel Blitzsten, a wealthy psychoanalyst. Dr. Blitzsten encouraged and helped him to develop a current catalog of psychiatric books, and the sales of those books greatly helped his business to prosper. He describes his first impression of Dr. Blitzsten in almost poetic yet graphic details: "What was really arresting (and somewhat terrifying) about this fat, puffing little man was the face. Above the glasses, the skull seemed all forehead; beneath, the clean-shaven skin was baby pink and the mouth shaped like a rosebud and just as red. That was it, the mouth -- and when he spoke, the voice was musical, no longer deep, but rather high in pitch." Dr. Lionel hosted social gatherings which many clamored to attend. The author defines the social atmosphere at Dr. Lionel's home as a coterie, and his eloquent description of it is:

"The machinery of a coterie is simple; the reasons behind its operation and its subtle influence on the lives of those drawn into its orbit are complex almost beyond endurance. Essentially, the coterie consists of a number of people who hold similar views on unimportant things. Everyone admitted must observe a cardinal prohibition: to say nothing fundamental about anything. All must follow the leader, employ a common stock of expressions, adopt the same mannerisms, profess the same prejudices, affect the same bearing, and recognize a common bond of impenetrable superficiality."

The author also provides details about early television in Chicago and his role in a daily TV program titled "Books and Brent," in which he reviewed books. He also briefly gives details about his personal life, the businesses of publishing and writing books, his favorite cabin retreat at Bark Point in Wisconsin, and his adventures in a summer stock theater in suburban Chicago. Some of his secrets about how to succeed in the business of selling books include hosting chamber music parties and author signings at his book store, as well as having the help and support of good friends.

Save this one for a treat on a long winter night. It is an easy and entertaining read, yet very interesting for its portrayal of the author and his era. While the author does not preach or make recommendations about how to succeed in the business of selling books, his philosophy is shared in the telling of his stories. His life is an American success story packed with interesting details about life and business in the 1950s.

Great book for children who likes turtles and are sensitive to others' feelings.

When was the last time the strands of feminism tore through your skin and left you begging for a gasp containing an emmensely adulterated question..."Isn't this blasphemous?" Well, reading Nasrin and not hoping for gritty realism is like looking up at the sky and asking "Why do elephants not fly!" She potrays the truth, speckled with vivacious imagery;bereft of imagination. The diabolic traditions of conventional families and then their excessively surpressive atitude is utterly compelling. Jhumur is ingenious until she marries Haroon a guy who promises her the so called fruits of marriage. But his sudden rage, stemming from Jhumurs untimed pregnancy and then her bittersweet revenge bind the tale taut and signify how tenacious a feminist like Nasrin can get. Women have been potrayed cleverly which i think is an arbitrary beckoning to all those being opressed under the garb of a nasty marriage.

And in a society that is anything but pure Nasrin's words conjer a bout of hope~ "If you woman, are human, you will smash the chains to stand tall".

Hence, Shodh, that is inexplicably raw and indispensably real showcases how tangible love is. In an attempt to seek love as a revolutionary concept, Nasrin has added stark details of relationships and revenge. A must read, for i give it an 8/10.

~NIKHIL PANDHI