Ayurveda Books

As far as I am aware, this is the only book out there in English to look at the connections and divergences in philosophy and praxis of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Ayuveda, the traditional healing techniques and systems of China and India respectively. As such, it provides an important service. It is written for the general public, and so, students of either or both of the healing systems won't find much new in the respective sections on them. However, it is an excellent introductory overview to both systems. In addition, serious students and practitioners will benefit from the attempt to look at the differences and similarities in the two ancient systems. While a much more in-depth account is certainly needed, I hope Svoboda, an excellent and exteremely important writer, teacher, and practitioner of Ayurveda and Tantra, doesn't get around to it anytime soon, because I hope to eventually write it myself!

This CD-ROM has a minimal format for interactive use. Hypertext in text links were not as dynamic and the drill down capacity left much to be desired. The presentation of information on Ayurveda was dry as would be presented in a textbook which is of course not interactive. Much more could have been done to invite the learner into the fascinating subject matter of Ayurvedic healing. The short videos were marginal - seeing someone mix herbs etc did nothing for me. There was a very short frequently asked questions section which could have been expanded greatly and hyperlinked into the main textual material. I was not happy with the idea of sponsors in the credits which were the Department of tourism and an herbal export company. A particular personal problem with me was the monotonous oscillating bitonal music played over and over when you were trying to listen to the overvoice reading the text. There was no way to turn off the music without turning off the audio. It quickly gave me a headache and I resorted to turning off the audio and reading the text. Given the Indian language, it would have been better to hear the native speaker pronounce many of the words rather than guess at their proper pronunciation. Overall, This interactive CD - ROM was not worth the price and was not conducive to bringing Ayurveda to people who want to begin their journey into this wonderful medical delivery system.
It would have been nice to at least see it delivered in a standard jewel case and not in the typical cases used for marketing directed CD's.

This book is actually three other books put together. One on ayurveda (very short and generic), one on color-therapy and one on gems. Ayurveda is not related to any of the other subjects throughout the book.

I returned it.