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GtrsRGr8 · 04-25-2018, 07:03 PM

I've posted books from unglue.it before.

I'm still trying to figure out what the people who "unglue" books and run the website are actually doing. Here's how it appears to me now. In a nutshell, unglue.it appears to be the website of the Free Ebook Foundation, an organization that tries to make ebooks Open Access that are not currently Open Access. Practically speaking, that means to make ebooks free that are not currently free. It appears that all of the necessary expenses of accomplishing that are borne by donations under the crowdfunding model, or something similar to it. When a book becomes open access, they refer to it the book as being "unglued." Get it? *

The most recent book that has become unglued (therefore, again, free) is
Tales of Darkness and Light: Soso Tham’s The Old Days of the Khasis, by Soso Tham; Janet Hujon (translator).

Remember that Open Access books tend to be 1) esoteric, 2) scholarly, and 3) academic, probably in about that order. For those reasons, I'm throwing out of the window some of my criteria (e.g., minimum number of posts, ratings) for posting them. And, in case of this ebook, it was published just this year; there are no ratings at Amazon or GoodReads, and it is not even listed yet at GoodReads.

Here are a couple of descriptions of this most recently "unglued" book: Soso Tham was an Indian poet who worked at a time when English was slowly effacing the nuances of ancient Indian culture. Now, however, in Janet Hujon’s valuable translation, English is the very medium that enables Tham’s poetry to reach a wider audience. Hujon draws on parallels from the Romantic imagination and other sympathetic literary traditions of Myth to illuminate and contextualise Tham’s work for an English-speaking audience. This translation will contribute to giving Soso Tham the wider recognition he deserves as a poet, and more generally to introduce Western readers to the rich literary traditions of northeast India.—Dr Vayu Naidu, SOAS, University of London

Poet of landscape, myth and memory, Soso Tham paid rich and poignant tribute to his tribe in his masterpiece The Old Days of the Khasis. Janet Hujon’s vibrant new translation presents the English reader with Tham’s long poem, which keeps a rich cultural tradition of the Khasi people alive through its retelling of old narratives and acts as a cultural signpost for their literary identity. This book is essential reading for anyone with an interest in Indian literature and culture and in the interplay between oral traditions and written literary forms.
This edition includes:
• English translation
• Critical apparatus
• Embedded audio recordings of the original text

Recently, I have become very interested in the subject of orality, how oral traditions end up being written down, and how written forms are transmitted once that they are put in a written form. I am especially excited to see that to see in one of the descriptions that there are embedded audio recordings of the original text of this book (I hope that that applies to this "unglued" ebook, and not just to ones for sale).

One of the wonderful features of "unglued" ebooks, is that unglue.it always, in my experience with them, provide their books in mobi, ePub, and/or PDF formats. And that is the case with this ebook under discussion now.

In case you're interested, Amazon apparently doesn't sell a digital version of any kind of this book. However, you can get it in paperback for $19.95, or in hardback for $36.95!

Unglue.it always posts its most recent unglued book on its homepage.

* I'm one of those who doesn't get it. I ran two small used book businesses in the past, in which I wore the mantle of owner, manager, chief cook, and bottlewasher (i.e., I did it all). If someone talked about a book becoming "unglued," I would immediately think of it as a book that has been destroyed or damaged, and either needing to be thrown away or repaired. This organization seems to be doing almost the opposite of that.

04-25-2018, 07:03 PM	#622
GtrsRGr8 Grand Sorcerer Posts: 7,334 Karma: 27815322 Join Date: Aug 2012 Location: Southeastern U.S., ya'll Device: Kindle; Kindle (10.1.1) for PC; Kindle Cloud Reader	Another Ebook Has Become "Unglued"! I've posted books from unglue.it before. I'm still trying to figure out what the people who "unglue" books and run the website are actually doing. Here's how it appears to me now. In a nutshell, unglue.it appears to be the website of the Free Ebook Foundation, an organization that tries to make ebooks Open Access that are not currently Open Access. Practically speaking, that means to make ebooks free that are not currently free. It appears that all of the necessary expenses of accomplishing that are borne by donations under the crowdfunding model, or something similar to it. When a book becomes open access, they refer to it the book as being "unglued." Get it? * The most recent book that has become unglued (therefore, again, free) is Tales of Darkness and Light: Soso Tham’s The Old Days of the Khasis, by Soso Tham; Janet Hujon (translator). Remember that Open Access books tend to be 1) esoteric, 2) scholarly, and 3) academic, probably in about that order. For those reasons, I'm throwing out of the window some of my criteria (e.g., minimum number of posts, ratings) for posting them. And, in case of this ebook, it was published just this year; there are no ratings at Amazon or GoodReads, and it is not even listed yet at GoodReads. Here are a couple of descriptions of this most recently "unglued" book: Soso Tham was an Indian poet who worked at a time when English was slowly effacing the nuances of ancient Indian culture. Now, however, in Janet Hujon’s valuable translation, English is the very medium that enables Tham’s poetry to reach a wider audience. Hujon draws on parallels from the Romantic imagination and other sympathetic literary traditions of Myth to illuminate and contextualise Tham’s work for an English-speaking audience. This translation will contribute to giving Soso Tham the wider recognition he deserves as a poet, and more generally to introduce Western readers to the rich literary traditions of northeast India.—Dr Vayu Naidu, SOAS, University of London Poet of landscape, myth and memory, Soso Tham paid rich and poignant tribute to his tribe in his masterpiece The Old Days of the Khasis. Janet Hujon’s vibrant new translation presents the English reader with Tham’s long poem, which keeps a rich cultural tradition of the Khasi people alive through its retelling of old narratives and acts as a cultural signpost for their literary identity. This book is essential reading for anyone with an interest in Indian literature and culture and in the interplay between oral traditions and written literary forms. This edition includes: • English translation • Critical apparatus • Embedded audio recordings of the original text Recently, I have become very interested in the subject of orality, how oral traditions end up being written down, and how written forms are transmitted once that they are put in a written form. I am especially excited to see that to see in one of the descriptions that there are embedded audio recordings of the original text of this book (I hope that that applies to this "unglued" ebook, and not just to ones for sale). One of the wonderful features of "unglued" ebooks, is that unglue.it always, in my experience with them, provide their books in mobi, ePub, and/or PDF formats. And that is the case with this ebook under discussion now. In case you're interested, Amazon apparently doesn't sell a digital version of any kind of this book. However, you can get it in paperback for $19.95, or in hardback for $36.95! Unglue.it always posts its most recent unglued book on its homepage. * I'm one of those who doesn't get it. I ran two small used book businesses in the past, in which I wore the mantle of owner, manager, chief cook, and bottlewasher (i.e., I did it all). If someone talked about a book becoming "unglued," I would immediately think of it as a book that has been destroyed or damaged, and either needing to be thrown away or repaired. This organization seems to be doing almost the opposite of that. Last edited by GtrsRGr8; 04-25-2018 at 07:23 PM.