Category: Books

Ten Most Harmful Books of the 19th and 20th Centuries

I found this list of most harmful books of the last two centuries via Alex Exler’s LiveJournal. Of course, the harmness of the each book is very subjective and depends on who are the judges. Also, interesting to note, that although books are considered harmful, each entry has a link to appropriate Amazon.com page.

I myself flipped through a couple of books in this list while I was a teenager. Now I am more interested in reading them, but I don’t have any copies around.

One place I shouldn’t go

I have a special relationship with all bookstores. Since I feel an unstopable urge to buy half of the books every time I go in to one, I try to avoid them as much as possible. Actually, I’ve been pretty successful at that. I decided to buy all my books from Amazon, but since I am too greedy to pay for shipping and since I don’t have a credit card of my own, I don’t buy that often. All my book shopping ends with my wishlist.

Today though I made a strategic mistake. I had to visit my bank and instead of driving, I walked. And I totally forgot (or didn’t want to remember) that there is an excellent Kyriakou bookshop on the way. I passed it once on the way to the bank and pushed myself not to enter. It took all my powers, but I passed by. Since I didn’t have any powers left, I couldn’t take another road home. And on the way back, I went in. Ouch.

I spent less than 3 minutes inside, but I managed to buy 3 books, paying over 50 CYP (Now you can understand why I try to avoid these places). Here’s what I got:

  • “Digital Photography Special Effects” by Michael Freeman. It’s been some time since I wanted to buy some book that would explain few tricks of digital image manipulation. When I saw the book by Michael Freeman I just had to buy it. I’ve read his other book “Complete Guide to Photography“, which is still the best book on the subject that I’ve read. The Special Effects book is in hardcover, with lots of illustrations, and costs about 19 CYP. “That’s value for money” I thought and picked it up.
  • “Mediterranean Island Dreams” by Jeremy Horner. This is another book that I picked from the Photography section. It has almost 250 color pictures of Mediterranean islands and I want it for some inspiration and ideas. Plus 21 CYP is not that much for that many pictures. Picked that up too.
  • “Rough guide to Cyprus” by Mark Dubin. This book is very well tested, since my good friend Vladimir has a copy. We used the book to investigate Cyprus and to open way more places here than we could imagine – restaurants and beaches specifically. I wanted to order this book from Amazon anyway, but when I saw it in the local bookshop for a mere 12 CYP I decided to buy it.

Additionally, I’ve discovered that this bookshop has an excellent Photography section with lots and lots of books. I’ll have to revisit it next month for sure. How can I stop this fever now?

A good selection of magazines and newspapers

Accidentally, I’ve found an excellent shop for magazines and newspapers. It is located in Limassol, on the Makariou III avenue. It is in the same building as New York Sweets, on the left side if driving from the sea towards the city.

There is really a great choice. There are magazines on any topic out there, from cars and computers to photography and fishing. There is also a choice of languages for many editions. I have seen magazines in English, Greek, and Russian.

Also, I’ve noticed that all these magazines and newspapers are updated frequently. I am getting fresh issues of a couple of photography magazines every month.

The Art of Photography

Here is a complete guide to photography from Canon – The Art of Photography. It covers a whole bunch of topics from the usual composition, equipment and lighting to rarely mentioned ones like light metering, choice of lenses, and simplification of images. Lots and lots of pictures help to illustrate the points. The book is based on Canon equipment, but most of it can be easily applied to other brands.