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**** http://www.GOANET.org ****
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NEW BOOK: 'PATRIOTISM IN ACTION: Goans in Indias Defence Services'
With Foreword by Gen SF Rodrigues, PVSM, VSM, ADC (retd)
former Chief of Indian Army Staff
and Governor, Punjab & Administrator, Chandigarh UT
Copies now available at:
GOA: Literati (2277740), Other India (2263306), Broadway (6647038),
Mandovi (2427904), Noel DSilva & Associates (9823120454 / 9096781714),
Confidant / Golden Heart Emp (2732450), David & Co (2730326), Vardaan
(9527463684)
SERV / RETD Def Offrs in Goa: O/o Sainik Co-op Hse Bldg Sty, Def Col, Porvorim
(2417288)
MUMBAI: David & Co (22019010)
PUNE: Manneys (26131683), Popular (25678327)
BENGALURU: Narayan (22865800)
DELHI: Ritana (24617278)
ONLINE (worldwide delivery): http://www.ritanabooks.com,
http://goa1556.goa-india.org
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Dear Mervyn and all: It was a pleasure meeting you (MM) in Goa recently. At
the risk of sounding like a broken record, I'd say that "not buying"
Goa-related books is a symptom of a wider malaise, not the malaise itself!
To my mind, these issues are terribly important:
* Goa books seldom get reviewed. My column in the GT was the result of
an phone call that ended up on a wrong number!
* Goa books are rather invisible in the market.
* Nobody is aware when new books are published.
* By the time the reader gets aware, the book is out of print/hard to find.
* Distribution problems are huge.
* The diaspora hasn't been tapped as a pool for authors and readers.
* Despite the 'liquor cess' popular library movement is yet to be built in
Goa.
* A Goa-books only book fair could help hugely.
* Self-publishing is needed for a small society, but books must be made
visible.
* Goa and the diaspora badly needs e-libraries.
* Authors should deploy cyberspace more, and even seek Goanet's help to
promote their books, old and new.
I refuse to join the pessimistic bandwaggon; things are better on the
alt-publishing front than in the past. Goa,1556 [
http://goa1556.goa-india.org] now has 20 titles to its credit, and more in
the pipeline. But we need to go beyond our own interests and pet projects,
and make it into a wider community campaign.
We can surely do it; specially if we have the faith in ourselves. FN
Frederick Noronha :: +91-9822122436 :: +91-832-2409490
On 29 December 2010 13:26, Mervyn & Elsie Maciel <
[email protected]> wrote:
Well said, Roland.I think you've hit the nail squarely on the head. This
> has been my experience too. When my wife's Goan cookery book was published
> a
> few years ago, some well to do Goans, far from spending a negligible £2(a
> percentage of which was going towards charity), even had the cheek to ask
> whether they could borrow the book and make photocopies of recipes they
> fancied!
> I remember being present at the stall where Selma's book was being sold,
> and
> noticing a Goan couple flicking through the pages, commenting "its a nice
> book", but then cooling walking away. I expect the Goa sausages and
> similar Goan fare were top priority!
> As for the fate of my own book, I'll say no more.
> Why are some of us so reluctant to support our own? Mervyn (Maciel)
>
