As most people I like to roam the web for interesting sites, people, knowledge, forums etc. One of my favorites are Eirik Newth (in norwegian). He’s an author, blogger, astrophysicist and one of the prominent intellectual persons in Norway.
He is one of the persons that have a genuine interests for every scientific subject there is, though I have yet to find something about religion and philosophy. He did take a trip last year through India with his family, so I’m thinking he has to have some interest in that area as well. It would have been nice the hear his thoughts in that regard as well.
Anyway, here are some links to his blogs and radioshow:
His personal webpage and blog (english version of his page, though not as frequently updated)
Future and futuristic thinking blog (norwegian)
Vitenskapsprogrammet – his radio show on Radio Norge(norwegian). I love the podcasts.
Hi Helene, thanks for your very kind assessment of my work. Actually, I have touched on the subjects of religion and philosophy as well. The subject of my book “Jakten på sannheten” (“The quest for truth”) is the history and philosophy of science, albeit in a very popularized form, and I wrote about various religions and their view of death in my book “Hvorfor dør vi?”
As for India: totally flabbergasted. Fascinated. I am going back, for sure. 🙂
This is a cause for celebration! You are the first person to ever make a comment on my website 🙂
I’m gonna check out your book, but I’m a bit disappointed that your book isn’t available as an ebook. Especially considering you have many sensible thoughts about the publishing industry and the future:
EBooks
Books
I’ve been to india three times and it’s a country where religion is part of peoples life in a way that westerners can’t be compared to. For me all trips have been for pilgrimage, since my beliefs are within krishna consciousness.
India is the only place I got a marriage proposal though. I was sitting on the rickshaw and the driver asked me to marry him. 5 minutes afterwards he told me of his wife and three children. I was very charmed indeed.
Did you experience any culture collision?
I would very much like to distribute my pbooks as ebooks, but I am bound by the Norwegian standard publisher’s contract, which makes it hard to go from paper to bytes. No chance on non-DRMed ebooks. As for Creative Commons solutions a la Cory Doctorow? In your dreams!
I’ve read quite a lot about Indian culture, religion and history, and travelled there with what I thought was an open and prepared mind. But even so I did experience quite a culture shock -the place is just so overwhelming on various levels.
And not surprisingly, perhaps, the role of religion made a deep impression on me as a Euroepan. To me, Indians seemed to be very open about a subject which people here in Norway tend to treat as deeply personal. For instance, I had a very interesting discussion about Sikh poetry, language and religion with stranger in Old Dehli. 🙂
I am hoping that digitalbok.no will make the publishing industry in Norway more interested in that area. I just can’t see that digitalbok.no will be able to succeed though, with their more than crappy website interface, a bit higher price on foreign books than elsewhere and few (expensive) norwegian books.
DRMed books are better than no ebook at all. I buy DRMed books without problems (only today I bought two), because it will still support my interests which are making more titles available as ebooks. But to be clear: I am very much against the use of DRM on books, music, the works.
But isn’t there a way to create a contract where authors can add in electronic distribution (and the likes) or will all publishers shunt the person in question?
As a consumer I have now done my duty for getting your title as an ebook. I have now written a mail to Gyldendal (your publisher for “Jakten p? sannheten”) asking for your book as ebook. I did the same to Cappelen Damm when I wanted “Bokhandleren i Kabul” av ?sne Seierstad. They only refered me to an audiobook which costed 350 NOK. That is a lot of money!!
India was very overwhelming to me too. Every time I’ve gone there, I’ve gone alone. The first time I was there I was even reluctant to talk to people (especially men). Seems like you got to know people there though.
I would be very interested to hear what impressions the role of religion in India gave you. I don’t know anything about the sikhs, except they used to carry swords and carry out justice (being of ksatriya/soldier class).