Brand by Henrik Ibsen. New York. 1996. Penguin Books. Translated From The Norwegian & Adapted for the stage by Geoffret Hill. keywords: Literature Drama Norway Translated. 161 pages. The cover shows a detail from 'Wide Vistas' by Maria Froberg. 0140446761.
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
Brand was Ibsen's first masterpiece, a poetic drama composed in 1865 and published to tremendous critical and popular acclaim. - The unsparing vision of a priest driven by faith to risk and witness the deaths of his wife and child gives Brand its icy ferocity. When he was writing it in Italy, Ibsen declared: 'It is blessedly peaceful out here; no one I know; I read nothing but the Bible. ' Geoffrey Hill provides a new Preface to this third and...
Vietnam 1946: How The War Began by Stein Tonnesson. Berkeley. 2009. University Of California Press. keywords: History Vietnam America. 362 pages. 9780520256026.
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
Based on multiarchival research conducted over almost three decades, this landmark account tells how a few men set off a war that would lead to tragedy for millions. Stein Tønnesson was one of the first historians to delve into scores of secret French, British, and American political, military, and intelligence documents. In this fascinating account of an unfolding tragedy, he brings this research to bear to disentangle the complex web of events, actions, and mentalities that led to thirty years of war in Indochina. As the story unfolds, Tønnesson challenges some widespread misconceptions, arguing that French general Leclerc fell...
The Conference Of The Birds by Farid Ud-Din Attar. New York. 1984. Penguin Books. Translated From The Persian & With An Introduction By Afkham Darbandi & Dick Davis. keywords: Mythology Literature Translated Persia Poetry Religion. 234 pages. The cover shows 'The Concourse of the Birds' from a manuscript of The Conference of the Birds, painted by Habib Allah. 0140444343.
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
Attar's great mystical poem opens when all the birds of the world gather together to begin the search for an ideal king. What follows is a marvellous allegorical rendering of Sufism - the secretive and paradoxical form of Islamic mysticism. Like THE CANTERBURY TALES, THE CONFERENCE OF THE BIRDS consists of a group of stories bound together by a pilgrimage. The Way...
American Supernatural Tales by S.T. Joshi (editor). New York. 2007. Penguin Books. keywords: Anthology Supernatural Horror Literature America. 477 pages. Cover art by Hans neleman. 9780143105046.
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
As Stephen King will attest , the popularity of the occult in American literature has only grown since the days of Edgar Allan Poe. American Supernatural Tales celebrates the richness of this tradition with chilling contributions from some of the nation's brightest literary lights, including Poe himself, H. P. Lovecraft, Shirley Jackson, Ray Bradbury, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and—of course— Stephen King. By turns phantasmagoric, spectral, and demonic, this is a frighteningly good addition to Penguin Classics.
Buy a new copy of this book from zenosbooks.com
Collected Poems by C. P. Cavafy. New York. 2009. Knopf. Translated From The Greek, With An Introduction and Commentary By Daniel Mendelsohn. keywords: Poetry Greece Literature Translated Alexandria. 553 pages. Jacket design by Jason Booher. March 2009. 9780375400964.
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
An extraordinary literary event: the simultaneous publication of a brilliant and vivid new rendering of C. P. Cavafy’s COLLECTED POEMS and the first-ever English translation of the poet’s thirty UNFINISHED POEMS, both featuring the fullest literary commentaries available in English—by the acclaimed critic, scholar, and award-winning author of THE LOST. No modern poet brought so vividly to life the history and culture of Mediterranean antiquity; no writer dared break, with such taut energy, the early-twentieth-century taboos surrounding homoerotic desire; no poet before or...
Hrafnkel's Saga & Other Stories by Hermann Palsson (translator & editor). Baltimore. 1971. Penguin Books. Translated From The Icelandic & With An Introduction By Hermann Palsson. keywords: Penguin Classic Paperback Translated Iceland Scandinavia Literature Mythology History. 137 pages. The cover shows a detail from a fourteenth-century ICELANDIC illumination in the Royal Library, Copenhagen. It depicts St Olaf, the Norwegian King, suffering martyrdom in the battle of Stiklestad, 1030. 0140442383.
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
All seven stories in this volume date from the thirteenth century, and exemplify the outstanding qualities of realistic fiction in medieval Iceland. Falling into two distinctive groups, three of the stories – HRAFNKEL’S SAGA, THORSTEIN THE STAFF-STRUCK and ALE HOOD — are set in the pastoral society of native Iceland, tire homely...
Notes From Underground & The Double by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. New York. 2009. Penguin Books. Translated From The Russian By Ronald Wilks.& With An introduction by Robert Louis Jackson. keywords: Literature Russia Translated 19th Century. 291 pages. Cover - 'Self-portrait with Masks' by Leon Spilliaert (1903). 9780140455120.
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
Alienated from society and paralysed by a sense of his own insignificance, the anonymous narrator of Dostoyevsky’s groundbreaking NOTES FROM UNDERGROUND tells the story of his tortured life. With bitter irony, he describes his refusal to become a worker in the ‘anthill’ of society and his gradual withdrawal to an existence ‘underground.’ The seemingly ordinary world of St. Petersburg takes on a nightmarish quality in THE DOUBLE when a government clerk encounters a man who...
Descent Into Chaos: The United States & The Failure Of Nation Building In Pakistan, Afghanistan, & Central Asia by Ahmed Rashid. New York. 2008. Viking Press. keywords: History Central Asia Afghanistan Pakistan. 484 pages. Jacket design - J. Wang. 9780670019700.
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
Ahmed Rashid is ‘Pakistan's best and bravest reporter’ (Christopher Hitchens). His unique knowledge of this vast and complex region allows him a panoramic vision and nuance that no Western writer can emulate. His book Taliban first introduced American readers to the brutal regime that hijacked Afghanistan and harbored the terrorist group responsible for the 9/11 attacks. Now, Rashid examines the region and the corridors of power in Washington and Europe to see how the promised nation building in these countries has...
Portfolios of the Poor: How The World's Poor Live On $2 A Day by Daryl Collins, Jonathan Morduch, Stuart Rutherford, & Orlanda Ruthven. Princeton. 2009. Princeton University Press. keywords: Economics The Poor. 320 pages. June 2009. 9780691141480.
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
About forty percent of the world's people live on incomes of two dollars a day or less. If you've never had to survive on an income so small, it is hard to imagine. How would you put food on the table, afford a home, and educate your children? How would you handle emergencies and old age? Every day, more than a billion people around the world must answer these questions. Portfolios of the Poor is the first book to explain systematically how the poor find solutions....
The Operated Jew: Two Tales Of Anti-Semitism by Jack Zipes (editor & translator). New York. 1991. Routledge. Translated & With Commentary by Jack Zipes. keywords: Germany Mythology Jewish Anti-Semitism Anthology Translated. 137 pages. 0415904609.
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
A turn-of-the-century Jew undergoes a series of disfiguring operations that transform him into a ‘European’. Oskar Panizza's chilling story ‘The Operated Jew’ (1893) mingles loathing with compassion for its title character. Thirty years later, Panizza's tale was answered by ‘Mynona’, (Salomo Friedlaender) an urban German Jew who turned the story's tables in ‘The Operated Goy’ (1922). Jack Zipes translates these two stories into English and provides an extensive introduction as well as bibliographic essays that recover these two writers, placing their often bizarre tales within the history of modern...
The Unfinished Poems by C. P. Cavafy. New York. 2009. Knopf. Translated From The Greek, With An Introduction and Commentary By Daniel Mendelsohn. keywords: Poetry Greece Literature Translated Alexandria. 124 pages. Jacket design by Jason Booher. March 2009. 9780307265463.
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
A remarkable discovery, an extraordinary literary event: the never-before translated UNFINISHED POEMS of the great Alexandrian Greek poet Constantine Cavafy, published for the first time in English alongside a revelatory new rendering of the COLLECTED POEMS—translated and annotated by the renowned critic, classicist, and award-winning author of The Lost. When he died in 1933 at the age of seventy, C. P. Cavafy left the drafts of thirty poems among his papers—some of them masterly, nearly completed verses, others less finished texts, all...
The Palace Of Illusions by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni. New York. 2008. Doubleday. keywords: Literature Women India America. 360 pages. Jacket design by Rex Bonoanelli. 9780385515993.
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
A reimagining of the world-famous Indian epic, the mahabharat-told from the point of view of an amazing woman. Relevant to today's war-torn world, The Palace of Illusions takes us back to a time that is half history, half myth and wholly magical. Narrated by Panamali, the wife of the legendary Pandavas brothers in the Mahabharat, the novel gives us a new interpretation of this ancient tale. The Palace of Illusions traces the princess Panchaali's life, beginning with her birth in fire and following her spirited balancing act as a woman with five husbands who have been...
Outfoxing Fear: Folktales Around The World by Kathleen Ragan (editor). New York. 2006. Norton. Introduction by Jack Zipes. keywords: Folklore Fear Mythology. 259 pages. Jacket design & illustration by Marty Blake. 0393060365.
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
A multicultural collection of hopeful, engaging, inspirational folktales for all ages that tackle our most elemental human scourge—fear. Humans of all eras and cultures have lived with fear—whether fear of becoming jaguar prey, of being besieged by Vikings, or of nuclear holocaust. For millennia, huddled around campfires and in cottages, we have created folktales to help us transform this fear into action, into a solution, into hope. Inspired by the residual fear and the need for stories of resilience following September ll, Kathleen Ragan, editor of Fearless Girls, Wise...
The Tango Singer by Tomas Eloy Martinez. New York. 2006. Bloomsbury Books. Translated From The Spanish By Anne McLean. keywords: Literature Latin America Argentina Translated. 248 pages. May 2006. 1582346011.
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
A hypnotic novel in which an American student’s quest to find the greatest living tango singer leads him deep into the labyrinth of Argentina’s past. It is 2001, and inflation is spiraling out of control in Argentina as Bruno Cadogan, an American graduate student specializing in Borges, arrives in Buenos Aires. Cadogan is on the trail of Julio Martel, an elusive tango singer rumored to be even better than Carlos Gardel, the greatest singer of the 1920s and ‘30s. Martel has never recorded and his strange, powerful performances, at seemingly arbitrary...
The Skating Rink by Roberto Bolano. New York. 2009. New Directions Publishing Corporation. Translated From The Spanish Chris Andrews. keywords: Latin America South America Literature Chile Translated. 208 pages. Cover design by Semadar Megged. 08/09/2009. 9780811217132.
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
A hair-raising book that delivers Bolano’s signature mix of mordant wit and romantic tenderness, The Skating Rink is both a crime and a love story. The story starts off with Gaspar Heredia - writer, Mexican, illegal immigrant, and stand-in for Bolano himself -who meets Remo Moran, a businessman who pulled himself up to wealth from his inauspicious beginnings as a stall vendor of cheap tourist souvenirs. Moran hires Heredia as night watchman for a campground Moran runs as a stopping ground for many illegal immigrants....
Calligrammes by Guillaume Apolliniare. Berkeley. 1980. University Of California Press. Translated From The French By Anne H. Greet. Introduction by S. I. Lockerbie. keywords: Poetry France Translated Literature. 513 pages. Jacket design by Linda M. Robertson. 0520019687.
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
A fully annotated, bilingual edition, Calligrammes is a key work not only in Apollinaire's own development but in the evolution of modern French poetry. Apollinaire--Roman by birth, Polish by name (Wilhelm-Apollinaris de Kostrowitski), Parisian by choice--died at thirty-eight in 1918. Nevertheless, he became one of the leading figures in twentieth-century poetry, a transitional figure whose work at once echoes the Symbolists and anticipates the work of the Surrealists.
Buy a new copy of this book from zenosbooks.com
How To Talk About Books You Haven't Read by Pierre Bayard. Translated from the French by Jeffrey Mehlman. New York. 2007 Bloomsbury. 187 pages. Jacket design by Patti Ratchford. keywords: Literature Literary Criticism Reading. 9781596914698.
From the publisher -
If civilized people are expected to have read all important works of literature, and thousands more books are published every year, what are we supposed to do in those awkward social situations in which we’re forced to talk about books we haven’t read? In this delightfully witty, provocative book, a huge hit in France that has drawn attention from critics around the world, literature professor and psychoanalyst Pierre Bayard argues that it’s actually more important to know a book’s role in our collective library than its...
Selected Poems by Lars Gustafsson. New York. 1972. New Rivers Press. Translated From The Swedish By Robin Fulton. Photographs by Arthur Tress. keywords: Poetry Literature Sweden Translated. 106 pages. Cover by Arthur Tress. 0912284285.
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
‘Lars Gustafsson's poetry is a poetry of stark and mysterious contrasts, stark because the combinations of apparently familiar objects can be startling and unexpected, and mysterious because the power of what is not said seems to be all the greater for the clarity with which the variegated details are presented. Witness the strange arrest, the expectancy that will never be fulfilled. .’ – from the introduction by Robin Fulton.
See what we have by Lars Gustafsson at zenosbooks.com
Road-side Dog by Czeslaw Milosz. New York. 1998. Farrar Straus Giroux. Translated From The Polish By The Author & Robert Haas. keywords: Poetry Translated Literature Poland. 208 pages. Jacket art by Brian Cronin. Jacket design by Rodrigo Corral. 0374251290.
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
‘I went on a journey in order to acquaint myself with my province, in a two-horse wagon with a lot of fodder and a tin bucket rattling in the back. I have been thinking not only of the people who lived there once but also of the generations of dogs accompanying them in their everyday bustle, and one night—I don't know where it came from—in a pre-dawn sleep, that funny and tender phrase composed itself: a road-side dog.’ In this memorable collection...
(08/17/2010) Night Mail: Selected Poems by Novica Tadic. Oberlin. 1992. Oberlin College Press. Translated From The Serbian by Charles Simic. keywords: Poetry Serbia Yugoslavia Translated Literature. 119 pages. Cover design by Stephen J. Farkas, Jr. from an etching by W.H.W. Bicknell - Painted by Jeanniot. Titled Thenardier's Escape. 0932440592.
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
‘As with those great masters of the grotesque, Bosch and Goya, the world of Novica Tadic is distinct and immediately recognizable. We are in a city of loners, blind alleys, sewers, and unlit streets. Everywhere monsters lurk. We meet baby cyclops, giant hens, inanimate objects who make faces and other fantastic crossbreeds. For Tadic reality is unstable, prone any moment to break into separate and unfamiliar pieces, only to suddenly reassemble itself....
Blackboards: Poetry/Artwork by Tomaz Salamun & Metka Krasovec. Philadelphia. 2004. Saturnalia Books. Translated From The Slovenian By Michael Biggins with the Author. Introduction By John Yau. keywords: Poetry Literature Slovenia Translated. 79 pages. Cover art by Metka Krasovec. 0975499009.
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
Tomaz Salamun is a prolific Slovenian poet whose work has been translated into many languages. The eight collections that have appeared in America have influenced many of our best younger poets. All but two of the eight books consist of selections from his many books and wide-ranging oeuvre. The exceptions are POKER, his first book, published by Ugly Duckling Press in 2003, and A BALLAD FOR METKA KRASOVEC, which was published in Slovenia in the early 1980’s, and appeared in its entirety in America...
Borges & His Successors: The Borgesian Impact On Literature & The Arts by Edna Aizenberg (editor). Columbia. 1990. University Of Missouri Press. keywords: Borges Literary Criticism Essays. 296 pages. Jacket photograph by Julie Mendez Ezcurra. 082620712x.
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
The centrality of Jorge Luis Borges to the contemporary aesthetic imagination has been widely recognized, but no comprehensive study of his impact on the arts of our time has appeared. In the first book devoted to that topic, Edna Aizenberg brings together specially commissioned and translated essays from a variety of disciplines to provide a wide-ranging assessment of Borges’s influence. Presenting the insights of critics from South America, France, and Germany as well as those from the United States, this collection views Borges as a redefiner of...
Seek: Reports From The Edges Of America & Beyond by Denis Johnson. New York. 2001. Harper Collins. keywords: Literature America Travel.
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
Part political disquisition, part travel journal, part self-exploration, Seek is a collection of essays and articles in which Denis Johnson essentially takes on the world.And not an obliging, easygoing world either; but rather one in which horror and beauty exist in such proximity that they might well be interchangeable. Where violence and poverty and moral transgression go unchecked, even unnoticed. A world of such wild, rocketing energy that, grasping it, anything at all is possible. Whether traveling through war-ravaged Liberia, mingling with the crowds at a Christian Biker rally, exploring his own authority issues through the lens of this nation's militia groups,...
Hiya! This is a poem I wrote for poetry class - more info on the paragraph below… I have been invited to read one of my poems at the Watershed Poetry...
You might even like to take a look at our SIGNET CLASSIC BIBLIOGRAPHY (in a TEXT FORMAT ) ! The Signet Classic line made its debut in August 1959 with the title ADOLPHE & THE RED NOTEBOOK by Benjamin Constant (book code # CD1). The publisher of Signet Classics, New American Library, commissioned a variety of graphic artists to create distinctive covers designs for this landmark line of classics (the covers for the Shakespeare series were in fact done by Milton Glaser). Many of the books were reprints of scholarly editions, featuring introductions or afterwords by noted experts... Perhaps we can even help you build a collection of these great books.
Want your own Web Site? We recommendBookfella.com and use this special Promotional Code to Save! Promo Code:ZENOS Just enter this promo code when signing up and save $29.95
Check out our new collection of author signatures. We have over 400 and we are adding more all the time!
What I am reading . . .
Laxdaela Saga translated from the old Icelandic and with an introduction & notes by Magnus Magnusson & Hermann Palsson. Baltimore. 1969. Penguin Classics. 272 pages. L218. The cover shows a detail from a medieval Icelandic wood carving in pine. Keywords: Literature Iceland Sagas Mythology History Translated
From the publisher -
Of all the major Icelandic sagas, LAXDAELA SAGA has always stirred the European imagination the most profoundly. Composed by an unknown author (c. 1245) at a time when the Age of Chivalry was in its fullest flower in continental Europe, LAXDAELA SAGA is a dynastic chronicle that sweeps from generation to generation across 150 years of Iceland’s early history. It is best known for the story of Gudrun Osvif’s daughter, the imperious beauty forced to marry her lover’s best friend, who is enshrined forever in the gallery of great tragi-romantic heroines of world literature. LAXDAELA SAGA, the record of a land caught between the pioneering demands of settlement and the intellectual rigours of Christianity, bestows dignity and grandeur on this nation’s past.
How To Talk About Books You Haven't Read by Pierre Bayard. Translated from the French by Jeffrey Mehlman. New York. 2007 Bloomsbury. 187 pages. Jacket design by Patti Ratchford. 9781596914698
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
If civilized people are expected to have read all important works of literature, and thousands more books are published every year, what are we supposed to do in those awkward social situations in which we’re forced to talk about books we haven’t read? In this delightfully witty, provocative book, a huge hit in France that has drawn attention from critics around the world, literature professor and psychoanalyst Pierre Bayard argues that it’s actually more important to know a book’s role in our collective library than its details. Using examples from such writers as Graham Greene, Oscar Wilde, Montaigne, and Umberto Eco, and even the movie Groundhog Day, he describes the many varieties of ‘non-reading’ and the horribly sticky social situations that might confront us, and then offers his advice on what to do. Practical, funny, and thought-provoking, HOW TO TALK ABOUT BOOKS YOU HAVEN’T READ is in the end a love letter to books, offering a whole new perspective on how we read and absorb them. Pierre Bayard is a professor of French literature at the University of Paris VIII and a psychoanalyst. He is the author of WHO KILLED ROGER ACKROYD? and of many other books. Jeffrey Mehlman is a professor of French at Boston University and the author of a number of books, including EMIGRÉ NEW YORK. He has translated works by Derrida, Lacan, Blanchot, and other authors.
The Arabian Nights: Tales Of 1001 Nights, Volume 1 translated by Malcolm C. Lyons with Ursula Lyons. New York. 2010. Penguin Books. Introduction by Robert Irwin. 982 pages. Penguin Classic Paperback Edition. Cover: Flying over Istanbul and the Galata Tower on the Magic Carpet, 19th-century miniature from The Tale, of The Thousand and One Nights, in the University Library, Istanbul (photogaph The Art Archive,' Gianni Doak Orti). keywords:. Literature Arabic Mythology Folklore Translated. 9780104449389.
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
When the beautiful Shahrazad gives herself to the bloody-handed King Shahriyar, she is not expected to survive beyond dawn. But using all her wit and guile, she begins a sequence of stories that will last 1001 nights: stories of 'ifrits and money-changers, princes and slave girls, fishermen and queens, and magical gardens of paradise. This volume also includes the well-known tale of 'Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves'. Along with this landmark new translation, Robert Irwin's introduction discusses the many cultures The Arabian Nights has drawn on and the elaborate structure of the story-within-a-story that defines the collection, as well as the importance to the Nights of locked doors, sex and the recurring themes of money, merchants and debts. This edition also contains suggestions for further reading, a glossary, maps and a chronology.
Churchill’s Secret War: The British Empire & The Ravaging Of India During World War II By Madhusree Mukerjee. New York. 2010. Basic Books. 332 pages. Jacket design by Alyssa Stepien. Jacket photograph - Time & Life Pictures. Keywords: History India England World War II Colonialism. 9780465002016
From the publisher –
In 1943 Winston Churchill and the British Empire needed millions of Indian troops, all of India's industrial output, and tons of Indian grain to support the Allied war effort. Such massive contributions were certain to trigger famine in India. Because Churchill believed that the fate of the British Empire hung in the balance, he proceeded, sacrificing millions of Indian lives in order to preserve what he held most dear. The result: the Bengal Famine of 1943-44 in which millions of villagers starved to death. Relying on extensive archival research and first-hand interviews, Mukerjee weaves a riveting narrative of Churchill's decisions to ratchet up the demands on India as the war unfolded and to ignore the corpses piling up in the Bengali countryside. The hypocrisy, racism, and extreme economic conditions of two centuries of British colonial policy finally built to a head, leading Indians to fight for their independence in 1947. Few Americans know that World War II was won on the backs of these starving peasants; Mukerjee shows us a side of World War II that we have been blind to. We know what Hitler did to the Jews, what the Japanese did to the Chinese, what Stalin did to his own people. This story has largely been neglected, until now. Madhusree Mukerjee is the author of The Land of Naked People for which she was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship. She has spoken at the United Nations on behalf of indigenous peoples and been a guest on NPR's ‘Talk of the Nation’ addressing the same issue. A former editor at Scientific American, she lives in Germany.
The Happy Warriors by Halldor Laxness. London. 1958. Methuen. Translated From The Icelandic By Katherine John. 287 pages. Jacket design by David Watson. keywords: Literature Iceland Translated Sagas.
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
THE HAPPY WARRIORS is a long rich novel which fits into none of the traditional categories of English fiction. A story of murder, revenge and adventure in Iceland, Greenland and Norway, it is at the same time a well sustained satire on the classical Nordic saga. The period is the end of the Viking era and the beginning of Christianity in Western Europe. There are two central characters, the oath-brothers Thorgeir and Thormod, the one a fighting man, the other a skald. Their feats are described with apparent admiration, so that the reader has the impression of discovering almost against the author's intention how hollow and meaningless are Thorgeir's murderous pursuits and Thormod's abandonment of a happy life to avenge his friend's death. The point is never laboured, the tongue in the cheek is unobtrusive, but the inescapable conclusion is that the legendary heroes were not larger than life after all; they were what would nowadays be called misfits, and a nuisance to everyone. In spite of this, the book is a huge popular epic. If the author does not think much of Viking prowess, he has a great admiration for the people of Iceland, and their cunning and commonsense, hardiness and caginess, their silence and poetry. Every one of the many characters is rounded and real. The women, for all their ferocity, are wonderful. The dialogue is terse, natural and vigorous. The whole book is written with a breath-taking vigour and inventiveness.
If you want to order a book that you don’t see on our site, let us know what it is. If it is in print we can probably get it for you.
Zeno’s is an online used and out-of-print bookstore that specializes in literature in translation, modern first editions, and hard-to-find books. In addition to selling books to customers all over the world for over 25 years (since 1983), we have worked with other local businesses and schools to promote literacy by providing books and other resource materials to the public schools. Zeno’s started as a mail-order used and out-of-print business. We moved into a storefront in 1992, moved to a bigger location a couple of years later, and eventually closed the physical store to go online. Thus, zenosbooks.com was born. We have been selling our own hard-picked eclectic selection of used, hard-to-find, and even rare books via the internet ever since. Recently we have added new books to our mix. Any book person can see that the number of independent bookstores, both new and used, is dwindling, and that the current “book world,” is increasingly dominated by the big-box chain store or by the massive internet retailers. We however would like to think that there is room for a alternative that is a little more interesting . . . And we support our local schools.
As a small business we are wedded to our community. We don’t live in some sort of multi-national hyperspace whose connection to community is whatever their PR Department has come up with for the current promotion. We live in the real world. We support our own local economy. According to The Andersonville Study by the Civic Economics Group (which can be read online at –
for every $100 a consumer spends, locals businesses give $68 to the local economy, while chain stores only give back $43.
As far as buying online goes, zenosbooks.com offers essentially the same service that is offered by Amazon.com, with some notable extras...
We not only recycle money into our local economy (first and foremost because we live here), we will offer to the local school of your choice a monthly 10% rebate on any of your purchases through zenosbooks.com if the school is willing to work with us. Every time you purchase a book through us you have the opportunity to support your local schools.
How can you go wrong with that?
Our Web Page is frequently updated with new listings
Dr. Karel Capek (January 9, 1890 – December 25, 1938) was one of the most influential Czech writers of the 20th century. He introduced and made popular the frequently used international word robot, which first appeared in his play R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots) in 1921. Karel credited his brother, Josef Capek, as the true inventor of the word robot. Capek was born in Malé Svatonovice, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary (now Czech Republic). Karel Capek wrote with intelligence and humor on a wide variety of subjects. His works are known for their interesting and precise descriptions of reality, and Capek is renowned for his excellent work with the Czech language. He is perhaps best known as a science fiction author, who wrote long before science fiction became established as a separate genre. He can be considered one of the founders of classical, non-hardcore European science fiction, a type which focuses on possible future (or alternative) social and human evolution on Earth, rather than technically advanced stories of space travel. However, it is best to classify him with Aldous Huxley and George Orwell as a speculative fiction writer, distinguishing his work from genre-specific hard science fiction. Many of his works discuss ethical and other aspects of revolutionary inventions and processes that were already anticipated in the first half of 20th century. These include mass production, atomic weapons, and post-human intelligent beings such as robots or intelligent salamanders. In addressing these themes, Capek was also expressing fear of impending social disasters, dictatorship, violence, and the unlimited power of corporations, as well as trying to find some hope for human beings. Capek's literary heirs include Ray Bradbury, Salman Rushdie, Brian Aldiss and Dan Simmons. His other books and plays include detective stories, novels, fairy tales and theatre plays, and even a book on gardening. His most important works attempt to resolve problems of epistemology, to answer the question: "What is knowledge?" Examples include "The Tales from Two Pockets", and first book of all the trilogy of novels Hordubal, Meteor, and An Ordinary Life. Later, in the 1930s, Capek's work focused on the threat of brutal Nazi and fascist dictatorships. His most productive years coincided with the existence of the first republic of Czechoslovakia (1918–1938). He wrote Talks with Tomáš Masaryk — Masaryk was a Czech patriot, the first President of Czechoslovakia, and a regular guest at Capek's Friday garden parties for Czech patriots. Capek was also a member of Masaryk's Hrad political network. This extraordinary relationship between the author and the political leader may be unique, and was an inspiration for Václav Havel. He also became a member of International PEN. Soon after it became clear that the Western allies had refused to help defend Czechoslovakia against Hitler, Capek refused to leave his country — despite the fact that the Gestapo had named him Czechoslovakia's "public enemy number 2." Karel Capek died of double pneumonia on December 25, 1938, shortly after part of Bohemia was annexed by Nazi Germany following the so-called Munich Agreement. He was interred in the Vyšehrad cemetery in Prague. His brother Josef Capek, a painter and writer, died in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. After the war, Capek's work was reluctantly accepted by the Communist regime of Czechoslovakia, because during his life he had refused to accept a communist utopia as a viable alternative to the threat of Nazi domination.
A daily TV/radio news program, hosted by Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez, airing on over 850 stations, pioneering the largest community media collaboration in the U.S.
It's been a month since torrential rains triggered the worst floods in Pakistan's recent history. Nearly 20 million people are homeless or hungry, with one million people displaced in the past week alone. The official death toll is at 1,760 but is expected to rise as survivors are threatened by...
A new study shows the CEOs who fired the most workers during the economic recession have also taken home the highest pay. According to the Institute for Policy Studies, the CEOs of the fifty corporations responsible for the worst layoffs were paid an average $12 million -- 42 percent more...
It's back-to-school season. As millions of children around the country begin a new school year, the Obama administration is aggressively moving forward on a number of education initiatives, from expanding charter schools to implementing new national academic standards. We talk to Karen Lewis, the president of the Chicago Teachers Union,...
Another oil and gas rig exploded yesterday in the Gulf of Mexico, renewing calls for the government to impose a ban on offshore oil drilling. The fire broke out on a rig operated by Mariner Energy Thursday morning about 100 miles south of the Louisiana coast. The rig was anchored...
Another Oil Rig Explodes in Gulf of Mexico, BP: Denial of Drilling Permit Threatens Gulf Coast Claims, Calls Grow for Offshore Drilling Ban, US Accused of Killing 10 Afghan Civilians, Main Afghan Bank Faces Collapse, Slain US Army Chaplain Is First to Die in Combat Since Vietnam War, Israeli, Palestinian...
Glenn Beck organized a much-publicized "Restoring Honor" rally on Saturday in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC. Beck's fans reportedly number in the millions, and Saturday's rally drew nearly 100,000 supporters. We speak with Alexander Zaitchik, author of Common Nonsense: Glenn Beck and the Triumph of Ignorance. [includes...
A federal court in California has issued a ruling that's raising widespread alarm among advocates for civil liberties. Last month, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit said law enforcement agents can sneak onto a person's property, plant a GPS device on their vehicle, and track their every...
New York Governor David Paterson has signed into law a measure establishing a landmark set of working standards for housekeepers, nannies and other domestic workers. With the signing of the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights, New York becomes the first state where domestic workers will be guaranteed overtime pay after...
Riding waves in the middle of the city? A river in Munich's English Garden has hosted surfers and curious spectators alike for 30 years. Although long forbidden, experienced surfers can now ride the waves legally.
There's no lack of soccer talent in the east of Germany - but the money isn't there to support it. This season, for the first time since unification, not a single eastern team has made it into the Bundesliga.
According to media reports, a German-born Islamic extremist arrested in Afghanistan has warned of possible terrorist attacks in Germany and elsewhere in Europe.
Chancellor Angela Merkel has waded into a contentious debate on immigration in Germany as Bundesbank board member Thilo Sarrazin, unfazed by widespread criticism of his views on race, threatened to fight his dismissal.
Eggs and shoes were hurled at former British Prime Minister Tony Blair in Dublin by anti-war protestors angry at his new book which defends Blair's decision to invade Iraq.
The opening of a new synagogue in the city of Mainz and the recent ordaining of two rabbis in Leipzig have given a boost to the renaissance of Jewish culture in Germany.
EU trade commissioner Karel de Gucht has said he didn't mean to cause offence to the Jewish community after he was criticized for comments blaming the "Jewish lobby" in the US for blocking Mideast peace.
Hundreds of people on Saturday visited the site of the deadly stampede at the Love Parade music festival in the German city of Duisburg as a plaque was unveiled to remember the 21 victims.
Thousands of people have been rallying across France and in some European cities to protest against the deportation of Roma as well as other new security measures adopted by French President Nicolas Sarkozy's government.
IPS, civil society's leading news agency, is an independent voice from the South and for development, delving into globalisation for the stories underneath.
Seen from up high, the route to Puente Inambari looks like a green serpent --
long, robust and sinuous. The Amazon jungle that dominates this landscape will
be underwater if one of the largest hydroelectric dams in Peru (and all Latin
America) is built.
A trial that dragged on for six years amidst public outrage ended Friday in Portugal with the unexpected sentencing of prominent personalities, found guilty in a child sex abuse scandal that shook the nation.
Exports from Latin America and the Caribbean will grow again this year, driven largely by demand from China. But the high proportion of commodities may increase dependency on China, and Asia as a region, warns a new report by ECLAC, the regional United Nations agency.
Exports from Latin America and the Caribbean will grow again this year, driven largely by demand from China. But the high proportion of commodities may increase dependency on China, and Asia as a region, warns a new report by ECLAC, the regional United Nations agency.
Sugarcane could replace the energy produced by three hydroelectric dams like
the Belo Monte in the Amazon, claims the Brazilian sugarcane industry, which
remains relegated to marginal participation in the national electricity matrix.
Mavi Susel, the first transsexual in Cuba to undergo sex reassignment surgery, back in 1988, has found herself trapped in the traditionally assigned gender role of a housewife.
A surprisingly small number of scientists have studied the impacts of the oil spill
resulting from the 1979 blowout at the Ixtoc I oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. Wes
Tunnell, who first studied the spill's effects in July and August of 1980 and has
returned many times since, is one of the few exceptions.
Tamaulipas state has become the black hole of organised crime in Mexico. But there are few accounts of the rapid social breakdown that the northeastern border state has experienced since the start of the year, because the local press is silenced.
The fisheries and aquaculture sectors are central to the survival of millions in Africa, but the resource is under threat, yet the region should exploit market possibilities.
The recent fire damage to Ultima Studios' in Nigeria (see Broadcast News below) and the 2008 fire in Universal Studios' video vault underline the importance of holding a back-up and making a proper archive of work. Balancing Act's Sylvain Beletre looks at what the practice in Africa has been so far and suggests some easy ways to overcome the problem.
PETROLEUM retailer Engen is on the verge of buying Chevron's downstream assets in seven sub-Saharan Africa and Indian Ocean Island countries, the company said yesterday.
New varieties of drought-tolerant maize could deliver a US$1.5 billion gain in food and income in Sub-Saharan Africa as well as helping smallholders cope with the effects of climate change, according to a study carried out in 13 countries in the region.
The director general of the World Health Organisation (WHO), Margaret Chan, said Wednesday in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, contacts will be held with pharmaceutical manufacturers to discuss the reduction of cancer treatment drugs prices.
African heads of state, private sector leaders and agricultural experts are meeting in Accra, Ghana today to inaugurate the African Green Revolution Forum.
A new maize disease, not previously reported in Africa, will threaten food security and the livelihoods of millions of people on the continent, scientists have said.
THERE has been a large positive shift in global investment perceptions towards agriculture in Africa, driven by the global race for resources and food.
As rising food prices, growing populations and natural disasters increasingly put pressure on food production, governments and scientists are focusing on preserving the world's agricultural biodiversity through seed and gene banks.
How about a quick virtual tour of our facilities?...
Laxdaela Saga translated from the old Icelandic and with an introduction & notes by Magnus Magnusson & Hermann Palsson. Baltimore. 1969. Penguin Classics. 272 pages. L218. The cover shows a detail from a medieval Icelandic wood carving in pine. Keywords: Literature Iceland Sagas Mythology History Translated
How To Talk About Books You Haven't Read by Pierre Bayard. Translated from the French by Jeffrey Mehlman. New York. 2007 Bloomsbury. 187 pages. Jacket design by Patti Ratchford. 9781596914698
Churchill’s Secret War: The British Empire & The Ravaging Of India During World War II By Madhusree Mukerjee. New York. 2010. Basic Books. 332 pages. Jacket design by Alyssa Stepien. Jacket photograph - Time & Life Pictures. Keywords: History India England World War II Colonialism. 9780465002016
The Happy Warriors by Halldor Laxness. London. 1958. Methuen. Translated From The Icelandic By Katherine John. 287 pages. Jacket design by David Watson. keywords: Literature Iceland Translated Sagas.
