Category: Book receommendations

  • ArabNet, Beirut and ‘Being Arab’

    Visiting Beirut is always a bitter sweet experience. My last trip to Beirut to attend ArabNet, the region’s first web business conference was my third trip to the city in 8 years, each of which had the duration of 48 hours. Each time I visit beirut I leave with a book, always from Librarie Antoine,…

  • Al Manakh: Surveying the Gulf’s contemporary urbanism

    The International Design Forum saw the launch of a very interesting book today: Al Manakh. It is one of those “books” that reminds me of another Rem Koolhaas related book called Mutations, in that it is an hybrid amalgamation of articles, graphs, architectural drawings and photos, contributed by countless participants. The publication is a special…

  • From the Chocolate Factory to Scandinavian Children Literature

    Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Today I finally got around to watching Charlie and Chocolate Factory. I was never exposed to the original book as a kid, so I approached the whole thing with a curious, open mind. The DVD of the movie I watched with my kids was NOT a crappy pirated one, but…

  • Caring not only for knowledge.. but the future of knowledge!

    An excerpt from an excellent post from cacopolis. The librarian showing us around said something striking. The library has a view of building collections regardless of current demand, where perhaps the particular section on, say, the history of Afghan-Persian relations in the 17th century, may be of interest to some members in 50 years time.…

  • MixUp Arabia Episode 1 is here

    I can tell you this podcasting thing isn’t easy. But I managed to put together episode 1 of MixUp Arabia. I got some encouraging comments and email from people who listened to my test episode of May 21. Keep the suggestions and comments coming. If you like the show (or feel sorry for me give…

  • Tales of nudists and nerds: what our IT industry could learn from Silicon Valley

    Here’s what’s ‘wrong’ with Jordan’s IT scene: there’s not enough weird people in it! Even the young computer science graduates who join our IT companies are not weird enough. In fact most of them are not weird at all. What does weirdness got to do with it? Everything. Take Bill Gates for example, then show…

  • Food for the mind and senses

    RETAIL | Ahmad Humeid visit’s Amman’s first proper media store Burgers, clothes and cinnamon rolls. This pretty much sums up Amman’s shopping malls. Add to that hundreds of over eager teenagers at the gates and you end up with a predictable mall experience that makes you want to escape to old Jabal Amman for a…