Monday, December 17, 2007

carpet wars: book of the month

Did you know that in Iraq farmers build towers for birds to nest in so they can collect the fertiliser? The Carpet Wars by Christopher Kremmer is a great read. I picked it up at Borders a few weeks ago and found it hard to put down. The book uses the history of carpet making in the Middle East to provide a rich tapestry by which to understand contemporary Islam. Chris writes beautifully, mixing his travels over ten years through Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, India, with the personal stories of those he meets. Thus it becomes not only a celebration of creativity, but a really helpful introduction to the complexities and nuances of Islam today – including people, history and culture.

Posted by steve at 04:18 PM

7 Comments

  1. Ok worst pun/play on words for the year

    “The book uses the history of carpet making in the Middle East to provide a rich tapestry by which to understand contemporary Islam.”

    Have a great Christmas in the new place.

    Comment by David Morgan — December 18, 2007 @ 5:10 pm

  2. feel free to exercise your ministry of discouragement on other people’s blogs David

    Comment by steve — December 18, 2007 @ 9:27 pm

  3. I’ve always wondered if the possessive plural of people was people’s or peoples’. Thanks for clarifying Steve, and merry Christmas!

    Comment by Nick — December 19, 2007 @ 8:06 am

  4. cheers nick. i would never trust my punctuation. however i do hope some of my eagle-eyed punctuated blog readers note your praise 🙂 and don’t have to work too hard not to smirk

    steve

    Comment by steve — December 19, 2007 @ 8:16 am

  5. Ah Steve,

    But if it was really discouraging then it would be “A pun neither good nor bad, intentional or not, but nevertheless contained in the text.”

    Or was it my comment about the new place?

    Sorry if any offense was taken it was meant to be taken lightly.

    Comment by David — December 19, 2007 @ 1:58 pm

  6. David, i lost your “to be taken Lightly” in translation. i thought you were telling me that it was the worst pun you had seen all year and i tookw worst in a prejorative sense.

    so what were you trying to communicate?

    steve

    Comment by steve — December 19, 2007 @ 8:45 pm

  7. Hi Steve,

    I was trying to communicate that there was a play on words, whether intentional or not, which I had not usually seen in your writing and it amused me.

    Have a great day and sorry for the communication problems – one of the joys in blogging and commenting is how to be real isn’t it.

    Comment by David Morgan — December 20, 2007 @ 9:25 am

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