I received a very interesting email yesterday.  It said in part, I thought you might be interested in our new Yoga book . . . .  It is a great guide for new students of yoga.  Now, I am quite the skeptic and so I figured that this was just another piece of SPAM.  Taking a closer look, I realized that this was actually an invitation to read a yoga book online.  I made some inquiries about it and received a reply from Robert Maran, president of maranGraphics.  It turns out that maranGraphics is publishing their Maran Illustrated Yoga book online using Issuu and they were aksing me to review it.  I’ve been taking time, here and there, since yesterday to read through it.

My initial reaction is that reading the book online leaves me wanting but that’s always the case when I don’t actually have the book in hand, call me a tradionalist but I love holding a book!  Of course, I also own a large library of books in electronic format.  There is no denying the convenience of reading a book on my laptop when I have a spare moment.  The only reason that I want a copy to hold is that this book is good.  It begins by briefly covering the history of Yoga and some of the various yogic schools—hatha, bhakti, karma, jnana, mantra, tantra, raja—and then focuses on hatha yoga before going on to cover other basics such as props, finding a teacher and a large number of other topics.  Sounds like a great book?  It is and that’s just the first chapter!  I’ll finish reading through it this weekend and post a full review on Monday.

One other thing to note, in his reply to some of my questions Mr. Maran said, Our current plan is to have this version of book freely available for anyone that wants to view it online.  The hope is, in part, that people reading it online will experience a desire to have the book in hard, sound familiar?  I know when I read something that is high quality online, I almost feel obligated to buy a hardcopy just to show my appreciation for reading free online.  That alone impressed me greatly about maranGraphics.  Then I read something that left me speechless:  If we can benefit those who cannot afford a physical book then that is a bonus.  Bravo maranGraphics, bravo!

So, why the title A Little Addition and where is the link to this online book?  The little addition is the suggested reading menu on the left.  The link will show up with the review on Monday.  If I find it to be an exceptional work then I’ll add it to the Suggested Reading list.  Either way, I want to review the book completely before placing a link.  I have little doubt that the rest of the book will be as good as the first chapter but I want to be absolutely sure.  I know that I’m no great sage nor am I a man of great renown but my integrity is sacred to me and I won’t risk tarnishing it by jumping to any conclusions after reading only the first 36 pages of a 323 page book.

Namasté