Sutta Compilation Book!

The plan: self-publish @sujato’s sutta translations in a bunch of nice-looking printed books with @yodha’s artwork on the covers. Then give these books away in Little Free Libraries around town.

The first proof copy arrived last night. It needs some minor improvements, mostly things in the interior that didn’t quite look right yet, and that could only be caught at the proof stage. But here it is:

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Next steps: After fixing the remaining glitches, I’ll order a few copies, then drive around with my daughter and drop them off. (She’s expressed great interest in the project, in the illustrations, and in meditating. Yay!)

I would also like to send one each to @yodha and @sujato, though I’ll need physical addresses to do that.

And finally I will make the book available for purchase at cost through lulu.com… once I’m certain that I can offer it WITHOUT making a profit for myself. I was surprised yesterday to learn that it was actually difficult to do this with them.

I will also make the electronic freely files available, although apart from fixing a couple of obvious typos I really did nothing with the text itself.

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Wow, looks great! :heart_eyes:
I’ll PM you my address.

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Great work @Gus!

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That is awesome!

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Fabulous work. Sadhu. I shall purchase from Lulu.

With metta and mudita,
Gillian

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Wow, that is really incredible work, thanks so much. I am so amazed to see this constellation of talent drawn together through this forum. It is what I dreamed of—people taking the Dhamma, remixing and recombining it in creative ways. And here it is, in a form I never imagined.

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It seems that Blurb will allow you to place book on their site for ordering without having to add a profit for the uploader.

I’m curious if you somehow warn people about the first sutta. I think for many, this might not be the best introduction. You might want to suggest that they start with the third set of ten as they have interesting similes and are more accessible.

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I think the free downloadable book files will prove the best distribution form. People can read them on their tablets if they wish or they can have a local copy/print shop make a bound book if they prefer that (I know sure do). That way I can have sprial binding. You really can’t get a copy of Bodhi’s translations, for example, re-spiral-bound because of the margins. Copyshop can adjust for that in the printing of the file or you can use a wider gauge paper and also have room for notes.

I want spiral-bound Nikayas!! :smile:

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Thanks everyone! Some quick replies to various issues:

  1. MN 1 is certainly rough going. Even MN 2 is only starting to make sense to me in some ways just recently. But I was very hesitant to add or remove anything at all; my initial plan didn’t even include an introduction! One possible response is just to mention the suttas I’ve found easiest to get into. Many of the rest through MN 10 are more oriented toward a beginner.

  2. I agree on the free file distribution. It’s coming soon. The free files should allow you to create spiral-bound versions at lulu.com and probably at other places too.

  3. I believe the issue with profit is resolved now. I’ll update on this thread when I’ve made more progress, including making the fixed-up version available for a free download or an at-cost paperback purchase.

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Regarding the difficulty of MN 1, perhaps it would be an idea to include SuttaCentral’s difficulty icons for the Long and Middle Discourses. These are the icons in the top-right corner of each long and middle discourse.

They were created by Alena Artemova, and released under a “CC BY 3.0 US” license: suttacentral.net/licensing

In any case, fantastic work. I hope I’ll be able to buy a copy on Lulu.

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I believe Lulu offers this option? Maybe we can ensure that they are offered in spiral and well as perfect binding.

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Spiral-bound books are definitely available. I just didn’t know anyone wanted them. For study and note-taking, a spiral binding with wide margins may even be best.

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Another update. The printing glitches ought to be fixed now.

Here’s the link where you can purchase a copy at cost:

http://www.lulu.com/shop/trans-bhikkhu-sujato/the-middle-discourses-of-the-buddha-vol-i/paperback/product-23876203.html

PDFs of the cover and the interior are attached to this message for download. Those of you who would like a spiral bound version should probably start with the interior PDF, which should be compatible with lulu’s spiral binding option. I’m less sure about the cover for a spiral binding, but a little time with Photoshop or GIMP should fix any problems in that department.

23819889.pdf (1.2 MB)

23819889_cover.pdf (2.7 MB)

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Sadhu Sadhu!

In future editions, you may want to consider removing the space between paragraphs. Usually the first line indent is enough.

Great work!

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Hi Gus,

thank you so much for doing this! I love your introduction. :smiley: :anjal:

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This is lovely.

If I may make a suggestion… should this be entitled the middle-length discourses though?

With metta

Si

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Hi Gus,

Thanks for the project! I wonder is it any future plan for other nikayas ?
I live in Indonesia, I could only download the pdf version. So I keep waiting for other nikayas PDF when they’re avialable.

Kent

general info - thebookpatch.com works as well. I’ve printed loads of PDFs into books there, and you can set up the sale to make no profit yourself for sure. I look forward to adding these to my library.

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From @gustavo to @Gus this is so great!! :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: Sadhu, Sadhu, Sadhu my friend :pray:

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