Wednesday, 10 February 2010

Book: To Cambodia With Love


Having not read the fine print and that Amazon and Barnes & Noble were promoting the publication date of 1 March 2010 for the new guidebook To Cambodia With Love - A Travel Guide for the Connoisseur, I was on the verge of getting my credit card out to order it on Amazon , only to realize that it's still unavailable, and listed as a pre-order only. Nonetheless, I am hugely chuffed that a book with my photographs of Cambodia is on major booksellers' websites, even if my name is misspelled on the Amazon website.

Ah...my name! I'm always amused how many on my photo~expeditions struggle to pronounce my name and, eventually defeated, call me 'T' (making me feel a bit like Tony Soprano...which is a gigantic compliment in my way of thinking), while the local tribals we visited in Gujarat last week had no difficulty at all. On all my photo~expeditions and individual travels to pretty much "out of the beaten path" places, I have yet to meet a local who struggles with my name or mispronounces it...only Americans find it to be a tongue twister.

But I digress, so back to the important matter in hand. I was referred to the Amazon web page for the To Cambodia With Love via a post on Andy Brouwer's blog. Andy is the editor and contributor of the book, and is a recognized expert of all matters related to Cambodia, where he lives and works. Andy has only finished the final manuscript last weekend, so he predicts that the book will be available in 3-4 months. By the way, this book was in the works since a couple of years. I got paid for my photographs when I submitted them, so I'm sort of relaxed about the final publication date.

I hope readers of The Travel Photographer blog who have an interest in Cambodia will buy this book. If I get free copies, I will come up with a contest of some sort and give away copies to winners.

If I do and as long as the free supply lasts, perhaps I will give a free copy to American readers who pronounce my name correctly.

Call Me KIJU

Here are impromptu street portraits of Kiju on Crosby Street in Soho, NYC. Kiju is an alternative rock performer.