Dear John, Laura and friends,

thanks, John, for sharing your learning experience. For myself, I am
currently going through Pali Primer for the third time, but the
previous two times were incomplete.

Gair and Karunatillake is still manageable for a beginner by looking
up in grammars and other references. I have also looked at Ven.
Narada's text (which is available online) and several others.

There are many good stuff for download from Buddhanet:
http://www.buddhanet.net/ebooks_s.htm

The book "Treasury of Truth - Dhammapada" is a very good book, it
contains the pali verses and explanation of the pali terms, english
translation of the verses, and the stories accompanying each verse.
It kept me occupied for many days when I bought the book many years
back. Buddhanet has the book in text version, as well as the original
illustrated version (22MB). These pictures were commissioned to
Burmese artists who paint them by hand one at a time. The 900-page
hardcopy version is for sale at 60 singapore dollars. All pages are
in full-color gloss.

There is a similar project underway for the Jataka Tales, which will
be in three volumes. I have been waiting for its publication for many
years. For more information, please see SBMC website:
http://www.buddhist-book.com/

I will be looking at the Dhammapada for the first verse which we are
discussing in Word-by-Word.

metta,
Yong Peng

--- In Pali@yahoogroups.com, John Kelly wrote:
> 1. First I started with Lily de Silva's Pali Primer.
> This is an excellent place to start, as it introduces
> the grammar very slowly and gently. And as you may
> have noticed, YP is posting all his solutions to the
> exercises to this group.
>
> 2. Next I tackled A New Course in Reading Pali by
> Gair and Karunatillake. This is more advanced than de
> Silva, but not quite as dense as Warder, and all the
> translation exercises are from the Canon. I have
> posted my solutions to this on this group's files
> section, and am currently sending them bit-by-bit as
> emails.
>
> 3. Now, finally I'm working through Warder. I first
> looked at this book right when I was beginning Pali,
> and it seemed quite daunting, but now with the other
> two books under my belt, it's much more manageable.
> Again all the exercises are taken from the Canon. For
> this too, I am posting my solutions to the list, for
> comment and feedback - and, I hope, to benefit others
> who are studying this book.