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 To learn about this fascinating city, here is a brief list of books, by way of introduction, to set you on your way:
Hilary Sumner-Boyd and John Freely. Strolling
Through Istanbul. A Guide to the
City. London: Istanbul, 1989. (Updated Edition
in 2010). [An excellent guide book to the city].
John Freely. John Freely's Istanbul. London:
Scala Publishers, 2005. [A beautifully illustrated and
descriptive book about the city].
John Freely. Istanbul. The Imperial City. London: Penguin,
1998. [An historical narrative, with notes on museums and
monuments].
Jonathan Harris. Constantinople. Capital of Byzantium.
New York: Continuum, 2009. [Exploring the medieval period,
emphasizing the period just prior ot the Fourth Crusade].
Philip Mansel. Constantinople. City of the
World's Desire. 1453-1924. New York: St.
Martin's Press, 1995. [A study of the city as
Ottoman imperial capital]. Orhan Pamuk. Istanbul. Memories of a City. (tr. Maureen Freely). London: Faber
and Faber, 2005. [A masterpiece of a book offers a personal and captivating
reflection on the twentieth century when Istanbul became a poor provincial city (i.e.,
when the Ottoman Empire had ended and Ankara became the capital of the new
nation of Turkey) rather than an imperial capital which it had been for the
previous 1,700 years! Pamuk is the most acclaimed contemporary Turkish writer
and novelist and reading this will reveal, in remarkable prose, the city's often painful
and disheartening transition from Ottoman cosmopolitanism to Turkish nationalism].
Jane Taylor. Imperial Istanbul. A Traveller's Guide. London: Tauris Parke
Paperbacks, 2007. [A good choice to prepare for, or to bring on, a trip to Istanbul].
There are also other travel guide books published by (in alphabetical order, not any order of preference) Berlitz, DK Eyewitness, Frommer’s, Insight Guide, Lonely Planet, Rick Steve’s, and Time Out, among others. |