The Reading List

Here on The Reading List I will keep an updated list of books, newspapers, magazines and anything else that has helped me prepare for life in Istanbul.

Fiction:

• “Snow,”  by Orhan Pamuk:

History:

• “Ataturk,” by Andrew Mango:

• “The Ottoman Centuries: The Rise and Fall of the Turkish Empire,” by Lord Kinross: This history covers all 622 years of the Ottoman Empire (1300 – 1922) in exactly 622 pages. Kinross writes well and is easy to read, especially considering the depth of historical material he covers. Some histories may read like a textbook, but this one does not. Sultans and Pashas are brought to life and understood in their historical context through his analysis of their actions, ambitions and character. “Ottoman Centuries” besides showing the transformation of nomadic tribes into an empire to rival Rome, provides deeper understanding of the lenghty history of more familiar Turkish sights such as Hagia Sofia and The Golden Horn. It could benefit from better maps.

Other Nonfiction:

• “The Innocents Abroad or, the New Pilgrims’ Progress,” by Mark Twain: This book originated as a series of newspaper columns written by Mark Twain as he journeyed across the Atlantic with a group of Quakers to Europe and the Holy Land. Only a handful of pages in the book describe his experience in Constantinople, but with his typical humor he describes the slave market, the Turkish bath and Turkish coffee and the packs of wild dogs that are still today in the streets of Istanbul. Although biting as Twain’s wit is, his 19th century zenophobic paradigm should probably be avoided by modern readers.

• “Istanbul: Memories and the City,” by Orhan Pamuk: In this memoir, Pamuk — receipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature — recounts his experience growing up in Istanbul in the decades following Ataturk’s reformation.  Pamuk takes great care to show the city as an embodiment of “huzun,” a specific form of meloncholy, developed through its geography, its history, its people, and as Pamuk shows, its writers. This book takes the time to show the reader a side to Istanbul that no cruise ship stop could ever explain — a living, breathing zeitgeist developed over centuries.

• “What is Sufism?” by Martin Lings: This is a concise introduction to Sufism. Lings can be a bit flowery in his language and metaphors and assumes a fairly high level of Islamic background knowledge. Other than the occasional need to consult wikipedia or reread some paragraphs, this book is useful and clear.

Poetry:

• “The Essential Rumi,” translated by Coleman Barks and John Moyne: Jelaluddin Rumi was a Sufi poet who lived in Turkey in the 13th century and is still one of the most widely read poets in the world. This collection is organized by content, not chronology and contain simple explainations of the content at the beginning of each section.