I’m just realising that our trip is not long away (YAY!) and suddenly wanting to start reading about all the cities we’ll be visiting, so if you know of any good books (novels, histories) on the following places please leave me your suggestion(s):
London
Oxford
Paris
Amsterdam (and the Netherlands generally)
Berlin
Anything general on England, France, and Germany would also be good. Thanks 🙂
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Not a book but a film, we attempted to follow the steps of the characters in the Before Sunset film in Paris.
I loved Adam Gopnik’s book Paris to the Moon, but Pete finds it dreadfully snotty. Personally I like to pretend that one day I too could be a highly paid writer making the difficult decision about whether live in Paris or New York 😉
btw – I bought a Dutch Taaltraining book that I’ve hardly used, yours if you want it!
Thanks Fi! Just realising I have yet to email you with details of when we will be in Nederland…
I would strongly recommend you get the Lonely Planet City Encounters books for at least Paris and Berlin. I had them during my trip overseas over Summer and found them invaluable. They only focus on the cities themselves and, as such, are small and happily fit into a back pocket. They also come with maps of the cities and schematic diagrams of the public transport.
When you go to Berlin:
– Avoid the tourist public transport pass. The normal x-day-long one is cheaper.
– See the Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe.
I don’t know if you’ve sorted out accommodation for Paris and Berlin, but I can tell you where I stayed, if you’re interested.
Don’t know if you are particularly looking for travel books in particular, but otherwise can TOTALLY recommend Oxford and Cambridge: an uncommon history by Peter Sager – I loved this book and if you love history then I can pretty much guarantee that you will love this book too!
I also love London: the biography by Peter Ackroyd – I have both these books and would recommend either!
Seconding Before Sunset and London:The Biography. Peter Ackroyd also wrote a whole bunch of good historical novels set in London. Christopher Isherwood’s Berlin stories give a real flavour of the city between the wars, and Wings of Desire is a great Berlin-set movie (the best scene is in a library). A little obscure, but Chiang Yee’s Silent Traveller in Oxford/London are lovely books by a Chinese academic living in England back in the day.
I’d recommend all of these to anyone whether they were travelling or not.
The guidebook I use for London is the Time Out one, which is fine for the big stuff as well as the more obscure possibilities. I also suggest you pick up a copy of Time Out magazine when you arrive in London so you can check what arty stuff is going on.
Hi Con,
For Paris – I suggest “The Piano Shop on the Left Bank” by Thad Carhart. I can’t even play the piano, but I really enjoyed it – it just gave me the feeling of living local and “being in Paris”.
Pity you’re not swinging by Dubai/Sharjah – but it’ll be a sauna here by then! (I’ll be in Belgium and Kastellorizo over the mid year break myself!)
Cheers,
Kit
I forgot – for Paris Godard’s movies A Bout de Souffle and Bande A Part exemplify the spirit of Paris.
THANKS! 🙂 Will start reading (and viewing).
Just got back from a weekender in London and you’ll LOVE Daunt books – it’s a travellers bookstore and next to travel guides for each city they have books about each place. Awesome. http://www.dauntbooks.co.uk/
Ohhh it looks wonderful Fi! Thanks 🙂