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By Root 837 0

before transatlantic flights, I always marvel at the number of steamer trunks and the amount of baggage people were accustomed to taking. If I were traveling then, however, my trunks would be filled with books, not clothes. Although I travel light and seldom check bags, I have been known to fill an entire suitcase with books, secure in the knowledge that I could have them all with me for the duration of my trip. Each recommended reading section features titles I feel are the best available and most worth your time. I realize that “best” is subjective; readers will simply have to trust me that I have been extremely thorough in deciding which books to recommend. It disappoints me, however, that there are undoubtedly books with which I’m unfamiliar and that therefore do not appear here. I would be grateful to hear from you if a favorite of yours is missing. I have not hesitated to list out-of-print titles because some very excellent books are out of print (and deserve to be returned to print!), and because many of them can be easily found, through individuals who specialize in out-of-print books, booksellers, libraries, and online searches. I also believe the companion reading you bring along should be related in some way to where you’re going, so these lists include fiction and poetry titles that feature characters or settings in Istanbul or Turkey or feature aspects of Turkey and the Turks.

Sprinkled throughout this book I have included the musings of a number of visitors to Istanbul—ranging from the best-selling writer Frances Mayes to noted chef Claudia Roden—briefly describing their most memorable sight or experience from their visits. I included some of my own family members in this group because, perhaps unusually, Istanbul has long been a favorite destination of ours.

An A to Z Miscellany appears at the end of the book. This is an alphabetical assemblage of information about words, phrases, foods, people, themes, and historical notes that are unique to Istanbul and Turkey. Will you learn of some nontouristy things to see and do? Yes. Will you also learn more about the better-known aspects of Istanbul? Yes. Topkapı Palace, the Blue Mosque, the Grand Bazaar, a sunset over the Bosphorus, a glass of rakı, a cup of çay, and making new friends at a meyhane are all equally representative of Istanbul. Seeing and doing them all is what makes for a memorable visit, and no one, by the way, should make you feel guilty for wanting to see some famous sites. They have become famous for a reason: they are really something to see, Topkapı and Aya Sofya (Hagia Sophia) included. Canon number eighty-four in Bruce Northam’s Globetrotter Dogma is “The good old days are now,” in which he wisely reminds us that destinations are not ruined even though they may have been more “real” however many years ago. “’Tis a haughty condescension to insist that because a place has changed or lost its innocence that it’s not worth visiting; change requalifies a destination. Your first time is your first time; virgin turf simply is. The moment you commit to a trip, there begins the search for adventure.”

Ultimately, this is also the compendium of information that I wish I’d had between two covers years ago. I admit it isn’t the “perfect” book; for that, I envision a waterproof jacket and pockets inside the front and back covers, pages and pages of accompanying maps, lots of blank pages for notes, a bookmark, mileage and size conversion charts … in other words, something so encyclopedic in both weight and size that no one would want to carry it, let alone read it. I envisioned such a large volume because I believe that to really get to know a place, to truly understand it in a nonsuperficial way, one must either live there or travel there again and again. It seems to me that it can take nothing short of a lifetime of studying and traveling to grasp Istanbul. I do not pretend to have completely grasped it now, many years later, nor do I pretend to have completely grasped the other destinations that are featured in The Collected Traveler series; but I am