Istanbul_ The Collected Traveler_ An Inspired Companion Guide - Barrie Kerper [81]
If I had come to feel deeply connected to my city, it was because it offered me a deeper wisdom and understanding than any I could acquire in a classroom.… Here amid the old stones and the old wooden houses, history made peace with its ruins; ruins nourished life and gave new life to history. If my fast-extinguishing love of painting could no longer save me, the city’s poor neighborhoods seemed prepared, in any event, to become my second world. How I longed to be part of this poetic confusion! Just as I had lost myself in my imagination to escape my grandmother’s house and the boredom of school, now, having grown bored with studying architecture, I lost myself in Istanbul. So it was that I finally came to relax and accept the hüzün that gives Istanbul its grave beauty, the hüzün that is its fate.
Many black-and-white photographs by Ara Güler are showcased in this book, reason alone to pick it up. Pamuk says of Güler’s archive that it is first and foremost a tribute to his art and “also a superb record of Istanbul life from 1950 to the present day and will leave anyone who knew the city during those years drunk with memories.” I briefly considered including some of Güler’s photographs in my own book, but I didn’t want to be a copycat, and his work (rightly) comes at a price that is well beyond what I can afford.
John Freely’s Istanbul, by John Freely with photographs by Erdal Yazıcı (Scala, 2005). Like Freely’s Stamboul Sketches, the writings of Evliya Çelebi, the seventeenth-century Turkish chronicler, are often quoted from in this book. Çelebi’s Seyâhatnâme, or Narrative of Travels, “contains a lengthy, detailed and frequently fabulous description of Istanbul during what was apparently the most colorful period of Ottoman history.” I bought this illustrated paperback in Istanbul and saw it in several bookstores; I don’t believe it’s available in North America, but it’s very much worth keeping an eye out for in Turkey. In combination with Çelebi’s notes, Freely has organized this book based on the seven hills of Istanbul. This book is a wonderful continuation of Stamboul Sketches, with color photographs.
Bookstores in Istanbul
Istanbul has some terrific bookstores with lots of English-language titles that are unavailable in North America, so they’re very much worth visiting. Most are on or near İstiklâl Caddesi. Among my favorites:
Homer. With more than thirty thousand titles specializing in art, archaeology, architecture, and history, this is a store one can stay in for hours. (Yeniçarşi Caddesi 28A, Galatasaray / +90 212 249 5902 / homerbooks.com)
Pandora. Aptly named, it’s hard to leave this three-story box of wonders. (İstiklâl Caddesi, Büyükparmakkapı Sokak 3, Beyoğlu / +90 212 243 3503 / pandora.com.tr)
Robinson Crusoe. In addition to being the hero of Daniel Defoe’s novel, Robinson Crusoe is, according to the description on its shopping bags, “A bookstore with a distinctive style of its own, located in Pera, Istanbul on İstiklâl Street, no. 389. A warehouse established in September 1994 containing choice books. An archive where books are displayed & accessible to all. A town square, the gathering point not only of those who look & listen but of those who see & hear as well. A library where one goes not only for buying books but also to search for them & ask about them & browse around, sniffing the pages of & encountering, discovering & even writing books.” The shop carries more than forty thousand titles. (+90 212 293 6968)
Turkuaz. This is the store for rare and out-of-print books on Istanbul, Turkey, and the Ottoman Empire. It opened