1. From London to Elista: The Inside Story of the Three Matches that Vladimir Kramnik Played for the World Chess Title, by Eugeny Bareev and Ilya Levitov. Via John Nye, the quality and drama of this book stunned me. Chess aside, the use of the dialogic form works remarkably well.
2. The Yacoubian Building, by Alaa Al Aswany. Fun, philosophical, erotic, and a bestseller in the Arab world. Many Americans don't know this book but it is worth picking up.
3. Lanark, by Alasdair Gray, This book is as good as I remember it; I was surprised to see it has only four reviews on U.S. Amazon. Many critics consider it the best and most creative Scottish novel of the twentieth century and of course it has tinges of science fiction and fantasy.
4. Venus in Furs, by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch. If you are drawing inferences, keep in mind this means I had not read this book to date. It is a source for Roissy and also has some early anticipations of behavioral economics. Sporadically interesting, I would say.
5. Time Out Barcelona. The Time Out series is the most useful resource for urban travel, including for food. No other guide book comes close.
The Yacoubian movie is fairly decent as well.
How does Timeout compare to Rough Guide’s and Lonely Planet? What are the major differences and why should one go for Timeout?
Curious…
“If you are drawing inferences, keep in mind this means I had not read this book to date. It is a source for Roissy and also has some early anticipations of behavioral economics. Sporadically interesting, I would say.”
This is the most interesting variation on “I read Playboy for the articles” I’ve ever seen.
Interesting about Venus in Furs and Roissy. Does Roissy use it for his description of beta males? Or something about fetishes?
For everything but food (particularly tourist attractions and transportation), I haven’t seen any guide that is comparable to Rick Steve’s.
“short game” was a good book about the world championship between nigel short and kasparov. i will probably check out this elista tale.
“Interesting about Venus in Furs and Roissy. Does Roissy use it for his description of beta males? Or something about fetishes?”
The name ‘Roissy’ comes from the novel.
Why do you feel the need to defend reading Venus in Furs, but not any other books on your list?
I can’t speak for the motivations of the website, but Roissy was where “O” from The Story of O (by Pauline Reage) was trained.
I’m not sure whether to infer whether Professor Cowen has read THAT one yet.
Great to see you recognize the brilliance of Lanark, Alasdair Gray’s modern classic. About time I read it again. About 10 years ago Canongate released a set of audio tapes of Gray reading the first book or two of Lanark. Truly delightful to hear those words read in Gray’s lilting Glaswegian English. I’m not sure Gray ever finished the reading, however.
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