Istanbul Sahaflar Çarşısı
Mike got me a Kindle for Christmas, and although it isn’t the physical pleasure of an actual book, it solves the problem of easily getting new books while we are in Turkey. I returned to Istanbul with 7 books on my Kindle and read them all. Could it be that I am reading faster now that I am not distracted by the cover, the endpapers, the bindings, the feel of the paper? Or maybe it is the gloomy rainy weather that has me reading so much. Anyway, I soon added 7 more books and now my Amazon shopping list is empty, so I asked two of my favorite readers for suggestions.
Cynthia gave me these suggestions for mysteries:
Andrea Camilleri’s Inspector Montalbano series set in Sicily.
Jo Nesbø and his Harry Hole series set in Norway.
Henning Mankell’s Kurt Wallender.
Fred Vargas’s Inspector Adamsberg set in France.
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And Henri has these on her reading list:
The House on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet
Diane Ackerman’s book from ~5-10 yrs ago about the brain
House at Sugar Beach , about Liberia
The White Tiger Arvind Adiga
The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo
Traveling with Pomegranates
Greg Mortensen’s new book
Marilyn Robinson’s Home
Netherland by John O”Neill
A Mercy by Toni Morrison
The Art of Choosing, Sheena Iyengar
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So what have I added to my pile of kindling? The Terra-Cotta Dog for mystery, Margaret Drabble’s The Pattern in the Carpet for memoir, The Art of Choosing for non-fiction, and Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand for fiction.
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What about you? What are you reading these days?
Tags: Books · istanbul · reading2 Comments
Our purpose for this trip was to chaperone some high school students who were part of a Junior Achievement Trade Fair in Antwerp, but there was plenty of time for sightseeing. On Friday, we took a walking tour of Antwerp. In front of the Town Hall is a statue that portrays the founding of the town, and this is what we learned. Once upon a time, there was a terrible giant who charged a toll for anyone who crossed the river. If a person had no money or refused to pay, tough luck. The giant chopped off a hand and threw it into the river. The river was getting pretty full of odd hands when a hero finally came along, killed the giant, chopped off HIS hand, and threw it into the river. Once the giant was gone, a town could get started here.
Another thing I liked at the Grote Markt (this main square) were the Guild Halls. A few of them were originals from the 16th century; others were more recent reproductions. We learned that before the system of numbering houses and numbers it was the practice to identify buildings with statues or painted plaques. So, each one of these buildings has a gold statue on the top to identify it. The statue might be the patron saint of the guild or just the name of the guild.
Saturday was the Junior Achievement Trade Fair. This is a competition in which teams of students develop a mini-company that has a product to sell. They have to set up and run all parts of their company. Our students were selling hearts in order to raise money for the Heart Association. They didn’t win a prize, but they did recoup their expenses and will be able to make a nice donation. They learned that the color red really attracts customers.
On Sunday, we moved down to Brussels. The weather was very bad that day – lots of wind and rain – so we checked into our hotel and rested. On Monday, though, the weather was clear and beautiful for our field trip to Brugge. We all loved walking along the canals in this medieval city. After lunch, the girls shopped while Mike and I went sightseeing. Here are a few more photos 
Mike and I began in the Spice Bazaar, which sells spices in addition to bath and beauty supplies, tourist souvenirs, and caviar. We bought oregano and curry and tasted Turkish Delight.
Just outside the Spice Bazaar is the flower market. It is still wintery cold, so there were all kinds of bulbs and cool season plants for sale. Lots of people were interested in fruit trees.
In the pet market, you can buy songbirds, chickens, fish, cats, and dogs, and all of the supplies that go with them. For some reason, you can also buy leaches.
We found the right pet store and took some pictures of puppies. It was a small and crowded shop, so it was hard to get close enough to take photos of the dogs but also hard to get far enough away to take a broad shot. This was taken on the stairs between the two floors of the shop. There are some more picture 
Last weekend, our friends, Bob and Martha, loaned us their house near 
