Heather Reyes

I read this before moving to Berlin, and 1 year later still dip into this book. It always cheers me up. The selections are so diverse and interesting. The translations could do with a little work though - I suspect the translators' English has become a little Germanised.

When Oxygen Books had the idea for literary city guides they hit gold. Better still they carried through on a good idea with excellent delivery. When I travel, the same as a lot of people, I like to have a look at a map, browse a guide book and, most importantly, find a book or two that is about or set in the city. It's good to get a writer's view of a place. Usually a place they know well, sometime a place on which they have an interesting take.

The city-lit guide gives a whole book full of show more extracts from books in or about the city. This Berlin edition has given me an impression of the place, a taste of its history, people and character. It has whetted my appetite and given me a great list of books as a starting point to read more.

The extracts are allowed to speak for themselves. They have the shortest of introduction from the editor if at all. There are a few line drawings. No other illustrations. No photographs. It is a book for the imagination.

A couple of comments. Many of the extracts are from books by foreigners visiting Berlin. Not too many from Berliners themselves. Visitors are well worth reading. They bring both clear eyes and a desire to look. But residents know the place better. Did Berlin not raise many writers? All the information about the authors and their books from whence come the extracts is listed at the back as you would expect. Each extract is labelled as it is read but I sometimes thought it would be useful to have the year of publication or writing at the end of the extract. Just so that I was sure about the Berlin I had just been reading about. show less

The clock ticking away, in this case a serious illness, does focus the mind on what you read in the time you have left. I liked the early chapters on French bookshops, books and places to read, for instance, page 4 'We had coffee among the fallen leaves in the Luxembourg Gardens', Our favourite Paris bookshops include the small L’arbre du voyageur on the rue Mouffetard...and the larger La Hune in Saint Germain, page 4, - sadly no longer there, their plain covers and red bands (Gallimard) show more and shiny Livre de Poche covers. I have made a list of several books Reyes recommends, e.g Gare du Nord by Djemai and Wolf's Proust and the squid. The more that one gets into the book the more it becomes a list although there is not much harm in that.

She’s cracked it in one - bookshops in France are not like the supermarket style of Waterstones etc

Thise plain paper covers page 5

The red paper band

Livre de Poche with shiny, colourful covers page 6 show less

Another in the excellent city-pick series of literary guides to world cities. A selection of extracts from fiction, non-fiction, history, travelogue. A much better way to get to know a city than the usual travel guide. Comes with specially commissioned translations of pieces from books not available in English so all of us monoglots get extra benefit.