How do you decide what to read? In more than any other factor, travel has changed what I read. I was ignorant of Byzantine and Ottoman periods of history and their time in history seemed irrelevant. For Thanksgiving one year, my family stayed in Istanbul, in the old section hear the Blue Mosque. The hotel room had walls that were four feet thick and bars on the windows, formerly a Turkish prison, and the setting for the book and movie, Midnight Express. Hearing the call to prayer for the first time echo through the great city called out a history that dwarfed even England's. After that, I started buying books on Turkey. Also, I got to say I ate Turkey in Turkey on Thanksgiving.
1. A Byzantine Journey, John Ash (1995). Purchased new.
2. Turkish Reflections: A Biography of Place, Mary Lee Settle (1991). State Department used book sale.
3. Journey to Kars, Phillip Glazebrook (1984). State Department Used Book Sale
4. The Ottoman Centuries, Lord Kinross: The Rise and Fall of the Turkish Empire, Lord Kinross (1977). Used book store?
5. The Sultans, Noel Barber (1973). BJ's Used Books Warrenton, VA.
See also List #3: Enemy at the Gate.
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