Any books I should read before going to Prague?
Share your favorites - fiction, non fiction, biographies, memoires, etc.
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the good soldier svejk of course!
good movie, if you can get it: shot up and shoot me!
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read up on Reinhard Heidrich which will give you a bit of info on Prague during the Second World War and also about the Velvet revolution which gives you the more recent history of the Czech Republic.
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Why, %26quot;Good Beer Guide Prague and the Czech Republic%26quot; of course!
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Thank you - suggestions sound great...
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Timothy Garton Ash - %26#39;We the People%26#39;
Milan Kundera - %26#39;The Unbearable Lightness of Being%26#39; and %26#39;The Joke%26#39;
Jaroslav Hasek - %26#39;The Good Soldier Svejk%26#39; - can get a bit heavy-going towards the end, but hilarious if you can stick it out (he wrote most of it whilst drunk and died without finishing it)
And see if you can get hold of some films:
- Closely Observed Trains
- Pelisky
- Kolya (but look through all the sentimental stuff as the real message is much deeper)
- Lasky jedne Plavovlasky (Loves of a Blonde) and Hori ma Panenko (The Fireman%26#39;s Ball) by Milos Forman
- Vrat se do Hrobu (difficult to find, if at all, in English, but a classic)
- Jara Cimrman, Lezici, Spici (Jara Cimrman, Lying, Sleeping) - a side-splitting %26#39;documentary%26#39; about the most famous Czech of all, who invented Dynamite, built the Eiffel Tower, was the first man at the North Pole and sowed the seeds of revolution against the Austro-Hungarian monarchy.
There are more, but this should do as a start!
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I recently read Reflections of Prague: Journeys through the 20th Century, by Ivan Margolius (2006). It was about the history of his father who was killed in the Slanksy trials.
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Also suprisingly enough Netflix has a pretty good selection of Czech films if you want to see some before you go.
Ones recommend to me were Zelary and Up and Down.
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GCEK - Hey nice to hear from you again - thanks for the suggetions. I off to Amazon.com to see what I can order. Yours and Tallulah%26#39;s suggetions about watching some films is FANtastic :)
Very much appreciated.
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Anything by Bohumil Hrabal. He%26#39;s a great story-teller, and a real Praguer. He gives you a great insight into Czech humour, but also the darker side of the character too. He could regularly be found in U Zlateho Tygra, definitely one of the best pubs in Prague, holding forth. Sadly, he is no longer with us.
The Little Town where Time Stood Still is a very funny book, and a great starting point for his raconteur style.
Closely Observed Trains, the film recommended above, was based on the book written by him.
I served the King of England, set in the Hotel Pariz here in Prague, during the second world war.
Too Loud a Solitude, is about a man working in a waste compactor, who %26#39;liberates%26#39; books, and is about life under communism. It%26#39;s definitely a much darker book.
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