Rick Steves Home > 2008 Tours > Best of Eastern Europe in 17 Days

Best of Eastern Europe in 17 Days: Recommended Reading & Viewing

Eastern Europe is rich in history, art and culture. Any preliminary reading, viewing or listening you can do will help you get the most from your trip. For more information on any of these books, visit your favorite bookstore or check out amazon.com; for video information, go to imdb.com. Rick Steves guidebooks are available at our office in Edmonds and also on our website's Travel Store.

Recommended Reading

Non-Fiction  

• Central Europe: Enemies, Neighbors, Friends - Lonnie Johnson.
• Café Europa: Life After Communism and How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed - Slavenka Drakulić.
• History of the Present and The Magic Lantern - Timothy Garton Ash.
• We are the Romani People - Ian Hancock.
• Bury Me Standing - Isabel Fonseca.
• The Haunted Land - Tina Rosenberg.

Fiction

• I Served the King of England - Bohumil Hrabal.
• The Unbearable Lightness of Being - Milan Kundera.
• The Good Soldier Švejk - Jaroslav Hašek. The Trial, The Metamorphosis - Franz Kafka.
• Utz - Bruce Chatwin.
• Poland - James Michener.
• The Radetzky March - Joseph Roth.
• Zlateh the Goat - Isaac Bashevis Singer.

Rick Steves' Travel DVDs

For a fun, informative preview of your next tour destination, watch a DVD from our "Rick Steves' Europe" TV series! Our online Travel Store has 70 shows available on 12 DVDs (a generous five to eight shows per disc).

Films

• Czechia: Closely Watched Trains (1966); The Firemen's Ball (1967); The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988); Kouř ("Smoke", 1991); The Trial (1993); Kolya (1996); The Loves of a Blonde (1995).
• Poland: The Wedding (1972); Schindler's List (1995); The Pianist (2002); Karol: A Man Who Became Pope (2005).
• Hungary: The Witness (1969); Time Stands Still (1981); Csinibaba (1997); Kontroll (2003).
• Croatia: When Father Was Away on Business (1985); Tito and Me (1992); Underground (1995); How the War Started on My Island (1996); Slovenia: No Man's Land (2002).
• The Death of Yugoslavia (1995, six-part BBC miniseries).

Mood Music

• Czechia: Antonin Dvořák, Gustav Mahler, Bedřich Smetana, Leos Jánacek (classical); Cechomor, Hradištan (contemporary folk)
• Poland: Fryderyk Chopin (classical); Witold Lutoslawski, Krzysztof Penderecki (modern classical)
• Hungary: Béla Bartók, Franz Liszt, Zoltán Kodály (classical); György Ligeti (modern classical); Marta Sebestyen (folk)
• Croatia: Oliver Dragojević, Goran Karan (dreamy, romantic contemporary music)
• Slovenia: Gorenjski Muzikantje, Avseniki (Alpine folk); Laibach/NSK (industrial rock); California, Tabu, Tinkara Kovaè (pop)