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Best of Prague in 7 Days: Recommended Reading & Viewing

Prague 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 Readings

Non-Fiction

• Central Europe: Enemies, Neighbors, Friends — Lonnie Johnson
• Praguewalks — Ivana Edwards
• The Coasts of Bohemia — Derek Sayer
• A Romantic Education — Patricia Hampl
• Spirit of Prague — Ivan Klima
• History of the Present and The Magic Lantern — Timothy Garton Ash
• The Haunted Land — Tina Rosenberg
• Bury Me Standing — Isabel Fonseca

Fiction

• Prague: A Traveler's Literary Companion — Paul Wilson (editor)
• Utz — Bruce Chatwin
• I Served the King of England — Bohumil Hrabal
• The Trial and The Metamorphosis — Franz Kafka
• The Good Soldier Švejk — Jaroslav Hašek
• 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 With a Praha Accent

Closely Watched Trains (1966) • The Firemen's Ball (1967) • The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988) • Kouř (1991) • The Trial (1993) • The Loves of a Blonde (1995) • Kolya (1996)

Mood Music

• Antonin Dvorák: Ninth Symphony, From the New World; Bedrich Smetana: My Country (Ma Vlast); The Bartered Bride
• Leos Jánacek
• Gustav Mahler
• Bohuslav Martinu  
• Magdalena Kozena, Love Songs (works by Dvorák, Jánacek, and Martinu sung by a young mezzo-soprano)
• C echomor and Hradištan (contemporary rock-folk groups)