Rick Steves Home > 2008 Tours > Best of Spain & Portugal in 15 Days

Best of Spain & Portugal in 15 Days: Recommended Reading & Viewing

Spain and Portugal are overwhelmingly 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 a description of any of these books, visit amazon.com; for videos, 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 (Spain)

• The New Spaniards — John Hooper
• The Basque History of the World — Mark Kurlansky
• Homage to Catalonia — George Orwell
• Iberia — James Michener
• Death in the Afternoon; The Dangerous Summer — Ernest Hemingway
• Travelers' Tales: Spain — Lucy McCauley
• Discovering Spain: An Uncommon Guide; Tapas: The Little Dishes of Spain — Penelope Casas
• Marling Menu-Master for Spain
• Following the Milky Way: A Pilgrimage on the Camino De Santiago — Elyn Aviva
• On Pilgrimage — Jennifer Lash
• South from Granada — Gerald Brenan
• Driving Over Lemons — Chris Stewart
• Culture Shock: Spain — Marie Graff

Non-Fiction (Portugal)

• Portugal: A Companion History — Jose H. Saraiva
• The History of Portugal — James Anderson
• The Portuguese Empire, 1415-1808: A World on the Move — A. J. R. Russell-Wood
• Prince Henry the Navigator: A Life — Peter Russell
• Over the Edge of the World: Magellan's Terrifying Circumnavigation of the Globe — Laurence Bergreen
• Food of Portugal — Jean Anderson

Fiction (Spain)

• Don Quixote — Miguel de Cervantes
• Tales of the Alhambra — Washington Irving
• The Sun Also Rises: For Whom the Bell Tolls — Ernest Hemingway
• The Heretic — Lewis Weinstein
• Stories from Spain — Genevieve Barlow & William Stivers
• The Shadow of the Wind — Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Fiction (Portugal)

• The Lusiads — Luís Vaz de Camões
• The Crime of Father Amaro — Jose Maria Eça De Queiros
• Baltasar and Blimunda; Blindness — Jose Saramago
• Pereira Declares: A Testimony — Antonio Tabucchi
• A Small Death in Lisbon — Robert Wilson
• Distant Music — Lee Langley

General Europe

• Europe 101 — Rick Steves & Gene Openshaw . History and art overview for the traveler; humorous and easy to read.
• Innocents Abroad — Mark Twain. Humorous classic recounts an American group's 1867 "Grand Tour" through Europe and the Holy Land.
• Civilisation — Kenneth Clark. BBC-TV series and book that teaches European art and civilization like nothing else. BBC-TV series and book that teaches European art and civilization like nothing else.
• Connections — Burke. Fascinating book and TV series that links historical events and scientific discoveries across the centuries.

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 Spanish Accent

The Mystery of Picasso (1956) • Man of La Mancha (1972) • Blood Wedding (1981) • Carmen (1983) • El Amor Brujo (1986) • Barcelona (1994) • Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988) • Volver (2006) • Pereira Declares (1996) • Capitães de Abril (2000)

Mood Music

Georges Bizet — Carmen (opera); Joaquin Rodrigo — classical guitar; Andres Segovia — classical guitar; Paco Peña — Misa Flamenca: (classical guitar and chorus); Paco de Lucia — flamenco guitar; Placido Domingo — Three Tenors, from Madrid; José Carreras — Three Tenors, from Barcelona