Cyprus-Forum.com

[Shipwreck]

I personally enjoyed "Noddy does Toyland" by Enid Blighton

[denizaksulu]

I refer you to the post I posted last year.

[Oracle]

The cosmopolitian Istanbul I knew as a child had disappeared by the time I reached adulthood. In 1852, Gautier, like many other travelers of the day, had remarked that in the streets of Istanbul you could hear Turkish, Greek, Armenian, Italian, French, and English (and, more than either of the last two languages, Ladino, the medieval Spanish of the Jews who'd come to Istanbul after the Inquisition). Noting that many people in this "tower of Babel" were fluent in several languages, Gautier seems, like so many of his compatriots, to be slightly ashamed to have no language other than his mother tongue.

After the founding of the Republic and the violent rise of Turkification, after the state imposed sanctions on minorities—measures that some might describe as the final stage of the city's "conquest" and others as ethnic cleansing—most of these languages disappeared. I witnessed this cultural cleansing as a child, for whenever anyone spoke Greek or Armenian too loudly in the street (you seldom heard Kurds advertising themselves in public during this period), someone would cry out, "Citizens, please speak Turkish!"—echoing what signs everywhere were saying.

SOURCE: Istanbul: Memories and the City, by Orhan Pamuk (Vintage, 2006), pp. 238-239

[denizaksulu]

The cosmopolitian Istanbul I knew as a child had disappeared by the time I reached adulthood. In 1852, Gautier, like many other travelers of the day, had remarked that in the streets of Istanbul you could hear Turkish, Greek, Armenian, Italian, French, and English (and, more than either of the last two languages, Ladino, the medieval Spanish of the Jews who'd come to Istanbul after the Inquisition). Noting that many people in this "tower of Babel" were fluent in several languages, Gautier seems, like so many of his compatriots, to be slightly ashamed to have no language other than his mother tongue.

After the founding of the Republic and the violent rise of Turkification, after the state imposed sanctions on minorities—measures that some might describe as the final stage of the city's "conquest" and others as ethnic cleansing—most of these languages disappeared. I witnessed this cultural cleansing as a child, for whenever anyone spoke Greek or Armenian too loudly in the street (you seldom heard Kurds advertising themselves in public during this period), someone would cry out, "Citizens, please speak Turkish!"—echoing what signs everywhere were saying.

SOURCE: Istanbul: Memories and the City, by Orhan Pamuk (Vintage, 2006), pp. 238-239

That indeed was a great book to read. Esp the references to a bygone era which unfortunately lost forever. Had me in deep thought and a tear or two.

[roseandchan]

just reading the charlotte church autobiography. its easy going when your on a flight!
i always thought she was a spoilt brat kid, but that wasn't the case.
i love all books as long as they are true stories, i'm not into make believe.

[Get Real!]

When I was a kid I read “The wind in the willows” and it was so great that I don’t even remember it anymore…

Honestly people… give up the novels and crap and get stuck into FACTS which matter. Everything else is a waste of time.

[Bananiot]

Try "Matomena Chomata" or "Farewell Anatolia". It can be now purchased in Turkish "Benden Selâm Söyle Anadoluyai". It gives a vivid account of the events in 1919-1922 and despite the fact that it was written by a Greek (Dido Soteriou) it is a very objective book which is much appreciated in Greece and in Turkey. I think it has been serialised for the telly recently.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUKKbiNMoZU

[Cem]

Try "Matomena Chomata" or "Farewell Anatolia". It can be now purchased in Turkish "Benden Selâm Söyle Anadoluyai". It gives a vivid account of the events in 1919-1922 and despite the fact that it was written by a Greek (Dido Soteriou) it is a very objective book which is much appreciated in Greece and in Turkey. I think it has been serialised for the telly recently.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUKKbiNMoZU

I had read this book long time ago; though I can't say it is the best I have read so far, particularly compared to the works of Steinbeck, Jack London and B. Traven, the contents were captivating.

If my memory is not failing me, the main character was a Greek-Ottoman named Manoli Aksiyotis who narrated the horrors of the war in his own words when Ottoman Turkey joined the WW1.

At the end, there was a quite a shocking scenery about the burning of Symrna and the atrocities committed against the local people (greeks of izmir) by the soldiers under the command of Nuraddin Pasha.

[Bananiot]

At the same time, Dido Soteriou does not shy away from paying tribute to the Turkish guerrillas that fought the Greek occupying forces.

[Oracle]

Try "Matomena Chomata" or "Farewell Anatolia". It can be now purchased in Turkish "Benden Selâm Söyle Anadoluyai". It gives a vivid account of the events in 1919-1922 and despite the fact that it was written by a Greek (Dido Soteriou) it is a very objective book which is much appreciated in Greece and in Turkey. I think it has been serialised for the telly recently.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUKKbiNMoZU

I had read this book long time ago; though I can't say it is the best I have read so far, particularly compared to the works of Steinbeck, Jack London and B. Traven, the contents were captivating.

If my memory is not failing me, the main character was a Greek-Ottoman named Manoli Aksiyotis who narrated the horrors of the war in his own words when Ottoman Turkey joined the WW1.

At the end, there was a quite a shocking scenery about the burning of Symrna and the atrocities committed against the local people (greeks of izmir) by the soldiers under the command of Nuraddin Pasha.

I've just started reading "Paradise Lost, Smyrna 1922: The Destruction of Islam's City of Tolerance" by Giles Milton, which has only just been published so is still only available in Hardback (£20).

I'll let you know what I think.