Around Taksim

The Robinson Crusoe bookstore, at 389 Istiklal Caddesi.

This was the coolest little bookstore I found in the city. It was mostly English language books, crammed in high shelves. I came in looking for English editions of Orhan Pamuk's books; they had them all. Pamuk is Turkey's foremost literary author, and is consistently well-reviewed in English and American papers. I'd read one of his older books, My Name Is Red, and found it horrifically boring. But I thought I'd give him another chance and bought one of his newer titles, Snow, here. I'm halfway through the book now. It's not bad, but it's mostly humorless, and too ruminative for my tastes. Very self-conciously literary.

So how popular in Turkey is Pamuk really? The clerk in the store said that in the weeks before his newest book, Istanbul, came out, people constantly rang the store asking if it'd arrived. However, one of the managers at my hotel, Nezzy, said he'd read Snow and found it lacking. "It doesn't have enough action or intrigue for me." Nezzy much preferred Turkey's current best-selling sensation, Metal Storm. This novel details an American invasion of Turkey, which is fended off by Turkey with Chinese assistance. "It's got action, political stuff in it," said Nezzy. "You think America is going to attack Turkey? In the book China defends us against you, but in exchange for our resources..."

"I think Turkey's safe, Nezzy," I said. "Personally I'd be more scared of China than the US, anyway."

He did not look comforted.