Books Books Books!!
My favorite part of trip planning is the unrestrained book-buying! Oh, I’m sure that some people buy one or two guidebooks and think that is enough.
This definitely does not describe me!
Our trip to Scotland resulted in something like five feet of books — from the travel guides to the history books to the coffee-table picture books to reference books. I can’t believe that Egypt is going to be any less of a book-frenzy. Even a cursory check of Amazon.com has thousands of books referencing Egypt. I get kind of light-headed just thinking about it. Bibliophile, me?
Knowing that my husband and I are actually going to have to move because we’ve run our of space for books, it should be no surprise that I have a fairly sizeable library of travel books by now.
Everyone has their favorites, of course. For each book I bought, I’ve included a short description of the book and a quick review of its usefulness (to me, at least) is included. It’s important to remember that while major information (sites, history, etc) doesn’t often change, prices and recommendations change frequently. It’s important that you have the latest version of the guide if you are relying on it for cost or opening hours information.
I’ve tried to break down the books into a few categories:
- Travel guides: guidebooks for Egypt and its cities, including my top recommendation for a guidebook to haul along with you.
- History: general books about egypt, including some gorgeous picture books
- Language: books on hieroglyphics and modern arabic
- Reading: a reading list and bibliography for this site.