Always before my trips I'm reading some books about the places that I'm planning to visit. Not just travel guides.

For example, I like the special seria of books called The Cities of Imagination. I found it on amazon. Until now I red two of their books: Madrid and Lisbon. After reading how diiferent artists saw these places, you see it also in different way.

Another book that I recommend to everybody is The Fireplaces of Civilisation - about Paris, Florence, Sicily, Sevilla, Granada and Venice. That's an exciting book written by a famous musician J.-P. Barricelli. To see Paris by the eyes of Hugo or Balsac is exciting.

But even some boring cities, like Limerick in Eire, can be extremely interesting after you read the books, like The Ashes of Angela.

Are you doing the same?

Sincerely, Alex Elbert Jerusalem, Israel