Things above heads

Rina's doors

İstanbul'un Ansiklopedik Öyküsü

Hiç oturduğunuz sokağın adının nereden geldiğini merak ettiniz mi? Ya da yeni taşındığınız mahallenin adını? İstanbul'da yaşıyorsanız şanslısınız!

Size Haldun Hürel'in uzun çalışmasıyla ortaya çıkan bir başvuru kitabından bahsedeceğim. Adı İstanbul'un Ansiklopedik Öyküsü. Kapı Yayınları'ndan çıkan ve 944 sayfa olan bu eserde, İstanbul'un önemli sokakları, caddeleri, mahalleleri, semtleri ve buralara isimlerini veren insanlar anlatılıyor.

Kitabı elime aldığımda ilk baktığım yerler çocukluğumun geçtiği ve İstanbul'da daha önceden gezdiğim, aklıma takılan yer-sokak isimleri oldu. Her gün kullandığınız cadde ve sokak isimlerinin tarihini bu kitapta bulabilirsiniz. Sözlük gibi A'dan Z'ye uzanan isimler, kitabın başında toplu halde sıralanmış. Aramaktan üşenip hemen bulmak isteyenler için güzel bir seçenek.

Her İstanbullu'ya ve İstanbulsever'e öneririm. Alacaklara tavsiyem ise ciltli almalarıdır. Ne de olsa kalın bir kitap. 10 lira ucuza alacağım diye böyle güzel bir kitabı yıpratmayın.

İyi okumalar!

The Fountainhead

What is the fountainhead? It is one of the novels written by Ayn Rand, an American author lived between 1905 and 1982. She was born in Russia, just before the first revulation, in 1905. She lived in Russia until 1925, studied philosophy and history at Petrograd University. In 1925, she could have a visa to visit her parents live in the US and went to the USA. She was impressed by Nietzsche, Dostoyevski, Schiller and Rostand while studying at university. February, 1926, she arrived in the US after a long and tiring cruise travel. Decided to stay in America to follow her ideals.

All her books are about her ideals and the idea she created/developed as known objectivism. She wrote at some magazines and published 3 long novels to describe and explain her thoughts. The Fountainhead is one of them, others are; Atlas Shrugged and We the Living.

According to Rand, people should not be identified or described as groups or classes, but with their individual rights and their own existance. This idea was new in the era she lived because capitalism had been growing and it was stucked in its theoratical base. She gave it another look and became famous. Of course, living in Russia and observing the revolution in 1917, helped her to have her fame.

About the book, as in all novels of her, we have an ideal human being as a main character: Howard Roark. It is basically about his life and ideals, surrounded by other people who want to make his ideals and works bad. Howard's old friend, from elementary school, Peter is an architecture like Howard. They both work in the same business and design buildings. Howard has been always the better one comparing these two, but in the mean time, Peter is the one who always gets the oppurtunities and gains more money and fame than Howard.

I do not want to continue more, if you want to read this 1943 novel, here you have a main subject. I would like to write moreover about objectivism and Rand's philosophy. It is really essential to me to understand the structure and development of capitalism. Eventhough her novels are not good enough to me, in the way to criticize literature, it is a good way to understand her ideals and thoughts through her novels and long stories.

It is worth to try, you wont regret it.

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayn_Rand
myself

RainyMood

Here you have a site for rain sound: http://www.rainymood.com/

If you are a rain lover like me, its good to hear rain sound and relax.

Enjoy it!

Lonely Planet, a guide to travelers

Lonely Planet is probably the most used and the best travel guide for travelers. It has founded in 1972 by two Australian hippies, which doesnt suprise me; Australians do love travel! It's first book is named Across Asia on the Cheap and it is written by Tony Wheeler. In the 90's, they have already published more than 500 books about different countries and regions. Today, it is one of the biggest travel guide in the world.

Let's take a look what is inside of this guide. In the first pages, you find a map of the country, which has also some highlights-or must see parts of the country- With this physical map, you can have your first thoughts about the country and its climate, elevation, rivers, lakes, etc. After that, the book introduces you with the authors, mostly native English speaker authors. Highlights with photos are included in next pages. When you look at the contents, you find a brief history, culture, famous foods and drinks. Every country is devided into some regions, such as north part, south east part, etc.

Select a part and let's begin! Firstly, you see a more detailed map of the region you chose. There you can see what is where, how to go to there, must see places. Secondly, you can find cities and areas, and moreover, you find the distances and bus/train services between cities. It is really essential to know how much it costs and how much time it requires when you are traveling from somewhere to another. An important note here: buy a new edition! As you know prices are never constant, they change. So before you having a bad surprise, check the edition date and then prices would be more closer than its written in the book.

Turn the page and go on, here you find some good restaurants, bars, pubs, sleeping places-from expensive hotels to sooo cheap hostels- The best part about them is probably the prices are listed. Calculate your budget and dont spend more money than you planned before.

Knowing a sleeping place before you get there is good but mostly expensive or mid-range priced hotels are listed, so if you have a small budget like i have, you better search hostels on internet. There are 2-3 good sites, I'm sure you can easily find.

In the end, you find emergency numbers, some language lesson and important notes about health. Not in Europe or in the US, but these informations might be useful in some countries, especially in Asia and Africa.

Here its website: http://www.lonelyplanet.com/destinations

Take care and travel!

Merhaba!

2013 biterken uzun zamandır internette yazmadığım aklıma geldi. Yeni bir blogla yeni yıla merhaba! Blogumun özel bir konusu yok. Aklıma takılan veya üstünde düşündüğüm konularda fikirlerimi ya da birkaç bilgimi paylaşacağım. Ara sıra da okuduğum kitapların yorumlarını bulabilirsiniz. İyi seneler.