Caucasian Reading List

Here are some books I had on my Kindle:

The Man in the Panther’s Skin, Shota Rustaveli.  Medieval classic, supposedly dedicated to Queen Tamar.

Bread and Ashes: a Walk through the Mountains of Georgia, Tony Anderson. Didn’t get very far with this one.

The Lion Queen, Christopher Nicole. Historical novel about Queen Tamar, told through the eyes of an English teenage girl captured by a Georgian rebel king who became the queen’s favourite.

Tour de Armenia, Raffi Youredjan.  American Armenian on a cycle tour and possibly search for a wife.

Lonely Planet Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan.  A hard copy would have been more useful, for maps and useful phrases, flicking back and forth, etc. But this was free on Kindle Unlimited.

The First Toast is to Peace: Travels in the South Caucasus, Stephen Powell.  Based on a travel blog from 2014 to 2016, a retirement project.

The Crossing Place: A Journey Among the Armenians, Philip Marsden.  Covers the Armenian diaspora as well as the present-day country.

Georgia in the Mountains of Poetry: Peter Nasmyth.  Long-term resident’s reflections on the Rose Revolution of 2003 and later developments.  Did he found Prospero’s Books?

I tried to find a basic introduction to the Georgian or Armenian language, but the ones I found were not helpful.  I could have bought a “Georgian for Survivors” book in Prospero’s Books for 10 lari, which would have given me the alphabet and some useful phrases, but didn’t.  The only phrase we learned, “Good morning” in Armenian, sounded like “Barry Lewis”; this was easy to remember, and the locals recognized our attempts to say it.