Barcelona Reading List
Get a sense of the place by reading more than a guide book before you go… here are some of the best.
Barcelona
by Robert Hughes
Setting out to write a book about the modernista period, Hughes realised to get it you have to go back to the medieval. Published for the 1992 Olympics, it’s a bit dated on the later stuff, like the recent work on the Sagrada Familia. Idiosyncratic, opinionated, always eloquent if occasionally disagreeable.
Homage To Barcelona, The City and its Art 1888-1936
Arts Council /Hayward Gallery exhibition catalogue (1985)
Possibly tricky to get hold of, but clear over-view of the period.
Barcelona
The Monocle Travel Guide Series
A guide book, but with some decent essays at the back. Also good for less obvious barrios, like Sant Andreu and Poble Nou.
Homage to Catalonia
George Orwell
Of course. His straightforward prose is a joy.
If you think the civil war was simply Fascists against the Republic, then read his account of the many left-wing factions involved. Very much just his corner of the world at that moment, it has been criticised for lack of international perspective. See Paul Preston on the subject, he’s the master.
Shadow of the Wind
Carlos Ruiz Zafón
An atmospheric literary thriller set in the city, and a perfect holiday read.
Forgotten Places, Barcelona and the Spanish Civil War
Nick Lloyd
Finding this book was a dream. I lapped up every word, then started over. Nick Lloyd has been running Civil War tours in Barcelona since about 2007.
This is a hybrid – part one is a history of the civil war and the events that lead up to it; and part two a guidebook telling stories of actual sites. Historic hotels, bars, churches, plaques, apparent bullet holes in buildings – it feels like he’s read your mind and provided background and explanation for every site you’ve ever wondered about in the city. Read the book then do the tour.
The New Spaniards (and it’s predecessor The Spaniards)
John Hooper
When I blew into Barcelona in 1989 this felt like the key to understanding where I’d landed. Revised in 1997, so the Spaniards are no longer so new, but still stands up.
Ghosts of Spain
Giles Tremlett
Curious about the post-civil war “pack of forgetting” Tremlett travels around Spain investigating what makes them tick. Engaging and enlightening.
The Spanish Holocaust
Paul Preston
Heavyweight tome from the top journalist & historian. I imagine any of his many books on Spain are worthwhile.
Gaudí
Gijs Van Hensbergen
Absorbing, exhaustive, detailed research.
Book Shops
La Central del Raval, Carrer d’Elisabets
If you happen to be downtown, the Raval is as good a place as any to shop for books.
Large and varied modern shop specialising in the humanities in many languages. The cafe is a secret oasis you’ll thank me for.
La Rosa De Foc,35 Carrer Joaquin Costa, 34
Visit Barcelona’s deep anarchist roots at the Rose of Fire.
La Rosa de Foc
MACBA bookshop Plaça dels Angéls
The art museum has a decent shop in the lovely cool Meier building. Good for emergency present shopping.
MACBA
Why are so many of these written by Brits (and Hughes the Australian)? Is it the clearer perspective of the outsider, or are the equivalent Spanish & Catalan texts not in translation? I’d love to know….