Reading Iran

islamoyankee

Via MoorishGirl (have you bought her book yet?) I found this wonderful list from Azar Nafisi (of Reading Lolita in Tehran fame) on books on Iran.

Her list: (asterisks are ones I’ve read)

Encyclopedia Iranica (*as much as one reads an encyclopedia)

The Blindfold Horse: Memories of a Persian Childhood

Iran Awakening: A Memoir of Revolution and Hope

www.TehranAvenue.com

www.fis-iran.org

www.abfiran.org

My Uncle Napoleon (*I just saw the new edition of the English translation. I’ve read the original Persian, and it’s a hoot.)

Persepolis [vol. 1 and vol. 2] (*love it)

Strange Times My Dear

The Secret of Laughter

Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam (*I’ve never found a translation I was happy with)

Shahnameh (*only in Persian)

Gertrude Bell’s Hafez (*nice translations, not always true to the Persian original. I also like Ladinsky’s translations)

any Rumi (*Barks is probably the best known versioner out there. Arberry is good solid translation, and Nicholson manages to keep some of the poetic quality)

any Shirin Neshat (*like her photographs. not as taken with her video)

Babak and Friends (*got this a year ago after seeing them at an Apple Store. Really good.)

Under the Olive Trees

In the Mirror of the Sky

Night Silence Desert

New Food of Life

Iran the Beautiful

My additions:

Mantle of the Prophet

Twelve Photographic Journeys: Iran in the Twenty-First Century

Iran

We Are Iran

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