Balkanology  ::  Explore Southeast Europe

The Rough Guide to Bulgaria  (6th edition published June 2008) - Jonathan Bousfield, Dan Richardson

I relied on the previous edition of the Rough Guide on my two trips to Bulgaria and found it very useful, with plenty of detail about out-of-the-way places and possible day trips from better-known destinations. It appears that the current edition retains these strengths. As usual with Rough Guides there is also plenty of background information about culture and history. The longer your planned trip to Bulgaria, the more you are likely to appreciate this book.

Bulgaria - Lonely Planet Country Guide  (3rd edition published May 2008) - Richard Watkins, Chris Deliso

Lonely Planet's offering is a perfectly adequate guide, with detailed and well-organised listings and decent maps, but compared to its Rough Guide competitor the descriptions of things to see sometimes lack detail. This difference is reflected in the sizes of the two books - LP is much smaller. For a long trip I would recommend the Rough Guide, but if you are just going for a week there is probably little to choose between them.

Bulgaria - The Bradt Guide  (1st edition published December 2007) - Annie Kay

Walking in Bulgaria's National Parks  (1st edition published February 2010) - Julian Perry

A guide to 12 walking routes for fit and experienced hikers in the Pirin, Rila, and Central Balkans national parks.

Sofia In Your Pocket

This regularly updated guide is packed with practical information about what to see, what to do, and how to do it in and around Sofia. It can be purchased locally, ordered through the website, or downloaded in PDF format. IYP also produces guides to Plovdiv, Varna, Burgas, and Bansko.

Stealing from a Deep Place: Travels in South-Eastern Europe - Brian Hall

I would spend the days up on these hills, wandering from ridge to ridge along sheep paths, or sitting on the lip of the north wall and watching the few inhabitants of Melnik appear and disappear on the streambed, like ants in a sand colony pressed between panes of glass.

The author travelled by bicycle through Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria in 1982, when there were few hints that the Communist system would ever change. Despite a near-catastrophic mechanical failure and the attempts of the state bureaucracy to force him into soulless Balkanturist hotels, the Bulgarian chapters evoke a more relaxed atmosphere than the earlier Romanian sections.

The Porcupine - Julian Barnes

The trial was like most other trials that had taken place here over the previous forty years: the President of the Court, the Prosecutor General, the defence counsel and the accused - most of all the accused - knew that anything other than a verdict of guilty was unacceptable to higher authority.

A short novel about the trial of a former dictator in an unnamed ex-communist country rather similar to Bulgaria.