Budapest - A Critical Guide Tenth fully revised edition This book is an
insider?s guide that would enchant its readers with facts, opinion and personal
memories. It was first published in 1989, when liberty and the free market
suddenly and unexpectedly returned to Budapest, bringing new opportunities and
new dilemmas. It soon became a cult book. The author originally did not want to
include photos because photos always lie? However, he did insist on maps, which
have become the hallmark of his love project. He has always been interested in
old and new things alike. In the later editions, old photos and his own
snapshots gradually found their place. In the present editions readers will find
some QR codes that lead them to film clips. The one on the last page leads to
the section with the monthly updates on the author?s website. This guidebook
could easily be the first guidebook that will never be outdated. Long live
printed books combined with online updates! You can?t beat a printed book
written by a local insider. Especially one that has the ambition to make you a
native Budapester overnight. Give it a whirl, then pass it on to your friends at
home. They too might love reading it, even far away from Budapest? ?An
affectionate and idiosyncratic guide.? Daisann McLane, The New York Times, 1998
?Perhaps nothing so idiosyncratic has appeared on the market since the writer
Antal Szerb wrote his delightful? A Martian?s Guide to Budapest, 1935? ? the
booklet was a whimsical and gently ironic love letter to Budapest, qualities it
shares with Török?s work half a century later.? Nicholas T. Parsons, The
Hungarian Quarterly, 2005 ?It is wonderful how he can present Budapest ? all his
words are truthful, yet his descriptions evoke a city ten times more exciting
and attractive than is generally perceived. Probably it is his version that is
the genuine one ? we should imitate his way of glancing at it.? Dávid Zubrecki,
Hype and Hyper, 2023 ?His guidebook Budapest. A Critical Guide, updated
regularly since it was first published in 1989, is as playful as it is
insightful and helped me reacquaint myself with the city.? Stephen Hiltner, The
New York Times, 2023 András Török (1954) was born, raised, and trained in
Budapest. He likes to call himself a cultural adventurer, others simply call him
Mr. Budapest since he has long been an ardent observer of the urban scene here,
becoming a volunteer promoter for his home town. He has worked as a teacher, a
typographic designer, an editor, and as deputy minister for culture. He was the
founding director of the Hungarian House of Photography, is the manager of
Fortepan ? the free online photo archive ? and is the host of a fortnightly
Budapest-related programme on Tilos Rádió, as well as the author of nine
non-fiction books (three of which are available in English). He has always lived
in Pest, but his book covers the Pest and the Buda sides impartially. As he once
put it: ?I consider all Budapest my home turf, just like as a Hungarian I feel
all Europe my homeland.?