{"id":24262,"count":6,"description":"Modern Greece has a complicated relationship with its ancient counterpart. Greek novelist Christos Chomenidis talks about how the modern myths of Greece are related to its relationship to the past<\/a> and chooses books to illustrate this. The modern Greek state, he maintains, was founded on a romantic vision of resurrecting the glory of the past.\u00a0 \u201cIt was a very effective vision, but also a trap.\u201d\r\n\r\nAmong his books is the autobiography of Markos Vamvakaris, The Man and the Bouzouki<\/em><\/a>, which he describes as \u201cone of the greatest books I have ever read\u201d. Vamvakaris, the patriarch of folk music in Greece, describes \u201creal life in Greece at the point where working-class life meets the underworld before the second world war.\u201d In contrast, The Third Wedding<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>by Costas Taktsis is a novel that \u201coffers a picture to those who really want to understand how the Bourgeoisie in Greece was.\u201d He also chooses a selection of poems and short stories, Oktana<\/em><\/a>, by the surrealist Andreas Empeirikos, Deadline in Athens <\/em><\/a>by the contemporary crime novelist Petros Markaris, and No! I\u2019m a Stork!<\/em> <\/a>by the comic artist Arkas.\r\n\r\nChristopher Pelling, the Emeritus Regius Professor of Greek at Oxford, chooses the best books on Ancient Greece<\/a> that trace \u201cwhat Greek authors and Greek ideas have meant, and may still mean.\u201d As well as The Iliad<\/em><\/a>, Herodotus\u2019 Histories <\/em><\/a>and Euripides\u2019 Medea<\/em><\/a>, he chooses two modern books, Democracy: A Life<\/em><\/a> by Paul Cartledge and Greek Fire: The influence of Ancient Greece on the Modern World<\/em><\/a> by Oliver Taplin, both of which examine the influence of ancient Greek ideas and culture on later eras.\r\n\r\nWe also have interviews looking at the best books on Greek cooking<\/a>, the best books on Greek myths<\/a>, the best books on the Levant<\/a>, on ancient history in modern life<\/a> and on learning ancient Greek<\/a>.\u00a0 We have a separate section devoted to ancient philosophy<\/a> and philosophers, much of which is dedicated to the Greeks. Their influence is discussed throughout the rest of our philosophy section.","link":"https:\/\/fivebooks.com\/category\/world\/europe\/greece\/","name":"Greece","slug":"greece","taxonomy":"category","parent":5304,"meta":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fivebooks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories\/24262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fivebooks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fivebooks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/taxonomies\/category"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fivebooks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories\/5304"}],"wp:post_type":[{"href":"https:\/\/fivebooks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts?categories=24262"},{"href":"https:\/\/fivebooks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/book?categories=24262"},{"href":"https:\/\/fivebooks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/books_like_this?categories=24262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}