Top 5 Books to Buy Before Visiting Berlin

I've purchased a lot of Berlin related books over the years. Here are a selection of the top 5 that I actually use regularly and find helpful in learning about Berlin and getting around as well as being inspired as well.

berlin by jason lutes

5. German to English Dictionary

Any basic one will do. This will help improve your language learning.

4. Lonely Planet - Berlin City Guide
This is a nice overview of the city, try to get a fairly new copy because many of the smaller restaurants and art venues change from year to year. Lonely Planet also offers the Berlin guide in iOS format. I have both and they are about the same, although the book version does seem to be a bit more useful since you can more easily look at the maps and mark the pages you are interested in visiting. $14

3. MoleSkin - Berlin Edition
The Berlin edition of the MoleSkin books is a perfect notebook to travel to Berlin with and capture all your contacts, notes and memories of your journey. It also includes a really nice map of the city and map of the U-Bahn (train) stations which comes in handy in this compact format. As with all of the MoleSkin products this book is solid and well designed and they great for capturing your inspirations. Price: $20

2. Lonely Planet - German Phrasebook
This almost pocket sized book is the perfect little book to have with you while you travel and need to figure out the most basic vocabulary. With a 2000 word two-way dictionary it provides a lot for such a little book.  Price: $7.99

1. Berlin by Jason Lutes - Graphic Novel

The graphic novel series Berlin written and illustrated by Jason Lutes is a cool way to get inspired on the old city of Berlin as seen thru the interesting, almost film noir style black and white graphic novel. This is in German and a fun way to practice up on your german - but you can just look at the hundreds of pretty pictures as well. Price: 14 Euro