The Turcophile File

About 10 years ago a skeptical friend asked Darwin Sator, "What's so great about Turkey?" to which he replied, "I'll make you a list." A year later, Sator presented his friend a list of what he considered 100 very interesting facts. He kept a copy, and kept adding to it. A couple of years ago, when the list passed 300, he started thinking about writing a little book to share his excitement with others. The Turchophile File contains an improbable total of 475 interesting facts. ("Gotta stop somewhere," Sator says.) They are presented willy nilly, not to confuse the reader exactly, but to prevent him from viewing the country from any narrow perspective. The original idea was to call the book Turkish Trivia, Talking Turkey or Turkish Tidbits, which have the advantage of being alliterative, but while some of it is definitely trivia, more of it isn't, and the other two names make you think of that bird again. The Turcophile File is better. It's alliterative too, and it says exactly what the author wants it to say, which is: "I love this place, and I'll bet you would love it too."