A few recommendations for travellers wanting to read Cork before visiting.
The Spinning Heart by Donal Ryan. A novel of post-Celtic Tiger rural Munster told in twenty-one short first-person voices — Tipperary rather than Cork city, but capturing the language and the rhythms of the south better than almost anything else.
The Joyce of Cooking by Alannah Hopkin. A travelogue-cookbook combining recipes from Cork's food scene with portraits of the producers behind the English Market — useful before a visit because half the names you read will be on the stall signs.
Field Day by Frank O'Connor. The classic short-story writer was born in Cork and many of his stories are set in the city. "Guests of the Nation", on Civil War-era Cork, is the best-known.
The Vanishing Half of Ireland by William Trevor (Irish-born, Cork-influenced) — the short stories return repeatedly to small Cork-Munster towns.
Eureka Street is a comic novel set in Belfast rather than Cork, but author Robert McLiam Wilson's bone-dry Northern Irish voice prepares a visitor for the dryer side of southern Irish humour. Worth reading.