the first book to read to discover Byzantium

Admittedly; at the University, I was not especially helped discover the history of Byzantine civilization, perhaps because provincial, I could not get in Sorbonne. Probably because of the fool contention between medievalists of the Christian West and the East medievalists (who heard of Claude Cahen? But everyone knows Michel BALARD! Yet both deserve to be recognized as) , which I know the origin. Let you do not make the charges through your passionate servant, and especially thanks to Gutenberg.
I do not run after the "What do I know?" It is worth to its author. Bernard FLUSIN teaches at the Sorbonne, and directs the religious section at Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes. It has, with Jean-Claude CHEYNET Michel KAPLAN, Alain DUCELLIER, Cecile MORRISON, Pierre Maraval, Jean-Marie Martin, AE Laiou among the best French Byzantinists the world. Unusually in such a small book, art and religion are not treated separately, and Bernard Flusin read Lynda Safran and exceptionally good Heaven on Earth 1998 (not the first freshness, but it is always with the catalog WIXOM EVANS and Glory of Byzantium, regularly reprinted and LOWDEN I commented here).
Book excellent, enjoyable read while being solidly documented with maps (yes!) And plans. Problem of this collection: no index. A replay endlessly to do according to your searches and interests.
Here is the Table of Contents just brushed, which reveals the anthropological approach of centripetal great researcher.
Introduction
Chapter 1: the emperor, the court and ceremonies (necessary knowledge base of the Roman Empire)
Chapter 2: Byzantine Christianity
Chapter 3: Constantinople and the province of the age of the medieval world cities
Chapter 4: Churches, objects, pictures: Byzantine art (read urgent to understand the Byzantine heritage in the West: a sample methodology for all historians)
Chapter 5: Hellenism: language, education, letters.
Conclusion
Bibliography
3rd updated edition in 2012.
Any student medievalist (history or art history and archeology) should have read!