TOP TEN TUESDAY | PLACES I ENCOUNTERED IN BOOKS THAT I DO/DON’T WANT TO VISIT

I’m back with yet another of my not-quite-the-prompt Top Ten Tuesday posts! This week the prompt was “Bookish Worlds I’d Want to/Never Want to Live In.” I don’t read much that takes place in a whole other world than the one we live in – except, of course, at Hogwarts. (Which, in case you’re wondering, is a world I simultaneously do [magic! library! loyal friends!] and don’t [Voldemort! weekly brushes with death! trolls! Snape!] want to live in.) So I’m going to make a list of places I have read about – either as travel memoirs or non-fiction accounts or as a setting for a fictional story – that I would very much like to visit or live in. And possibly a few I wouldn’t.

              

As any of you who have been around for a while know, Under the Tuscan Sun was my introduction to travel writing. It was a beautiful escape at a time when I needed one, and that imaginary image of Italy has stuck with me. I haven’t been there yet, but I really want to go!

84, Charing Cross Road made me want to visit London, of course, but it also made me long for Helene Hanff’s New York. This is not the gritty, fast-paced, uber-stylish New York of many modern books, it’s a New York where neighbours talk to one another, the corner grocer remembers what you like to eat, you can stroll in the park with a book of poetry and you can build a literary world in a tiny apartment.

The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry is one of my all-time favourite novels. I can’t even remember where it was set, but it’s that bookstore I want to visit – or, better yet, move into.

I wasn’t the biggest fan of The Little Paris Bookshop as a novel, but I did adore the setting. It starts in Paris, but since it’s about a floating bookstore, it moves around to some other parts of France as well. I’m not huge on boats, but if I were ever to take to the water, this is how I’d do it.

             

In A Sunburned Country made me both fall in love with and become deathly afraid of Australia. He really brings it to life – lethal creatures and all. It’s hilarious, it’s factual and it will keep you up well past bedtime.

Bridget Jones’ Diary is one of those books that evokes a time and place for me – and that is about 35,000 feet above the Atlantic Ocean, somewhere between London and Vancouver. I read this on my way home from visiting family, and it is one I will always think of fondly.

I love San Francisco as it is today, partly because parts of it still evoke the same feeling I got while reading the infamous Tales of the City.

I adored the London of Love, Nina. But more than that, I wanted to move in next door to her boss. I wanted to have books thrust into my hands by a literary beau and be surrounded by the witty one-liners served up by the mother (and editor of the London Review of Books) and two boys she nannies, and have Alan Bennet dropping by for supper. I can’t imagine a more enticing literary environment.

And here are the ones I’m not that into:

          

I don’t think you really need me to give any explanation for The Diary of a Young Girl. Though not fictional, this is the most chilling setting I’ve ever encountered.

I enjoyed reading The Lord of the Rings, but I would not fare well in that world. I’d last all of a minute before something would eat me or run me through.

I’ve read a fair amount of dystopian books, none of which featured worlds I’d want to wake up to. But Grasshopper Jungle has giant hungry grasshoppers, so it wins.

What about you guys? Which books made you want to pack a suitcase and head for the road? Which ones made you vow never to leave the comfort of your bedroom again? Share in the comments!

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly link-up feature created by The Broke and the Bookish and hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. Every week TTT has a different topic, and everyone who links up has to create a link of ten items that fit that topic. To see past and upcoming topics, go here.