This week’s Top Ten Tuesday is “Ten Places Books Have Made Me Want To Visit (whether fictional or real)”. I suspect we’re going to see a fair amount of agreement on this one? I’m betting there’ll be plenty of “Hogwarts”, “Middle-earth”, etc.
- Middle-earth (The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien) — imaginary. I didn’t say I was exempt from that.
- Tywyn (The Grey King, by Susan Cooper) — real. And Cadair Idris, and… everywhere else that Will and Bran visit.
- The Lost Land (ditto) — imaginary. It sounds so amazing, and I want to look in their library.
- Fionavar (The Summer Tree, by Guy Gavriel Kay) — imaginary. Okay, it’d be a little bit like Middle-earth, really. But still.
- Camelot (Arthuriana) — somewhere in between. Possibly even both the imaginary courtly version to see the knights of legend, and the nearest real equivalent to see what it was really like.
- Scotland (Five Red Herrings, by Dorothy L. Sayers) — real. My mother has actually traced the whole route of solving that mystery. I wanna.
- Everywhere (Daughter of Smoke and Bone, by Laini Taylor) — real. All the travelling Karou does…
- London (Neverwhere, by Neil Gaiman) — real and imaginary. Okay, London Below sounds pretty dangerous, but also really cool.
- Wherever Moomins live (The Moomin comics/books, by Tove Jansson) — imaginary. Because Moomins are cool.
- The Clangers’ moon (Clangers, by Oliver Postgate) — imaginary. Because I can totally communicate in whistles and I wanna know what blue string pudding tastes like.
And G’ma and G’dad thought I was bonkers!! I did the Nine Tailors places too!! Middle Earth would be cool.
Are you saying I’m bonkers?
Great post! I really should have added Camelot to my list! 🙂
Camelot would be an amazing place to visit, for sure!
Hmm, not sure I could rustle up ten places just like that. Just going through what I’ve read recently there’s the Edinburgh of Kate Atkinson (real and imaginary), Polly Shulman’s New York (everyday and magic), Donna Leon’s Venice (real and imaginary)… I’m starting to see a pattern here. Real mundane places which the magic of novel-writing turns into places of drama and danger.
I may have to refer to The Dictionary of Imaginary Places (http://wp.me/s2oNj1-places) to redress that balance, places like Atlantis and Oz, Camelot and Treasure Island, Middle Earth and Earthsea, Arkham and Narnia, Lilliput and Gormenghast — but anywhere in the world of E Nesbit would do equally well!
And we haven’t even got onto SF, or different time periods.
Hahaha, yes. There’s a lot once you start thinking…
Ohh, Moomins! Yes, please. Didn’t they ride on clouds? So cool.
But yes, I’ve seen Hogwarts and various parts of Middle Earth all over the lists 🙂
Yes, I seem to remember something like that…
I bet it’d be like that, heh.
The Moomins and the Clangers! What great choices. Earthsea would have to be top of my list of completely invented places, though. For a long time Neuromancer made me want to visit Tokyo and Hong Kong.
Mmm, those are good ideas too…
You’re right…Moomins are cool. Apparently there is some sort of Moomin tourist spot (think Moominland). That might be a good substitute.
Here’s my Places Books Have Made Me Visit!
Huh, I didn’t know that! Cool.
Middle Earth, yes! I would love to see the Shire. Hogwarts would also be on my list too, as well as Paris. Camelot! That totally slipped my mind but it would indeed be amazing to see. Great list!
Camelot would be especially interesting for me, ’cause I studied Arthurian literature a lot at uni, but… there are so many fictional worlds that’d be awesome.
I meant that my parents thought I was bonkers to want to trace the places in the “Five Red Herrings” but the I did it again with “The Nine Tailors” in Norfolk.
Ah, I see.