on Notes who, when we were discussing a recent piece of his, suggested the idea that a fictional story often captures the essence of a place better than a travel guide ever can - a sentiment I wholeheartedly agree with. So, my question for you this week is:
Has a piece of fiction ever inspired you to visit a place, and where was it?
P.S. If you’d ever like to suggest a question for these discussion threads, feel free to harass me on Notes!
Your question is quite timely as I am leaving in September to visit Nova Scotia, because of a poem I read in eighth grade called Evangeline, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. I read that poem in 1963, so it’s taken me 60 years to take the journey.
That’s such a great story! Hope it lives up to 60 years worth of imagination. Would love to hear how you found it - are you planning on writing about it after your trip?
I’m not sure what you’re asking regarding how I found it. I read the poem in school and became fascinated by Nova Scotia and the expulsion of the Acadians in the mid-1700’s. It took Evangeline her lifetime to find her fiancé when they were separated during the Expulsions.
There are a million good responses to this...but I have to be weird/honest and say I've always wanted to visit the hotel that inspired Stephen King's The Shining.
My daughter was married in 3/20/20 when the pandemic shut everything down. However, she and my son-in-law still decided to go ahead with their stay at the Pierre Hotel in NYC.
They were literally the only guests and they swear they heard music coming from another room. As horror fans, they were pretty freaked out.
That’s why scary stories are so universally popular. Before moving pictures there were tales of horror such as the brothers Grimm. Even over a century later those stories are known to children.
Not sure I’d want to find myself in the Shinings story Hotel and the book scared me so much I was afraid to see the movie but found it no where near as scary as the story. His books were a staple in my teens but had to stop because I felt they were driving me to paranoia.
Agatha Christie was another strong influence to my youth. My whole family devoured her books.
Robert Ludlum’s books made me want to visit the Mediterranean.
The Thorn Birds made me not ever want to visit Australia.
Yes!! I think the only reason I find it thrilling is because I've selected to be afraid. Do you know what I mean? It's not a real life scare - those I would not volunteer for.
All the Japanese authors that I’ve read have made me feel as if I know the country, although I’ve never been there. Of course I want to, but after all these years of reading about and watching stuff made in Japan, will it live up to the hype? Probably not.
Those are my two...having read of and about each greatly before visiting (and living in Paris). I think also good literature makes me experience a place on some kind of extra level even if it didn't spark me to travel there.
I had an American friend come to visit me in London. When discussing what attractions she wanted to visit, she said she would pass on the Tower of London (a hugely important historical site) because "I've seen the video"!
😂😂 love it. I wouldn’t turn anything down in Japan though, no matter how many times I’ve seen the sights in anime or read about them. I’m just worried they won’t live up to the images I’ve built in my head.
The opposite always happen for me: when I'm traveling, I read almost exclusively books that feature the place I am traveling to. When I was teaching creative writing one summer in England I picked up Nan Shepard's THE LIVING MOUNTAIN to read on a week away in Scotland. And when I was traveling through Moab this summer, I listened again to DESERT SOLITAIRE and a woman's address to it, Amy Irvine's DESERT CABAL.
You've read it! I engulfed it. We were staying on the green river when I was at the scene with her dad and the guy with a gun and even though that happened like forty years ago I was SPOOKED. And she gets at the aspects of the other book that I felt but hadn't named. All the people that were around in Abbey's life, for instance.
I agree, I love to read books about the area I am visiting. Reading Mani: Travels in the Southern Peloponnese by Patrick Lee Fermor during our visit to Greece, gave the holiday an extra special aura. On the other hand, I quickly tired of my husband reading from The History of the Peloponnesian War.
Nan Shepard's books about the Cairngorms are also very atmospheric. I hope you enjoyed your visit - it is where I come from.
I certainly visited Howth Head (north of Dublin Bay) courtesy of the Molly section of "Ulysses," but then again there's no way to walk through Dublin without an emotional or mental debt to that novel, after you've read it.
It is essential reading, though the city is much less formidable than the novel (at least, it was the last time I was there). But if Dublin is too much, any of the towns along the bay are worth visiting by a short train ride.
Nice! The Martello tower is much smaller in person, though the replica panther inside is a good joke. I made the mistake of asking the volunteer behind the counter about Joyce, and he talked through me for 20 minutes straight.
Also, for anyone this deep down the labyrinth who don't care much for Joyce, the Dublin Writer's Museum has a great arrangement of the writers who have made the city's literary name great (including Joyce but also those who came before and since).
I never have, and honestly I never plan to. Part of what I admire about "Ulysses" is its absolute irreducibility: you cannot paraphrase, summarize, nor analyze it fully, the way it drinks in all possible bits of consciousness. Thus, "unfilm-able" seems a polite word for it, especially since watching the film would mean several hours of unfair comparison to the book.
Have you watched it? And if so, am I being too harsh?
Yes! Two things come to mind. One is kind of the reverse. While studying for the summer in Paris during grad school, I read Balzac's "Lost Illusions" (in English, alas). So cool to walk around the city and see the places in the book. The second - that same summer, I read "The Leopard," saw the film (in Italian, dubbed in French ~!), and the next day, booked a flight to Sicily (where my bf, now husband was working on an archeological study of the Greek city of Morgantina). Oh, to be young a mobile again!
It's a fine city, pretty interesting. It's far better, crime wise, than it was in 90s.
Absolutely no tourist go, but tons of Mexican-americans cross both ways daily, since it has three pedestrian bridges with El Paso and both cities are really one big city. Which makes it my kinda town.
Virgil's Aneid made me want to visit Rome. And while not a work of fiction, Machiavelli's "Il Principe" made me very fascinated by Florence. I am drawn to anyplace with a lot of history attached.
Me too. Wherever I go, discovering the history is one of my favorite aspects.
I think studying art history gave me some of the most valuable insights into the ancient world, architecture and cultural evolution. Some aspects still influence architectural design today.
For a few years I lived on the Oregon coast, at least partially because of the way that Ursula Le Guin had described it, and how it had inspired the worlds that she created. Not a single regret.
That book gets a terrible rap (and probably fairly so) but it does do an excellent job of getting you excited about Paris. Same with Angels and Demons and Rome
My obsession with New Orleans begins and ends with Anne Rice, specifically The Witching Hour trilogy. As a young adult, these novels gripped me like only fantasy can. You can say what you want about the literary quality of these novels, but there is no questioning her love for New Orleans - it's written into every sentence, every house description, every mention of architecture and culture in those stories.
A lot of my place obsessions began with children or YA novels. Think it’s something about that age, yearning for the freedom to go anywhere you want, that turns them into lifelong obsessions
Oh, yes! Last year I visited Naples, Italy, after having read 3 of the 4 volumes of Elena Ferrante's 'Neapolitan Quartet'. Needless to say I went there carrying volume no. 4 and started reading it in various cafés of the city. 😍
I LOVE this question. Like many people my age, I read Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird in school. Nelle Harper Lee grew up in Monroeville, Alabama, and is the basis for her fictional town of Maycomb in her novel. Monroeville is where she met her childhood friend and lifelong writing colleague Truman Capote. My dad and I wanted to visit Monroeville, but the pandemic delayed our plans. We finally went in April 2022 and got to see an outdoor performance of the stage version, which moved inside the courthouse for the trial scene. It's the actual courthouse used in the movie and where Nelle used to watch her lawyer father defend his clients. The building has quite a history and they've made a great museum of it with several rooms dedicated to Capote. It was a delightful trip.
I'm sure I have many other answers to this same question. I guess one answer that wouldn't count but is related is that I grew up in the town that inspired Altamont, Catawba, in Thomas Wolfe's Look Homeward Angel (Asheville, NC), the residents of which were none to happy with Wolfe after his book was published.
I went to Asheville before reading "Look Homeward, Angel" and haven't been able to mentally reconcile the two since meeting them both. That said, they're still a beautiful town in an unmatched vista and one knock-em-down novel, respectively.
A lot of people in Asheville, then and now, wouldn't agree with your assessment of the novel... of course, it could be interpreted in different ways. 😄
Hahaha - which city truly appreciates its literary examination, right?
I guess I mean "knock-em-down novel" more literally, since Wolfe seems to use the place as the springboard for his own mythic ambition rather than reflecting the place itself.
it's not the first time when i'm mentioning here that some of my favourite books all starts with "once upon a time"; and in honour of one of them, i went to visit collodi in italy. enough to say that the place has the tallest wooden pinocchio in the world
Venice - after reading 'Don't Look Now' in Daphne du Maurier's short stories collection 'Not after Midnight'. Seeing Nicholas Roeg's film in 1973 just reinforced that desire. Venice during the day is one city but after dark .....
I think after the success of the film, the short story collection was renamed 'Don't Look Now and other stories.' It is not the usual pretty, pretty view of Venice but the city 'after dark'. When I feel the city takes on a more interesting guise. Another good read of Venice in that way is Ian McEwan's 'The Comfort of Strangers' - he never mentions the city by name but it's definitely set there. Although not strictly fiction, reading Hemingway's posthumous 'Moveable Feast' as a teenager around 1970 gave me a desire to visit Paris and experience cafe culture. I've been lucky enough to do that many times now, including celebrating my wife's 40th there and then my youngest daughter's 16th.
Interestingly the genre that does this for me the most is historical fiction, maybe because they really rely on the experiential truth of a place to help them access the ghosts + histories they’re trying to pin down?
I read a ton of Lost Generation works, but once I read The Paris Wife by Paula McLain I felt I absolutely had to be wandering around Paris at night, in the South of France at high summer, and in the stands for a bull fight. It’s on my list of aspirational trips
Looking at a photograph I just posted in Notes- me sailing a dhow off of Lamu, Kenya circa 1983, I have to say that Isak Dinesen's (Karen Blixen) Out of Africa and Shadows on the Grass inspired that year of overland adventures that stared in London and ended on Lamu Island. "I had a farm in Africa..."
Somehow I never got round to reading that book but I did live in the Karen suburb of Nairobi for a few months. I think Kenya might be my favourite African country of all that I’ve visited so far. Part of me would love to start an African farm
Funny, I never did get to Karen's house in Kenya, but have visited her Danish home and now museum twice where she actually wrote all those beautifully crafted tales.
My husband was a classics teacher, and during a holiday to Greece he was determined to visit the gates of Hell. Ovid wrote of how Orpheus traveled to the Greek underworld by entering a cave at Cape Tenaron, on the southern tip of the Peloponnese. We searched for a long time, coming to the conclusion that the small indentation in a scrubby bit of land, with its pathetic pile of rocks, were the ancient gates to Hell. It was very disappointing!
Way less highbrow than other answers but my partner's childhood obsession with The Mysterious Cities of Gold led to him studying ancient history and spending some years in Mexico.
Heart of Darkness (Conrad) and A Bend in the River (V.S. Naipaul) lead me to the Congo. But I’ve also had the process work in reverse. After my years in Zimbabwe, Malawi, and Zambia, I discovered Alexandra Fuller and read her Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight, Scribbling the Cat, Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness, and Leaving Before the Rains.
Another time, many years after we lived in Botswana, I was departing for some regrettable place somewhere when by chance I passed a bookstore on my way to security and happened to see a book with a Tswana design gracing a rondavel, so I purchased my first No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency volume of Alexander McCall Smith’s wonderful series. Later, I started adding the Audible editions read by Lisette Lacat who does a masterful job of properly pronouncing place names and Setswana words, except for one road name. The series is such a lovely portrayal of life in Africa that western reporters never seem to experience.
All of which reminds me of a small exchange at the Yakima Farmers’ Market this morning when I stopped at the booth of a woman whose accent I immediately recognized as one from somewhere in west Africa, so I asked her where she grew up, which I now understand is considered racist, an epithet that I no longer give a damn about because I am talking to people I’ve shared most of my life with and care deeply about.
She said she was from Mali, and I replied that I had visited her country and had also spent a good deal of time just across the border in Siguire, Guinea-Conakry, where she also spent time as a market woman selling goods unavailable in Guinea. We talked for maybe ten minutes and she finally said, “then you know we aren’t animals or helpless children in need of white Jesus in Africa, as most Americans think.” I smiled and said yes, I do know these things very well. We both smiled and I thanked her for coming to America to help make this a better country.
I met a couple while grocery shopping late one evening. We were discussing the price of strawberries and I immediately heard a Ghanaian accent, so we chatted for maybe 20 minutes. It turned out we had a Ghanaian friend in common and her American husband was delighted. He’s a Ghanaophile and they have a home in Ghana the stay at for part of the year.
Last year I met a man who fled a small town in Bosnia where I often traveled to for work. He asked me if I knew of a certain restaurant and I said of course I knew that restaurant. It turns out he was the former owner.
I have another Bosnian friend in Boise who was brutalized during a detention by Serbs. His injuries limit what he can do but when we talk, I can share experiences with him I can share with no one else and vice versa. We even share tips on how to manage and minimize nightmares, which we both suffer from. It’s a special friendship that gives us both an empathetic ear and someone who we can trust our experiences with. I don’t see him a s a refugee. I see him as one of my people with whom I’ve shared the world.
When I moved to Los Angeles, the first thing I tried to do was to locate as many places haunted by Raymond Chandler’s PI Philip Marlow, and I was successful in finding many, even though various locales had changed over many years.
While this wasn't the entire reason I moved to South Korea, my love of Korean filmmaking was not an insignificant reason. Same with the time I almost moved to Hong Kong for two years!
What a great question. It's a yes and no from me. My first out of US trip was to Buenos Aires ... it was inspired by a combination of things including an online friend who was staying there, a stranger's blog posts about tango lessons, and a chick lit novel about tango there. I never did get good at tango but I did go visit Buenos Aires around that time, although I can't remember if the book came first or knowing I was going to go there did.
I often begin to read books about an area before I travel there - not non-fiction and fiction. And I feel like there are places I've traveled to that I've never gone to physically because I've read so much about them in memoirs and fiction that I feel their essence in my bones.
A story: I read Eat, Pray, Love before it was a movie and adored it because of the right timing for me in reading it. At the time, I wanted to go to Italy but didn't ever think about going to Rome, and then after reading it, I re-thought Rome because of her depictions of the food and the men there. I didn't have much of an interest in her India part of the journey. But the Indonesia part made me really, really want to go to Bali. Later, I dated a man I thought I loved who had already been to Bali and due to a variety of things in our relationship it made me less interested in going there. I've still never been. Last year, my partner and I went to Italy, a trip which began with landing in Rome, and it turned out Rome is fine but was my least favorite part of the trip compared to all the other little Italian towns. Unlike Elizabeth Gilbert's experience, I went there already in love. And I suppose my point here is that somehow her story ended up intertwined with mine for me.
Funnily enough, the whole reason the Italy trip finally happened, after decades of wanting to go but not going, besides the fact that my partner has ties there, was that during the pandemic we were finally dining out again at a restaurant and I ordered a dessert wine that only comes from the island of Lipari and I loved it and said, "we must go to Lipari" and ... we did. And it was as magical as I could have possibly hoped a romantic trip to a Sicilian island would be.
Thanks for taking the time to write such a detailed answer. I do the same in reading so much about the places I visit - probably too much as it takes a bit of the spontaneity out of my reading at time!
Interesting about Rome - I visited it for the first time earlier this year and it was everything I’d hoped it would be. Think I could live there permanently
I think it was just timing ... I am usually a very urban girl who loves visiting other urban places. I loved Buenos Aires, loved Porto and Lisbon ... but I was in a phase of life where I really wanted something quieter. Everything was so hyperstimulating at the time. So I think Rome was just too much for where I was at. By the end of the trip I was rested and ready for Palermo where we wrapped up and that was terrific.
That said, when I go back, I'm really most interested, city-wise, in checking out Milan.
Well there’s a few reasons. On my main Substack, Cosmographia I explore my obsession with the concept of place and their emotional, philosophical, and artistic weight. Also, I’m a massive history nerd and one can argue so much of western civilisation has its roots in Rome (both republican democracy and the Christian church). There’s just layers and layers and layers to Rome. I was there two months and I only feel like I peered under the first couple
Elly Griffiths' Dr Ruth Galloway crime series sent me off to north Norfolk.
I can't go to Lyme Regis without doing a French Lieutenant's Woman at the end of the Cob, or standing on the steps where Louisa Musgrove fell in Austen's Persuasion.
Driving past Stonehenge means Tess of the D'Urbevilles is around somewhere and who could read Lorna Doone and not visit Exmoor and Culbone church to imagine Lorna shot and dying in the chancel?
Oh yes, Lyme Regis, walking along the Cob in a cloak, which I admit (not long after the film came out), I did. Not so keen on jumping off the Cob however!
Yes! I feel like almost all of my adult travel dreams are inspired by fiction. I would love to visit Ireland and Scotland due to tales of selkies, Prince Edward Island thanks to Anne, and Oxford, to bask in the glow of Lewis and Tolkien. My husband and I are hoping to knock Scotland/Ireland off the list next year!
When I was eleven I read Dracula for the first time and vowed to see Romania. I have not made it yet, but I’ve certainly made farther across the world than my eleven-year-old self would have expected.
This one probably seems boring to some, but I also have a love for mysteries set in the UK and am planning a trip there in about three years. My husband is already adding extra days on to accommodate all of the literary sites I want to visit.
I loved Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. While it wasn't the main driving force behind my visit to Mexico (the book is inspired by Mayan & Mexican folklore), it did give me much to daydream about while I was there!
The Celestine Prophecy did it for me, making me want to visit Peruvian jungles. The book reads like a non-fiction book. However, it’s a novel spending over three years on the New York Times bestseller list.
I've always fancied getting lost in Piranesi's House (Susannah Clarke) but I've not found a way to get there. It's not quite as simple as walking through the back of a wardrobe.
The first was Willi Meinck's Marco Polo. The first volume was about his teenage years in Venice before joining his father and uncle on their travels. I found no English translation of it.
The second was Casanova's "Escape from the Leads"
I went to Venice with low expectations. I told to myself: it cannot be as beautiful as everybody says.
Something is drawing me back to the classics these days. I am just about finishing Meditations of Marcus Aurelius and I am thinking of revisiting Erasmus of Rotterdam and looking at Chaucer
Speaking of which, here are two suggestions:
What is your favourite classic (meaning work written before 1700)
Which book is your latest re-read and why?
OK, the second gave me a third:
Which is your favourite book from a culture very different from yours
Ed Abbey's "Desert Solitaire" made me (a boy from the pines and cotton fields of the gulf coast) yearn to go west, but it was Hillerman's "The Great Taos Bank Robbery" that made me begin my exploration of the Southwest in New Mexico -- and it's that state that draws me back again and again.
I went to Moab once because of Desert Solitaire and Finding Everett Ruess, and also because it was Jeep Jamboree weekend, but mostly because of Edward Abbey.
Another wonderful topic. I was pretty enamored with rural South Africa after reading J.M. Coetzee’s ‘Disgrace’. Truth be told, it’s the kind of story that should make you want to avoid a place. But I was curious, and did end up visiting this past winter. As it turns out, I experienced a pretty unsettling episode during my time there, the undertone of which was influenced by the novel.
Waiting for the Barbarians and Summertime are both good.
Nadine Gordimer is another great South African writer and my favorite book of hers is July’s People.
Have you read Alan Paton’s classic Cry the Beloved Country. There are many memorable lines in his book, but this is the one that haunts me: “I have one great fear in my heart, that one day when they are turned to loving, they will find that we are turned to hating.”
I was invited to Barcelona by the mystery books of the late Carlos Ruiz Zafón https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_Ruiz_Zafón. His concept of the "cemetery of forgotten books" is pure genius. Visiting the places where his stories take place was fascinating.
Elif Shafak has a gift of capturing the spirit and poetics of all spaces she talks about; whether they are contemporary or historical. The rawness of all she describes is so fulfilling to the heart. Her references to her Turkish origins and saying that Istanbul sounds like a feminine name, to capture the nature of the place have made me want to visit Turkey. But more importantly I want to live and breath in all the words she ever put down to paper because her writing is exotic and mystical. Her exploration of spaces and the spirits that haunt them comes alive in her book 'The Architect's Apprentice'. The description of mosques, call to prayer, and building the world around history is extremely enchanting. Highly recommend her work.
"The Architect's Apprentice" if you want some historical fiction that would help you get a lay of the land, the mosques, the religion, the monarchy; all that good stuff.
"The Bastard of Istanbul" was the first book of hers that I read and I immediately fell in love with both her work and the places she describes. It references the wars that have divided the land, gender struggles, and because it features female friendships and mother-daughter dynamics you could understand how society is structured.
"Honour" is also an exploration of the abuse and discrimination faced by women in Turkish society and is revolves around an honor-killing.
But Bastard of Istanbul if you wanna see the city with the blessed lens of her writing. And Architect's Apprentice if you want to understand the significance of the architecture that you'll encounter.
Ahhh that sounds awesome! I’m an architect enthusiast that knows almost nothing about it so that sounds awesome. Think I’ll get at least two of the ones you’ve mentioned - you’ve totally sold me on them!
The romantic goth in me has always done a Wuthering Heights re-read and dreamed of spending a winter in Brontë’s beautifully bleak, mythical moorland of Yorkshire. Planning a trip to the South Pennine moors in 2024 to finally get my Catherine Earnshaw on.
Many years ago I read James Mitchner’s Chesapeake. Shortly after the reading I packed up my wife and two small boys (now in their forties) and we visited the Eastern Shore of Maryland. It was late fall and we were camping in a tent. A long story, but this was one of our greatest experiences in travel. We happened to arrive for the Watermen’s annual event called Chesapeake Appreciation Days. There were Skipjack racing events, locally made foods, etc. I also visited places appropriately near to the novels story line. Several were totally fictional, but we went to the appropriate locations.
It was fun and I love going anywhere in Scotland. But it didn't look at all like the movie, or the TV series. Afterward I found out that the filming was done elsewhere, even though the origin story was in Glenfinnan.
This was years ago, but I was taken with Stoke. With so many Victorian buildings still standing and well decorated with ceramics, I found it a visual feast. The only disappointment was and Indian restaurant. As I sat and waited for my order, I wondered why so many of the other diners were eating English dishes with piles of chips. After my order arrived, I suffered the worst Indian food ever. Wasn't pleasant at the time, but still makes for a good story!
What a wonderful question! Austen, Emily Bronte and Shakespeare, combined with Arthurian legend, definitely played a large role in my visit to the UK a number of years back. Rimbaud and, funnily enough, Hugo's Les Miserables itself certainly inspired a visit to Paris as well!
I bought Arnold Bennett's The Old Wives' Tale while an undergraduate, but never read it until a number of years later. I enjoyed the book so much I made it a point to visit Stoke-on-Trent, which is the setting for the novel. To prepare for the trip, I contacted The Arnold Bennett Society, which very kindly sent me a map of the area identifying Bennett sites. Bennett adapted the local names for his novel and during my stay I was constantly confusing the Bennett names with the real names. Re-visiting courtesy of Google Earth, I can see that the building where the Baine's shop stood still stands and has been fitted with information about Bennett his novels.
I’m a firm believer there should be a good amount of distance between home and university to allow you space to learn to adult. Having said that in my native England a good amount of distance is about a 3 hour drive...California to Minnesota is like half a continent!
Ever since I read the book series about the adventures of Yashim, the Ottoman (not the piece of furniture...) eunuch detective (The Janissary Tree, The Snake Stone, The Bellini Card, An Evil Eye, The Baklava Club), written by Jason Goodwin, I've wanted to visit Istanbul, but haven't had the chance as of yet...
(as a side note, I would also love those books to become movies or a TV series...)
Your question is quite timely as I am leaving in September to visit Nova Scotia, because of a poem I read in eighth grade called Evangeline, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. I read that poem in 1963, so it’s taken me 60 years to take the journey.
That’s such a great story! Hope it lives up to 60 years worth of imagination. Would love to hear how you found it - are you planning on writing about it after your trip?
I’m not sure what you’re asking regarding how I found it. I read the poem in school and became fascinated by Nova Scotia and the expulsion of the Acadians in the mid-1700’s. It took Evangeline her lifetime to find her fiancé when they were separated during the Expulsions.
Sorry - my poorly phrased sentence is to blame here. What I meant was, I would love to hear how you find Nova Scotia after you visit!
I’m very new to Substack, but I would love to try and put my findings and feelings to paper at my journey’s end. Thanks!
I hope you have a marvelous time. My husband and his buddy drove motorcycles up there for his friends 60th bday. Someday I’d like to see it myself.
Not going on a motorcycle though.
There are a million good responses to this...but I have to be weird/honest and say I've always wanted to visit the hotel that inspired Stephen King's The Shining.
I would love to as well. Maybe the BTMU’s first ever in person retreat can be up there 😂
Perfect place for a writer's retreat.........
I started to practice my first sentence:
All work and no play........
Genius idea!!!
Here's an Overlook type of scene:
My daughter was married in 3/20/20 when the pandemic shut everything down. However, she and my son-in-law still decided to go ahead with their stay at the Pierre Hotel in NYC.
They were literally the only guests and they swear they heard music coming from another room. As horror fans, they were pretty freaked out.
Jeeze that’s both the perfect experience for the setting but also terrifying 😂😂
I'd be terrified but also love it. There's something thrilling about being afraid.
That’s why scary stories are so universally popular. Before moving pictures there were tales of horror such as the brothers Grimm. Even over a century later those stories are known to children.
Not sure I’d want to find myself in the Shinings story Hotel and the book scared me so much I was afraid to see the movie but found it no where near as scary as the story. His books were a staple in my teens but had to stop because I felt they were driving me to paranoia.
Agatha Christie was another strong influence to my youth. My whole family devoured her books.
Robert Ludlum’s books made me want to visit the Mediterranean.
The Thorn Birds made me not ever want to visit Australia.
Yes!! I think the only reason I find it thrilling is because I've selected to be afraid. Do you know what I mean? It's not a real life scare - those I would not volunteer for.
Ahhh the Thorn Birds...and Barbara Stanwyck
Oooooh yes!
It is as creepy as you would imagine, especially the way that it is situated as you go in and out of Estes Park.
Ahhh one day I will get myself there!
in winter???? chuckle
All the Japanese authors that I’ve read have made me feel as if I know the country, although I’ve never been there. Of course I want to, but after all these years of reading about and watching stuff made in Japan, will it live up to the hype? Probably not.
Andrei you have captured the exact question that I’m in the grips of agonising over in an essay for Cosmographia! This is how I feel about Paris
I think neither of you will be disappointed :)
But my advice is to do mostly non-touristy stuff!
Those are my two...having read of and about each greatly before visiting (and living in Paris). I think also good literature makes me experience a place on some kind of extra level even if it didn't spark me to travel there.
Can’t wait to read it!
I had an American friend come to visit me in London. When discussing what attractions she wanted to visit, she said she would pass on the Tower of London (a hugely important historical site) because "I've seen the video"!
😂😂 love it. I wouldn’t turn anything down in Japan though, no matter how many times I’ve seen the sights in anime or read about them. I’m just worried they won’t live up to the images I’ve built in my head.
I would love to see the Japanese gardens.
Same, and also the onsen (the thermal baths), especially those in the mountains. Ahh, a dream.
The opposite always happen for me: when I'm traveling, I read almost exclusively books that feature the place I am traveling to. When I was teaching creative writing one summer in England I picked up Nan Shepard's THE LIVING MOUNTAIN to read on a week away in Scotland. And when I was traveling through Moab this summer, I listened again to DESERT SOLITAIRE and a woman's address to it, Amy Irvine's DESERT CABAL.
This is my life too. I basically always feel I have to be reading something about where I’m travelling in case it’s useful for Cosmographia!
Desert Cabal is WONDERFUL!!
You've read it! I engulfed it. We were staying on the green river when I was at the scene with her dad and the guy with a gun and even though that happened like forty years ago I was SPOOKED. And she gets at the aspects of the other book that I felt but hadn't named. All the people that were around in Abbey's life, for instance.
WOAH! I had the great good fortune of studying writing w/ Amy. She is a fierce teacher. Love her perspective.
I agree, I love to read books about the area I am visiting. Reading Mani: Travels in the Southern Peloponnese by Patrick Lee Fermor during our visit to Greece, gave the holiday an extra special aura. On the other hand, I quickly tired of my husband reading from The History of the Peloponnesian War.
Nan Shepard's books about the Cairngorms are also very atmospheric. I hope you enjoyed your visit - it is where I come from.
I certainly visited Howth Head (north of Dublin Bay) courtesy of the Molly section of "Ulysses," but then again there's no way to walk through Dublin without an emotional or mental debt to that novel, after you've read it.
Might have to finally read my copy when I visit next year
Would highly recommend starting with Dubliners and then A Portrait of the Artist.
It is essential reading, though the city is much less formidable than the novel (at least, it was the last time I was there). But if Dublin is too much, any of the towns along the bay are worth visiting by a short train ride.
Same here -- Joyce and Dublin. Visited for the 100th anniversary of both the novel and Ireland itself last year.
Oh, if only. How was the celebration there?
Unfortunately was not there for Bloomsday. But got to see pretty much all the Joycean sites, from the Martello tower to Leopold Bloom's front door.
Nice! The Martello tower is much smaller in person, though the replica panther inside is a good joke. I made the mistake of asking the volunteer behind the counter about Joyce, and he talked through me for 20 minutes straight.
Also, for anyone this deep down the labyrinth who don't care much for Joyce, the Dublin Writer's Museum has a great arrangement of the writers who have made the city's literary name great (including Joyce but also those who came before and since).
Have you ever seen the sixties Ulysses movie? If so, what did you think?
I never have, and honestly I never plan to. Part of what I admire about "Ulysses" is its absolute irreducibility: you cannot paraphrase, summarize, nor analyze it fully, the way it drinks in all possible bits of consciousness. Thus, "unfilm-able" seems a polite word for it, especially since watching the film would mean several hours of unfair comparison to the book.
Have you watched it? And if so, am I being too harsh?
Yes! Two things come to mind. One is kind of the reverse. While studying for the summer in Paris during grad school, I read Balzac's "Lost Illusions" (in English, alas). So cool to walk around the city and see the places in the book. The second - that same summer, I read "The Leopard," saw the film (in Italian, dubbed in French ~!), and the next day, booked a flight to Sicily (where my bf, now husband was working on an archeological study of the Greek city of Morgantina). Oh, to be young a mobile again!
The Leopard is one of my top 5 books ever. In fact it would be on my list of books that made me actually. Love that book. Particularly the end
100% The movie's pretty great, too - although someday I'd like to see it in English. 😂
The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi Di Lampedusa is the most wonderful book. And the film is the only one I have seen that accurately reflects the book.
One of my faves too
I might be the only person who went to Juarez Mexico (and El Paso) inspired by Roberto Bolanos 2666.
Does Juarez deserve its reputation or is it unfairly maligned do you think?
It's a fine city, pretty interesting. It's far better, crime wise, than it was in 90s.
Absolutely no tourist go, but tons of Mexican-americans cross both ways daily, since it has three pedestrian bridges with El Paso and both cities are really one big city. Which makes it my kinda town.
Virgil's Aneid made me want to visit Rome. And while not a work of fiction, Machiavelli's "Il Principe" made me very fascinated by Florence. I am drawn to anyplace with a lot of history attached.
Visited both of these earlier this year and actually reread bits of both of the books you mention here!
Sweet!
Me too. Wherever I go, discovering the history is one of my favorite aspects.
I think studying art history gave me some of the most valuable insights into the ancient world, architecture and cultural evolution. Some aspects still influence architectural design today.
For a few years I lived on the Oregon coast, at least partially because of the way that Ursula Le Guin had described it, and how it had inspired the worlds that she created. Not a single regret.
I totally visited the Paris of The Da Vinci Code! So fun....
That book gets a terrible rap (and probably fairly so) but it does do an excellent job of getting you excited about Paris. Same with Angels and Demons and Rome
Why does it get a terrible rap? I loved it haha!
Yes, I did the same with The Da Vinci Code. I believe they even had specific tours for the locations in the book, when it was hot.
Can you visit all the sites? What a fun idea to make a trail of sites mentioned in a great book.
Yes! I loved how a lot of his research was based on real landmarks and theories!
My obsession with New Orleans begins and ends with Anne Rice, specifically The Witching Hour trilogy. As a young adult, these novels gripped me like only fantasy can. You can say what you want about the literary quality of these novels, but there is no questioning her love for New Orleans - it's written into every sentence, every house description, every mention of architecture and culture in those stories.
A lot of my place obsessions began with children or YA novels. Think it’s something about that age, yearning for the freedom to go anywhere you want, that turns them into lifelong obsessions
Oh, yes! Last year I visited Naples, Italy, after having read 3 of the 4 volumes of Elena Ferrante's 'Neapolitan Quartet'. Needless to say I went there carrying volume no. 4 and started reading it in various cafés of the city. 😍
I’ve not heard of those, will have to check them as am intending to go to Naples at some point!
Brilliant writing, in my view. Literary fiction mixed with a full blown fascinating picture of life in Naples from the 50s throughout the 90s. 🙂
Loved those books!
Oh yes, I had such fun immersing myself in that world! The series was also surprisingly well done.
I LOVE this question. Like many people my age, I read Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird in school. Nelle Harper Lee grew up in Monroeville, Alabama, and is the basis for her fictional town of Maycomb in her novel. Monroeville is where she met her childhood friend and lifelong writing colleague Truman Capote. My dad and I wanted to visit Monroeville, but the pandemic delayed our plans. We finally went in April 2022 and got to see an outdoor performance of the stage version, which moved inside the courthouse for the trial scene. It's the actual courthouse used in the movie and where Nelle used to watch her lawyer father defend his clients. The building has quite a history and they've made a great museum of it with several rooms dedicated to Capote. It was a delightful trip.
I'm sure I have many other answers to this same question. I guess one answer that wouldn't count but is related is that I grew up in the town that inspired Altamont, Catawba, in Thomas Wolfe's Look Homeward Angel (Asheville, NC), the residents of which were none to happy with Wolfe after his book was published.
I went to Asheville before reading "Look Homeward, Angel" and haven't been able to mentally reconcile the two since meeting them both. That said, they're still a beautiful town in an unmatched vista and one knock-em-down novel, respectively.
A lot of people in Asheville, then and now, wouldn't agree with your assessment of the novel... of course, it could be interpreted in different ways. 😄
Hahaha - which city truly appreciates its literary examination, right?
I guess I mean "knock-em-down novel" more literally, since Wolfe seems to use the place as the springboard for his own mythic ambition rather than reflecting the place itself.
it's not the first time when i'm mentioning here that some of my favourite books all starts with "once upon a time"; and in honour of one of them, i went to visit collodi in italy. enough to say that the place has the tallest wooden pinocchio in the world
Venice - after reading 'Don't Look Now' in Daphne du Maurier's short stories collection 'Not after Midnight'. Seeing Nicholas Roeg's film in 1973 just reinforced that desire. Venice during the day is one city but after dark .....
Hoping to visit in Feb so will put this on my reading list
I think after the success of the film, the short story collection was renamed 'Don't Look Now and other stories.' It is not the usual pretty, pretty view of Venice but the city 'after dark'. When I feel the city takes on a more interesting guise. Another good read of Venice in that way is Ian McEwan's 'The Comfort of Strangers' - he never mentions the city by name but it's definitely set there. Although not strictly fiction, reading Hemingway's posthumous 'Moveable Feast' as a teenager around 1970 gave me a desire to visit Paris and experience cafe culture. I've been lucky enough to do that many times now, including celebrating my wife's 40th there and then my youngest daughter's 16th.
For Venice read Miss Garnet’s Angel by Salley Vickers
Thanks for the rec
Oh absolutely! More than Instagram ever could.
Interestingly the genre that does this for me the most is historical fiction, maybe because they really rely on the experiential truth of a place to help them access the ghosts + histories they’re trying to pin down?
I read a ton of Lost Generation works, but once I read The Paris Wife by Paula McLain I felt I absolutely had to be wandering around Paris at night, in the South of France at high summer, and in the stands for a bull fight. It’s on my list of aspirational trips
Looking at a photograph I just posted in Notes- me sailing a dhow off of Lamu, Kenya circa 1983, I have to say that Isak Dinesen's (Karen Blixen) Out of Africa and Shadows on the Grass inspired that year of overland adventures that stared in London and ended on Lamu Island. "I had a farm in Africa..."
Somehow I never got round to reading that book but I did live in the Karen suburb of Nairobi for a few months. I think Kenya might be my favourite African country of all that I’ve visited so far. Part of me would love to start an African farm
Funny, I never did get to Karen's house in Kenya, but have visited her Danish home and now museum twice where she actually wrote all those beautifully crafted tales.
My husband was a classics teacher, and during a holiday to Greece he was determined to visit the gates of Hell. Ovid wrote of how Orpheus traveled to the Greek underworld by entering a cave at Cape Tenaron, on the southern tip of the Peloponnese. We searched for a long time, coming to the conclusion that the small indentation in a scrubby bit of land, with its pathetic pile of rocks, were the ancient gates to Hell. It was very disappointing!
Well let’s hope your judgement of his doorway hasn’t offended Hades or you might be forced to return one day!
Oh my goodness!!
Way less highbrow than other answers but my partner's childhood obsession with The Mysterious Cities of Gold led to him studying ancient history and spending some years in Mexico.
I think kid’s books often have this effect more than the high brow adult ones!
I love that children's books inspire people towards a career.
I’m heading to London, York and Scotland in a few weeks. Literary inspirations definitely played a part but too many to name.
Have fun!
Heart of Darkness (Conrad) and A Bend in the River (V.S. Naipaul) lead me to the Congo. But I’ve also had the process work in reverse. After my years in Zimbabwe, Malawi, and Zambia, I discovered Alexandra Fuller and read her Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight, Scribbling the Cat, Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness, and Leaving Before the Rains.
Another time, many years after we lived in Botswana, I was departing for some regrettable place somewhere when by chance I passed a bookstore on my way to security and happened to see a book with a Tswana design gracing a rondavel, so I purchased my first No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency volume of Alexander McCall Smith’s wonderful series. Later, I started adding the Audible editions read by Lisette Lacat who does a masterful job of properly pronouncing place names and Setswana words, except for one road name. The series is such a lovely portrayal of life in Africa that western reporters never seem to experience.
All of which reminds me of a small exchange at the Yakima Farmers’ Market this morning when I stopped at the booth of a woman whose accent I immediately recognized as one from somewhere in west Africa, so I asked her where she grew up, which I now understand is considered racist, an epithet that I no longer give a damn about because I am talking to people I’ve shared most of my life with and care deeply about.
She said she was from Mali, and I replied that I had visited her country and had also spent a good deal of time just across the border in Siguire, Guinea-Conakry, where she also spent time as a market woman selling goods unavailable in Guinea. We talked for maybe ten minutes and she finally said, “then you know we aren’t animals or helpless children in need of white Jesus in Africa, as most Americans think.” I smiled and said yes, I do know these things very well. We both smiled and I thanked her for coming to America to help make this a better country.
Ah love that line at the end. Flipping the narrative. Sounds like a very sweet interaction
I met a couple while grocery shopping late one evening. We were discussing the price of strawberries and I immediately heard a Ghanaian accent, so we chatted for maybe 20 minutes. It turned out we had a Ghanaian friend in common and her American husband was delighted. He’s a Ghanaophile and they have a home in Ghana the stay at for part of the year.
Last year I met a man who fled a small town in Bosnia where I often traveled to for work. He asked me if I knew of a certain restaurant and I said of course I knew that restaurant. It turns out he was the former owner.
I have another Bosnian friend in Boise who was brutalized during a detention by Serbs. His injuries limit what he can do but when we talk, I can share experiences with him I can share with no one else and vice versa. We even share tips on how to manage and minimize nightmares, which we both suffer from. It’s a special friendship that gives us both an empathetic ear and someone who we can trust our experiences with. I don’t see him a s a refugee. I see him as one of my people with whom I’ve shared the world.
My heart is warmed by that last story in particular
When I moved to Los Angeles, the first thing I tried to do was to locate as many places haunted by Raymond Chandler’s PI Philip Marlow, and I was successful in finding many, even though various locales had changed over many years.
I loved the question, the comments and now of course, a new reading list.
Fun and inspiring!
Every week I am reminded how much more there always is to read!
Every week I am reminded how much I just plain like people who like to read!
While this wasn't the entire reason I moved to South Korea, my love of Korean filmmaking was not an insignificant reason. Same with the time I almost moved to Hong Kong for two years!
That’s awesome. Love it when art has such a big role in our lives like that
Interestingly, it's other art that made me realize the importance of being rooted to a place!
It’s art all the way down
What a great question. It's a yes and no from me. My first out of US trip was to Buenos Aires ... it was inspired by a combination of things including an online friend who was staying there, a stranger's blog posts about tango lessons, and a chick lit novel about tango there. I never did get good at tango but I did go visit Buenos Aires around that time, although I can't remember if the book came first or knowing I was going to go there did.
I often begin to read books about an area before I travel there - not non-fiction and fiction. And I feel like there are places I've traveled to that I've never gone to physically because I've read so much about them in memoirs and fiction that I feel their essence in my bones.
A story: I read Eat, Pray, Love before it was a movie and adored it because of the right timing for me in reading it. At the time, I wanted to go to Italy but didn't ever think about going to Rome, and then after reading it, I re-thought Rome because of her depictions of the food and the men there. I didn't have much of an interest in her India part of the journey. But the Indonesia part made me really, really want to go to Bali. Later, I dated a man I thought I loved who had already been to Bali and due to a variety of things in our relationship it made me less interested in going there. I've still never been. Last year, my partner and I went to Italy, a trip which began with landing in Rome, and it turned out Rome is fine but was my least favorite part of the trip compared to all the other little Italian towns. Unlike Elizabeth Gilbert's experience, I went there already in love. And I suppose my point here is that somehow her story ended up intertwined with mine for me.
Funnily enough, the whole reason the Italy trip finally happened, after decades of wanting to go but not going, besides the fact that my partner has ties there, was that during the pandemic we were finally dining out again at a restaurant and I ordered a dessert wine that only comes from the island of Lipari and I loved it and said, "we must go to Lipari" and ... we did. And it was as magical as I could have possibly hoped a romantic trip to a Sicilian island would be.
Thanks for taking the time to write such a detailed answer. I do the same in reading so much about the places I visit - probably too much as it takes a bit of the spontaneity out of my reading at time!
Interesting about Rome - I visited it for the first time earlier this year and it was everything I’d hoped it would be. Think I could live there permanently
Would love to know what you loved about it.
I think it was just timing ... I am usually a very urban girl who loves visiting other urban places. I loved Buenos Aires, loved Porto and Lisbon ... but I was in a phase of life where I really wanted something quieter. Everything was so hyperstimulating at the time. So I think Rome was just too much for where I was at. By the end of the trip I was rested and ready for Palermo where we wrapped up and that was terrific.
That said, when I go back, I'm really most interested, city-wise, in checking out Milan.
Well there’s a few reasons. On my main Substack, Cosmographia I explore my obsession with the concept of place and their emotional, philosophical, and artistic weight. Also, I’m a massive history nerd and one can argue so much of western civilisation has its roots in Rome (both republican democracy and the Christian church). There’s just layers and layers and layers to Rome. I was there two months and I only feel like I peered under the first couple
That all makes a lot of sense. More time in a place beyond a couple days also makes a huge difference in the experience of it.
I like the idea of visiting places inspired by the wine we enjoyed! I can never drink Montepulciano without remembering my visit there.
Oh that is one of my favorite easy to drink wines. I’ve never been ... perhaps that’s a next place.
It is the most wonderful hill top town. Definitely worth a visit.
My partner has a family home in Orvieto, so I know the beautiful experience of those Italian hilltop towns. Such special places.
Exactly. They love to be scared!
All the time.
Elly Griffiths' Dr Ruth Galloway crime series sent me off to north Norfolk.
I can't go to Lyme Regis without doing a French Lieutenant's Woman at the end of the Cob, or standing on the steps where Louisa Musgrove fell in Austen's Persuasion.
Driving past Stonehenge means Tess of the D'Urbevilles is around somewhere and who could read Lorna Doone and not visit Exmoor and Culbone church to imagine Lorna shot and dying in the chancel?
Oh yes, Lyme Regis, walking along the Cob in a cloak, which I admit (not long after the film came out), I did. Not so keen on jumping off the Cob however!
Yes! I feel like almost all of my adult travel dreams are inspired by fiction. I would love to visit Ireland and Scotland due to tales of selkies, Prince Edward Island thanks to Anne, and Oxford, to bask in the glow of Lewis and Tolkien. My husband and I are hoping to knock Scotland/Ireland off the list next year!
When I was eleven I read Dracula for the first time and vowed to see Romania. I have not made it yet, but I’ve certainly made farther across the world than my eleven-year-old self would have expected.
This one probably seems boring to some, but I also have a love for mysteries set in the UK and am planning a trip there in about three years. My husband is already adding extra days on to accommodate all of the literary sites I want to visit.
Romania is beautiful. One of my favourite countries I’ve ever visited. Spent three months there last year - will definitely be going back.
I loved Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. While it wasn't the main driving force behind my visit to Mexico (the book is inspired by Mayan & Mexican folklore), it did give me much to daydream about while I was there!
The Celestine Prophecy did it for me, making me want to visit Peruvian jungles. The book reads like a non-fiction book. However, it’s a novel spending over three years on the New York Times bestseller list.
I actually don’t know this one, will have to look it up
I've always fancied getting lost in Piranesi's House (Susannah Clarke) but I've not found a way to get there. It's not quite as simple as walking through the back of a wardrobe.
I would be too scared.
It would be an adventure!
Two books, the same place: Venice
The first was Willi Meinck's Marco Polo. The first volume was about his teenage years in Venice before joining his father and uncle on their travels. I found no English translation of it.
The second was Casanova's "Escape from the Leads"
I went to Venice with low expectations. I told to myself: it cannot be as beautiful as everybody says.
People must be exaggerating. I was blown away.
Hoping to visit Venice next year so I’ll put these on my reading list
Try to do it in May or September-October to avoid the height of the tourist waves
Was looking at Feb 😳
Casanova is a must. I should read more from him.
Something is drawing me back to the classics these days. I am just about finishing Meditations of Marcus Aurelius and I am thinking of revisiting Erasmus of Rotterdam and looking at Chaucer
Speaking of which, here are two suggestions:
What is your favourite classic (meaning work written before 1700)
Which book is your latest re-read and why?
OK, the second gave me a third:
Which is your favourite book from a culture very different from yours
Ed Abbey's "Desert Solitaire" made me (a boy from the pines and cotton fields of the gulf coast) yearn to go west, but it was Hillerman's "The Great Taos Bank Robbery" that made me begin my exploration of the Southwest in New Mexico -- and it's that state that draws me back again and again.
I went to Moab once because of Desert Solitaire and Finding Everett Ruess, and also because it was Jeep Jamboree weekend, but mostly because of Edward Abbey.
Another wonderful topic. I was pretty enamored with rural South Africa after reading J.M. Coetzee’s ‘Disgrace’. Truth be told, it’s the kind of story that should make you want to avoid a place. But I was curious, and did end up visiting this past winter. As it turns out, I experienced a pretty unsettling episode during my time there, the undertone of which was influenced by the novel.
For anyone who’s curious: https://lolsos.substack.com/p/i-know-everything-will-be-fine-sometimes
I think I have all of Coetzee’s novels. Big fan here.
I’ve only read this one. Any suggestion for which to go for next?
Waiting for the Barbarians and Summertime are both good.
Nadine Gordimer is another great South African writer and my favorite book of hers is July’s People.
Have you read Alan Paton’s classic Cry the Beloved Country. There are many memorable lines in his book, but this is the one that haunts me: “I have one great fear in my heart, that one day when they are turned to loving, they will find that we are turned to hating.”
I was invited to Barcelona by the mystery books of the late Carlos Ruiz Zafón https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_Ruiz_Zafón. His concept of the "cemetery of forgotten books" is pure genius. Visiting the places where his stories take place was fascinating.
Arabian Nights and Alhambra Palace in Granada. I’m not sure the book was that good, it might have been short stories, but I went anyway!
Ah I would love to see that palace!
It didn’t disappoint, it was very moorish! 😂
😑 goddammit Louise
Elif Shafak has a gift of capturing the spirit and poetics of all spaces she talks about; whether they are contemporary or historical. The rawness of all she describes is so fulfilling to the heart. Her references to her Turkish origins and saying that Istanbul sounds like a feminine name, to capture the nature of the place have made me want to visit Turkey. But more importantly I want to live and breath in all the words she ever put down to paper because her writing is exotic and mystical. Her exploration of spaces and the spirits that haunt them comes alive in her book 'The Architect's Apprentice'. The description of mosques, call to prayer, and building the world around history is extremely enchanting. Highly recommend her work.
Hoping to go to Istanbul next year, which of her books would you recommend for getting under the skin of the city?
"The Architect's Apprentice" if you want some historical fiction that would help you get a lay of the land, the mosques, the religion, the monarchy; all that good stuff.
"The Bastard of Istanbul" was the first book of hers that I read and I immediately fell in love with both her work and the places she describes. It references the wars that have divided the land, gender struggles, and because it features female friendships and mother-daughter dynamics you could understand how society is structured.
"Honour" is also an exploration of the abuse and discrimination faced by women in Turkish society and is revolves around an honor-killing.
But Bastard of Istanbul if you wanna see the city with the blessed lens of her writing. And Architect's Apprentice if you want to understand the significance of the architecture that you'll encounter.
Ahhh that sounds awesome! I’m an architect enthusiast that knows almost nothing about it so that sounds awesome. Think I’ll get at least two of the ones you’ve mentioned - you’ve totally sold me on them!
It’s funny how books can influence our choices, when I was in my twenties I bought a pack of Camel cigarettes because of a Tom Robbins book 😂
The romantic goth in me has always done a Wuthering Heights re-read and dreamed of spending a winter in Brontë’s beautifully bleak, mythical moorland of Yorkshire. Planning a trip to the South Pennine moors in 2024 to finally get my Catherine Earnshaw on.
I really need to get around to reading that book, my copy has been gathering dust on the shelf for far too long
Many years ago I read James Mitchner’s Chesapeake. Shortly after the reading I packed up my wife and two small boys (now in their forties) and we visited the Eastern Shore of Maryland. It was late fall and we were camping in a tent. A long story, but this was one of our greatest experiences in travel. We happened to arrive for the Watermen’s annual event called Chesapeake Appreciation Days. There were Skipjack racing events, locally made foods, etc. I also visited places appropriately near to the novels story line. Several were totally fictional, but we went to the appropriate locations.
While in Scotland, I took a detour to Glenfinnan, the birthplace of Connor MacLeod in the Highlander movie.
Was it worth it? To my shame I’ve actually never seen a highlander movie
It was fun and I love going anywhere in Scotland. But it didn't look at all like the movie, or the TV series. Afterward I found out that the filming was done elsewhere, even though the origin story was in Glenfinnan.
That's amazing! Have a wonderful time.
The Idea of Order at Key West by Wallace Stevens!! Makes me want to go to Key West (if you couldn’t guess).
And Montana calls in Travels with Charley by Steinbeck.
Love Travels with Charley
This was years ago, but I was taken with Stoke. With so many Victorian buildings still standing and well decorated with ceramics, I found it a visual feast. The only disappointment was and Indian restaurant. As I sat and waited for my order, I wondered why so many of the other diners were eating English dishes with piles of chips. After my order arrived, I suffered the worst Indian food ever. Wasn't pleasant at the time, but still makes for a good story!
What a wonderful question! Austen, Emily Bronte and Shakespeare, combined with Arthurian legend, definitely played a large role in my visit to the UK a number of years back. Rimbaud and, funnily enough, Hugo's Les Miserables itself certainly inspired a visit to Paris as well!
I bought Arnold Bennett's The Old Wives' Tale while an undergraduate, but never read it until a number of years later. I enjoyed the book so much I made it a point to visit Stoke-on-Trent, which is the setting for the novel. To prepare for the trip, I contacted The Arnold Bennett Society, which very kindly sent me a map of the area identifying Bennett sites. Bennett adapted the local names for his novel and during my stay I was constantly confusing the Bennett names with the real names. Re-visiting courtesy of Google Earth, I can see that the building where the Baine's shop stood still stands and has been fitted with information about Bennett his novels.
What did you think of Stoke? Gets a bad rap but I didn’t think it was so bad when I visited a friend there a few years back
I went to a specific university because I read a book sort of set there. Best decision ever. (Tam Lin/Carleton College if anyone is wondering.)
That’s awesome!
I am from California. Carleton is in Minnesota. My parents were a bit sceptical!
I’m a firm believer there should be a good amount of distance between home and university to allow you space to learn to adult. Having said that in my native England a good amount of distance is about a 3 hour drive...California to Minnesota is like half a continent!
(Also I was about 14. So they thought I would change my mind. I did not.)
Love that
Nikos Kazantzakis is from Crete. I still plan on getting there some day.
Ever since I read the book series about the adventures of Yashim, the Ottoman (not the piece of furniture...) eunuch detective (The Janissary Tree, The Snake Stone, The Bellini Card, An Evil Eye, The Baklava Club), written by Jason Goodwin, I've wanted to visit Istanbul, but haven't had the chance as of yet...
(as a side note, I would also love those books to become movies or a TV series...)
Should be staying in Istanbul sometime next year with any luck. Very excited by the prospect!