Non Travel books that have made you want to visit a place

I enjoyed Montano's post on the other thread about how various works of fiction had made him/her want to visit certain places and I thought it would make a good thread. So what non travel books have inspired you to visit or wish to visit a certain place?
I'll start with a few of mine.
I have wanted to visit Prince Edward Island ever since I read L.M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gablesseries when I was about 10.
Around the same time Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons books had me absolutely fascinated with the Lake district. I remember poring over maps trying to decide where all the places in the books actually where.
A Town like Alice fueled a desire (not yet realised) to visit Australia. And Helene Hanff's 84, Charing Cross Road made me want to go to both London and New York.

Well I DID live near Charing Cross Road for a bit and I would always think of the book when I went past the bit where 84 used to be...

I long to visit the Southern States of America and the coast after reading loads of books about that area. And the more, fiction and non-fiction, I read about Antarctica, the more I want to go there.

However, I read a lot of books about India, and I don't think I could cope with going there, so then my reading takes me places I can't go myself (sorry if I offend anyone from that Continent).

In a reverse tack - ANYTHING that features my lovely home city, Birmingham, I will read without fail, even in a genre I don't normally go for!

Gosh, seems like most things I read make me want to go there. Fireweed by Mildred Walker made me want to see Upper Michigan. The Honourable Schoolboy made me want to go to Hong Kong, Laos, Italy and a few other places.

After having read (in all cases more than once) all the Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, I was itching to visit London and its environs, and I finally made that pilgrimage in early 2001. I visited not only Baker Street, but I also recognized and lounged along so many squares, streets, and sections of that great city that were featured in those period mysteries. It was like coming home to a familiar place. Also, as a result of that trip, my appetite was whetted for Dickens (I visited his house on Doughty Street), and upon my return to the USA I read/consumed Oliver Twist and Great Expectations back-to-back, and then moved on to Peter Ackroyd's extremely enjoyable biography Dickens.

Actually, before I flew out of London, I had to purchase a larger carry-on to take back the books I had purchased along Charing Cross Road.

LyzzyBee, I actually live in Georgia at the moment. It definitely has that "Southern feel" that you read about so much. Savannah and Charleston are both wonderful. They say Savannah is less touristy than Charleston but I'm not sure that that is true anymore. It was America's first planned city and was designed around 24 squares which all have Gardens in the middle. It's great to just drive around the various squares looking at all the fantastic old houses.
Then there's the coast with the all the barrier islands. You don't need to bring your wellies and your coat to the beach here! For those of us used to the rather chilly waters around Britain, stepping in the Atlantic here in the Southern US is best compared to stepping into warm bath water.
It's definitely worth a visit.

Sybille Bedford's A Visit to Don Otavio sent me to Mexico, as did Malcolm Lowry's Under the Volcano although some may not find the latter to be an enthusing recommendation for Mexican expat life. I started reading Gabriel Garcia Marquez 100 Years of Solitude on a flight to Panama and finished it in the actual town where the author grew up and the place on which Macondo was modeled.

A Little Princess (the book, and then later the movie) made me want to travel India when I first read it when I was about 6. I'll be 20 in a couple of months and I'm planning a 3-month excursion there.

The (several) history books on the Crusades I've been reading have made me want to backpack across the continents, following the same path the Crusaders took. I think that one will be a littler harder to pull off...

(BTW, I joined this group today, this is my first post :) )

For me, it's films that make me want to (re)visit a place most often... But certain books do make you want to find a particular aspect of a place, like Gertrude Stein's writing about France. Margaret Elphinstone's Hy Brasil was a powerful invitation to a non-existent place, and Barbara Hodgson's books often draw me to surreal aspects of real places, like Damascus in The Lives of Shadows.

I'd have to say Annie Proulx's The Shipping News has left me with a fascination with Newfoundland. I've bought maps and looked at routes but still haven't been. It's almost as if the real place might disappoint. I think I'd most like to have looked over Proulx's shoulder and seen exactly what she saw as she researched the place.

I was fascinated when I read Adventures in Afghanistan, and was already checking to see what the travel situation was for U.S. civilians over there when I was about half-way through the book ... unfortunately, by the end of the book it becomes clear that the various travel narratives in it were largely fabrications, tales spun out (if in a modern context) in some obscure Sufi teaching modality (I was unable to find any data on the supposed author of the piece, one Louis Palmer, and have come to understand that this was likely penned by Idries Shah or some member of his inner circle). Quite the pity, as I would have loved to have visited some of the places described!

I'd have to say Annie Proulx's The Shipping News has left me with a fascination with Newfoundland.

I became interested in Newfoundland first though a band called Great Big Sea, but because of them and their love of their homeland, I picked up The Shipping News. It's on my list of places to visit.

As is Australia, inspired as was the OP by A Town Like Alice. :D

Paul Scott's Raj Quartet made me want to visit India, albeit an historic India. Leon Uris's Exodus made me want to visit Israel.

Oona, I too am developing a fascination with Newfoundland after flying over it and seeing the landscape in the summer. I haven't read The Shipping News though I have seen the film. I must get that to read. I just read Lost Lands Forgotten Stories by Alexandra Pratt. It is actually set in Labrador rather than Newfoundland... the author did a river trip with a native American guide... but I thought it was wonderful and would love to visit the whole region one day.

The Magus by John Fowles made me want to visit Greek Island long before I'd seen one in a movie.

Last Places: A Journey in the North by Lawrence Millman was a good read concerning Iceland and points north; also Howard Norman's My Famous Evening if you're interested in Nova Scotia or the Bay of Fundy off of St. John, New Brunswick. I was just in St. John and Halifax last month, and found it very clean & fresh, and I wished I had had more time to explore on foot. I've become enamored with northward exploits since reading those two books, and I'd like to sometime catch Norman's The Bird Artist.

Many years ago I had a copy of the large coffee table book titled (I think) Living With Books or At Home With Books, and there was a great picture chapter on Haye-On-Wye in Wales. That lead me to Sixpence House by Paul Collins, a non-fiction piece about his experiences in that same book-town. And, of course, I loved Sylvia Beach's Shakespeare & Company for her take on literary Paris of the 1920's (sigh).

I've wanted to learn more about and someday visit Eastern Europe since I can remember. I read everything I can get my hands on about Turkey and Russia, so I don't know which came first, the read or the desire to read more. A Fez of the Heart is my most recent conquest in this vein. It is a journal of the Author's travels through Turkey, in search of men wearing the traditional hat; with Turkey's movement toward a more modern image, the fez is virtually outlawed.

Baggette, "Between The Woods And The Water" is good about old Middle-Europe between the two world wars, and "Natasha's Dance" is a wonderful book about the cultural history of Russia. I highly recommend both, if you haven't already read them.

Santiago: "That lead me to Sixpence House by Paul Collins, a non-fiction piece about his experiences in that same book-town."

Argh - that book drove me mad with anger and frustration! He was SO RUDE and inaccurate about England - our teeth and newspapers are bad, our houses are really really small, etc etc. I was on a Bookring for it and all the other participants were outside the UK and often had not visited, and were all excited to see what the British were like, how we live, etc.

I do *love* Hay, however - although I forgot to look for Sixpence House when I went there...

Santiago- On the subject of books inspiring desire for Icelandic visits: I recently read a mystery called Jar City by Arnaldur Indridason (?) (I don't know how to make that letter between the "i" and the "a"). It took place in Reykjavik and definitely made me more interested in going there.

Many years ago I read the book Far Afield by Susanna Kaysen that took place in the Faroe Islands- a place I had never heard of until reading that book. I believe it was about an anthropology student who goes to the islands to study. I couldn't remember the author until a few years ago I read Girl Interrupted and saw the book listed as one she had written.

LyzzyBee - RE: Sixpence House ... that book did nothing to dampen my enthusiasm for the British Isles or its people. I didn't notice the slights you mentioned. In 2001 I took (what I considered) a pilgrimage, solo, to the U.K.; 7 days in London, staying at Edward Lear's old home near Marble Arch (it's been turned into a very small inn), and thanks to my emersion in Conan Doyle's city as painted in his Sherlock Holmes stories, it was like going home. Everyone was friendly & helpful, and the food was great. I also visited Eaton, Windsor, and a couple of other small villages. Upon my return to the states I read back-to-back Great Expectations and Oliver Twist, in addition to Peter Ackroyd's bio Dickens}. My reading inspired my trip, and vice-versa.

Katbook - In a book I previously mentioned, Last Places, the Faroe Islands were also mentioned, and I'd like to visit them too, plus Newfoundland, Greenland, Prince Edward Island, etc. Atlantic Canada & the Maritime Provinces seem appealing to me, at this time of my life.

Santiago - if you want a great alternative take on Great Expectations, try Jack Maggs by Peter Carey.

I agree with the poster who mentioned that L.M. Montgomery's books made her want to visit Nova Scotia and PEI in particular...

The Aunt Dimity mystery series by Nancy Atherton and anything by Elizabeth Goudge always fuel my desire to visit England/Wales, though I've basically always wanted to go there since I discovered Arthurian literature as a teen....I did spend 10 days in Scotland in 2002...

White Stallion of Lipizza by Marguerite Henry and Airs Above the Ground by Mary Stewart made me want to visit Vienna...

Sophie's World and The Solitaire Mystery by Jostein Gaarder made me want to travel through all of Europe!

The Labyrinth by Kate Mosse and The Treasure of Montsegur by Sophy Burnham made me want to visit the Albigensian region of France...

I'd also like to go to Egypt, Prague, and Istabul, although I'm not sure I could trace any specific non-travel books as contributing to it...

Whenever I read Jane Austen's Persuasion I want to go to Bath. Some of Georgette Heyer's characters go there too - take the waters, meet friends and acquaintances at the Assembly rooms. I suppose though, that things have changed since then. Also the Palermo of The Leopard.

Robert Penn Warren's World Enough and Time made me want to go to Kentucky. It seemed a dark and primitive place, as wildly romantic as the moors of Wuthering Heights (which made me want to visit England).

Easter Island made me want to visit Easter Island, but you could guess that :) The Da Vinci Code nourished my wish to go to Paris and visit the Louvre, something I really need to do soon, especially since I visited a tiny village mosque in Iran with something that looked like a destroyed wall...turned out the wall is not simply destroyed, but in the early 20th century some archaeologists chiseled off the whole mosaic that had been there and hauled it to Paris, where it's now in the Islamic Arts section of the Louvre.
Finally, the mystery novels of Barbara Nadel made my longing for Istanbul so unbearable I even applied for an internship there.
I'm sure there are more, but that's what comes to my mind right now.

If you'd like a virtual visit to Afghanistan, I'd suggest The Places In Between by Rory Stewart. I've read several books with which I was impressed. If you're interested, check my library for more...under the tag Afghanistan.

I have Barbara Nadel's "Dancing With Death" on my TBR pile. Read all the previous ones. They're great.

Really for me, any well-written, evocative book will make me want to go to the setting of that book. I'm now reading War & Peace which is making me want to go to Russia. Some other's that come to mind:

Halldor Laxness' Independent People (Iceland)
Jose Saramago's The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis (Portugal, Lisbon in particular)
Jeanette Winterson's The Passion (Venice)
Jorge Amado's Dona Flor & Her Two Husbands (Brazil)
Pablo Neruda's Canto General (Chile)

And so on...

Sarah Dunant's The Birth of Venus was the ignition for a trip to Italy (and especially to Florence) two years ago. Although, I had been to Italy before and did, of course, want to visit again, the book really became the eureka I needed to pack my bags to go. Multiple other fiction works have made me want to visit places, but none that I have actually carried out after particularly reading a certain work.

I read most of Eugenia Price's books and thoroughly enjoyed them and then visited St. Simon's Island. I had read Lighthouse (St. Simons Trilogy) to my son who was 12 at the time. Together we found the grave of the man who built the original lighthouse she wrote about. We found the marker for her grave and experienced the horseflies that her characters talk about. Sadly all the plantations are gone.

On another topic: My husband and I have been to India twice, a nation that has to be experienced, it can't be described, but it was fascinating! I think I'll look into some of the books that interested others.

Oona: Have you read (nonfiction) Theatre Of Fish: Travels Through Newfoundland And Labrador by John Gimlette? The possibility of high seas or fog would lend drama to visiting the outports. Extraordinary people. A place like no other.

When I was a kid 'Heidi' made me want to go to Switzerland. When I finally got there i walked in the mountains and it was just as though the book had come to life. I've had a cow-bell hanging in my trees for the 32 years since then lol.

Fun topic! Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil made me want to visit Savannah and The City of Falling Angels made me want to re-visit Venice (it has been almost 20 years!).

I recently visited Yorkshire, a place I've wanted to see my whole life after growing up with James Herriot's All Creatures Great and Small series.

I could go on... practically every armchair travel book or expat book makes me want to travel! Too Much Tuscan Sun makes me want to travel with the author, Dario.

Oh, I loved James Herriot! Both, the books and TV series. I have a weak spot for the British countryside anyway.

V.S. Naipaul's The Mystic Masseur caused us to take a vacation to Trinidad and Tobago. Other people have survived worse vacations, just nobody I know.

I picked up Christopher Reich's Numbered Account - and I can't think of another book that has me itching to visit the book's location.

Reich is a former Swiss banker and the book is a mystery set in Switzerland and Reich sets a incredibly rich & detailed view of what life & work is like in Switzerland. Would highly recommend it.

Mary Renault's novels made me want to visit Greece, Crete, & Sicily. Used them as guidebooks.

The Daughter of Time and other novels about Richard III made me want to visit Yorkshire (especially Middleham), Bosworth, Minster Lovell, and other sites.

Those Arthurian stories & novels get credit for Tintagel, Glastonbury, etc.

The Lord of the Rings plus Tolkien biographies put Oxford on the list. Visited his favorite tree at the Botanical Gardens --- an Ent if there ever was one! And now the movies have me itching to see NZ!

An historical novel (can't remember the name) about the Glencoe massacre made me want to visit Glencoe ---
a breathtaking place.

No need to say what work made me want to visit Hisarlik. :-)

Books of Robert W. Service's poetry were to blame for Alaska & the Yukon. :-)

My sister says it's a good thing The Inferno isn't my favorite book.

I just read Colm Toibin's The Master for a class. It made me want to rush off to the English countryside and all of Italy. It also made me want to become a writer and spend my time moving from city to city, enjoying the company of intelligent people. I love when a book can evoke both a physical location and an atmosphere. (Do we talk about atmospheres on here, or do we stick strictly to physical geography?)

BudaBaby, you pre-empted me not once but twice, which has me chuckling. I was holding tightly onto Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil and the All Creatures Great and Small series, feeling so thrilled that no one had mentioned them yet.....

I would throw in The Flanders Panel, which made me want to visit Madrid again and pay more attention. And Summer's Lease, which had me yearning to see the hill towns of Italy. Although pretty well acquainted with the area, My Father's Glory and My Mother's Castle fuel a constant longing to return to southern France. And I want to go to Egypt, thanks to The Alexandria Quartet. And I get my Mont-St-Michel fix from a rather moody book called The Tides of Mont St. Michel. (It's by Roger Vercel, since it looks like the Touchstone feature might not help me out by automatically providing the author's name).

I am just starting what promises to be the tragic story of a very uncomfortable trip into Labrador at the turn of the century, and I'm pretty sure I won't want to go there when I'm done.

Edited once because I couldn't spell "tragic", and a second time to ask myshelves if she had ever read Robert Service's entertaining attempt at writing what I think was intended to be a sort of Gothic romance, The House of Fear. (Momentary snicker break, as Touchstone gets it wrong). From the first sentences, you know you are in the hands of an author who is about to do some mangling: "The Hon. Peter MacBeth was drunk, ingloriously drunk. The time was daybreak; the place Paris. Down the glimmering Champs Elysees came a rake-hell taxi. In the dim leer of the dawn it was like a beast of prey, swift and silent; and the driver, muffled to the eyes, seemed also a predacious creature of the night."

#38 Physical geography, atmosphere, anything you like.
Of all the places I have visited, Italy remains my favourite. The combination of the physical beauty of the landscape and architecture, perfect weather, fantastic food and the wonderfully friendly people make it hard to top.

#40
I agree! I've been to Italy once, and I can't wait to go back and spend more time there. I am constantly looking for good books that are somehow related to anything Italian.

The first third of Eat, Pray, Love is recommended for Italophiles.

Thanks! India's not far down the list for me, so maybe more than the first third. Adding it to my "books to acquire" list right now...

I don't know about going to places I've read about, but I love reading about places I've been. Annie Proulx's That old ace in the hole really evokes the southern US for me. And having spent a few seasons in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland, I still shiver over Alison Johnson's Children of Disobedience. But it's not so much the places they describe as the people who are so characteristic of the places. Understanding the history of the landscape adds so many layers to my appreciation of a place - I may not get to go to many places but I like to explore the ones I do go to thoroughly and novels are often a great way of doing that. Soundings by Liam Davison explores this topic extraordinarily within the bleak Westernport landscape.

I doubt if I'll ever be able to visit Botswana but Alexander McCall Smith's series The No. 1 First Ladies' Detective Agency, sure inspired an interest. The books remind me of an African version of Agatha Christie. the author is a Scotsman but he lived in South Africa. I recently ordered the bush tea that he describes in his stories.

Barbara Hodgson has a new book Trading in Memories that is similar to The Lives of Shadows in that it's illustrated and pulls you into surreal aspects of real places.

In this case though it's a memory book about her travels around the world. Great photos of found art--matchboxes, tins, old documents.

I suppose it is a travel book, but it's a travel book to nooks and crannies around the world.

(I tried to touchstone Trading in Memories but it's not picking it up, tradinginmemories.com is her site.

I recently read City of Falling Angels by John Berendt. Its not a travel book persay, but it details the years that he lived in Venice (similar to his treatment of Savannah, Ga in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. By the time I finished, I was more than ready to hop on a plane to see Venice.

My husband has a possible business trip to Holland in July. I would LOVE to be able to visit Anne Frank's house and Corrie TenBoom's house! I would especially love to visit with my youngest daughter who has read both books with me! We'll have to see.

48 - If you go to the Anne Frank house, I would suggest you bypass the cafe in the visitor centre and go next door (it's to the left of the House if you are standing facing them both) and have a quiet cup of coffee in there.

Thinking about it, of course I went there because of the book - hadn't thought about it that way.

Snow by Orhan Pamuk inspired me to travel to Kars, Turkey. The trip was wonderful although I went in June and the book was set in winter during the blizzards.

Several books mentioned in this group has also inspired me to visit certain areas in the world:
- The Shipping News / E. Annie Proux - New Foundland
- The Shadow of the wind / Carlos Ruiz Zafon - Barcelona
- The Happy Islands / Paul Theroux - Cook Islands (they are indeed beautiful and the people are living at a quiet and easy pace; I would love to spend some more time there)
- Novels of Jane Austen has inspired other authors to write some enticing new books about great walks in Austen Country.
- The Bone People / Kerwin Hulme - New Zealand (great book about love and child abuse in New Zealand. With some people I went looking for recognition points in the area where the book is about, but we couldn't find it. There was only the quietness and loneliness of New Zealands back country.)
- The books of James Herriot: walking in the Downs is great. Sorry, of course this should be the Yorkshire Dales like chrisharpe pointed out. Thank you.

Definitely One Hundred Years of Solitude, which made me want to find a place as much as possible like Macondo. Of course, there's no Macondo, and the place which Macondo was modelled on is not like it used to be anymore.

Fortunately, South America is a big place, so if you seek, you will find almost anything. In my case, Macondo turned out to be Lencois in Brazil. It's a beautiful place to just hang around in, and a perfect base for some excellent hiking in the Chapada Diamantina National Park.

I put a gallery from the area on www.pvv.org/~bct/brasil2/diamantina.html , and I recommend the book to everyone, but particularly to those who have visited the place and not yet read the book.

After reading books like Neverwhere and the Somnambulist, I've since wanted to explore London.

I just finished Bangkok 8, which introduced me to the curious culture of Thailand.

Finally, I read The Fish Can Sing, by Halldor Laxness several years ago. Iceland sounds like a very strange yet fascinating place.

# 52: I think there are places like Macondo, which is what gives piquancy to García Marquez's novels. My first taste of South America was a little village called Macuro, only accessible by boat, which seemed to an outsider like the living encarnation of Macondo.

# 51: James Herriot's books are set in the Yorkshire Dales, not the Downs - but that's no reason not to visit the Downs of course!

Shadow of the Wind has stirred my desire to wander the streets of Barcelona.

I read Angels and Demons upon my return from Rome. I think I enjoyed it more because the places were still so fresh in my mind.

Nevada Barr writes great mysteries set in National Parks all over this country. Her book Hunting Season made me want to take a long weekend driving the Natchez Trace Parkway. In a book by Judith Dupre titled "Bridges" there is a fantastic picture of one of the overpasses on the Natchez Trace. The historical descriptions as written by Barr and the contemporary architecture pictures in the Dupre book made me think about this historical highway in a totaly different way. Maybe with the price of gas nowadays I will think about hiking instead, but the books really made that highway come alive for me.

All the No 1 Ladies Detective Agency series make me want to visit Botswana, and I've wanted to visit Kephalonia since reading Captain Corelli's Mandolin.

Hi # 57, I totally agree. I also love the books of Nevada Barr. I've nearly read them all. I like the independent character of her main character. And you also learn a lot about the national parks in the US. Somebody should make a travel guide of her books.

There is a new Nevada Barr book. I think it takes place somewhere on Lake Superior. I like it that she doesn't just write about the major parks that everybody knows. I would think that these books would help people to get out and see the more out-of-the-way places that are so wonderful. And you are right about the character. It is great to have a female character who also has a realistic romance in her life along with the mystery.

I recently finished an advance copy of An Island Away by Daniel Putkowski and couldn't put it down. Wonderfully drawn characters. Most of the story takes place in Aruba and some of it in Colombia. I really don't have any interest in visiting Colombia, although I hear things are getting safer there all the time. But this book did make me want to explore Aruba. Turns about the place is much more than just beaches and fancy hotels. Be warned, the surprising and extremely satisfying ending of the book will bring tears. Well, it did for me :-)

>61 Faye44: Having lived in Colombia for the last 16 years, I am somewhat prejudiced about the country! However, it is true that it has become much safer recently. For most of the time we lived here we couldn't go by car between cities--only a few hours in 3 directions out of Bogotá. Now that things have been safer, we've driven around the country more to "coffee country" where there is a fun coffee park that has lots of things to see, education about coffee and amusement park rides including a log ride that soaks you. The scenery is spectacular.

We also drove to the "llanos"--plains--of Colombia where it is hot and there are mountains in the distance. A gorgeous place. We drove to Bucaramanga through some of the most fabulous scenery I've ever seen--and I've been in 30 countries and 48 states of the USA, and 10 provinces of Canada! We didn't get time to drive the family to the coast (we're leaving in a month :-( ), but the Caribbean coast (Cartegena--where we spent our 20th anniversary) and the island that belongs to Colombia (San Andres--where we went for our 25th anniversary) are fantastic.

But our favorite place in the country is the colonial town of Villa de Leyva, a place it has been safe to drive to our whole stay. We've visited there probably 60 times! We never tire of it.

So, Colombia is a place worth visiting and you don't have to worry about being kidnapped or shot--but be careful with your wallet! :-)

Hi Lycia

I read snow on a beach in Tunisia and found looking up and seeing camels a bit weird. I also wanted to go to Kars but wondered if blizzards might be a bit much.

Varske

When I finished reading The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, I wanted to pack up and move to Guernsey. I wanted to meet the characters as much as see the island.

Having been born and raised in the hot, humid, American South, I am not a fan of cold weather or snow at all. However, Winter Solstice made me want to go to Scotland in the winter. It sounded so cozy and the characters were so warm.

And, I live within a few miles of the Natchez Trace Bridge which I show everyone who visits from out of town. I tell my husband, someday, I will drive the entire Trace from beginning to end (with or without him)!

Also, take a look at Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones which introduced me to a part of the South Pacific world I knew little about (Bougainville Island). Great Expectations played a major role in the tale.

The Quiet American by Graham Greene made me wish to go to live in a country where you have to cope with a very different culture , not only far east as in the book, but also Africa or South America

Anil's Ghost & Running in the Family by Michael Ondaatje, Mosquito & Brixton Beach by Roma Tearne, Cinnamon Gardens by Shyam Selvadurai and The Reef by Romesh Gunesekera all make me want to visit Sri Lanka. I don't expect to ever get there though.

#65 perennialreader

I don't live that far from the Natchez Trace and I still haven't gotten out and driven the whole of it. The books by Nevada Barr were inspiring but apparently not inspiring enough as after reading that book and saying to myself that I was going to drive the Trace I still haven't done it.

I can't say that the book Trinity by Leon Uris inspired me to visit Belfast and Northern Ireland. Having friends who live there did. But after being there I went back and read the book. When I read about Connor and Shelly hiking up Cave Hill or Connor going to the Linen Hall Library to read the newspapers it gave me a real thrill to think that I had been there and seen those places. I had a different kind of relating that I could do with the book.

Tove Jansson's Moomin books and The Summer Book make me want to live on a Scandinavian Island.

A little reversal here:
I was planning a trip to Washington DC and decided not to wait for The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown to come out in paperback since it takes place there. So I bought it and read it before I went and then was able to schedule my sightseeing to see things in the book. Of course they were places I would have gone to anyway.

Last week I finished reading The Girl who played with fire, nr. 2 Millenium Triology of Stieg Larsson and I would like to visit Stockholm. I've visited Sweden several times, but always - on my way to Norway - the west side of the country. I've met some very nice Swedish people in my life and I've already been to several other Scandinavian capitals, so I think it wil be great to visit Stockholm, too.

#58 Make that trip if you ever get the chance silvercowrie. It's a lovely island and so many of the places that feature in the book can be visited. One of the things that amazes me about Greece is that they rarely advertise or promote things that, in the US or UK would be high-earning tourist spots. One of those places is the house that was used in the filming of Captain Corelli. You won't find it in any guide book and you have to track it down yourself or stumble upon it accidentally en route to Antisamos. There are no flags and whistles to announce its movie-connections but, if you take the trouble to look carefully, you will find a noticeboard full of photos of the filming and sets. In our countries it'd be a theme park by now. Another interesting spot for those of us who are fans of the book is the war memorial at Argosteli but even apart from that it's a great place for a holiday.

Like dclode, I tend to look for books that take place in cities I have already visited. That led me to read Carlos Ruiz Zafon's Juego del Angel or Angel's Game for Barcelona and all of Paco Ignacio Taibo's noir Mexico City novels, for example. I've also enjoyed Cara Black's Paris mysteries, starting with Murder in the Marais. If I ever get back to Paris, I am going to have to explore each of the quartiers that form the backdrop of her books.