Top Ten Tuesday: 10 Places Books Have Made Me Want to Visit

Here’s the top places I’d love to visit, real or fictional. Thanks to The Broke and The Bookish for hosting today’s theme.

#1. New Zealand

I LOVED the hobbits and the quaint Shire of Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings, they were my favorite parts of the book and movies. In my opinion, the LOR movies put New Zealand on the map as a bucket list destination. (Can you hear the outcry of my Kiwi friends. 🙂 )

For more info on all things LOR in NZ visit Movie Locations LOR.

#2. Narnia

Ever since I read C.S. Lewis’ The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe I’ve always wanted to go to Narnia. Whether the trip was via a wardrobe, a subway station, or a magical picture, I didn’t care! Who wouldn’t want to live in a world where animals talk and trees dance? Sounds like so much fun, even now.

#3. Seven Bay Island

Another fictional location somewhere off the coast of New England, this one comes from Madeleine L’Engle’s A Ring of Endless Light. I always wanted to walk with Vicky Austin down to Grandfather’s cove, or pal around with the dolphins at the marine lab. This book is why I have swimming with dolphins on my bucket list.

#4. Alternate Dimensions

After I read Interworld by Neil Gaiman and Michael Reeves, the idea of crossing dimensions and meeting an alternate me sounded so intriguing. For days afterward I thought about all the different kinds of worlds and how science and magic effected each version of Earth. A cool book to make you think.

# 5. English countryside

If you’ve ever read Jane Austen you’d understand where I’m coming from. In all of her novels she paints a beautiful picture of the English countryside, even puts in on a pedastal as the idyllic setting for life. Who doesn’t want to get away from the big city and find beauty in simplicity and nature? This girl does, so that’s why this locale is on my bucket list, too.

#6. Kenya

I was always afraid to go to Africa until I read Robin Jones Gunn’s Finally and Forever. It’s about a college senior who graduates and makes the life-altering decision to go to Africa—indefinitely! Not only did I love her bravery, but I also loved Gunn’s beautiful descriptions of Kenya and the pace of life there. While she does depict Africa as wild and uncertain, there’s a certain beauty and element of faith in the midst of that uncertainty. For me, that’s a great metaphor for life.

#7. Paris

The city of lights has always been on my bucket list, but was spotlighted even more by Amy Plum’s Die for Me. A new take on a zombie book, there’s good and bad zombies, angelic-like in beauty and strength. So original. And they run around Paris fighting with swords and doing forbidden things like falling in love with humans. Sounds strange, but Amy writes a lot like I do (or at least hope to), so it was easy for me to get engrossed in her world.

#8. New York City

Of course I’ve always wanted to go back to NYC. Tracey Bateman’s That’s Not Exactly Amore made me want to go to NY design school, live in a cramped apartment with my two besties, remodel a hip coffee shop, and trek out to Long Island to get away from it all. Sounds like a lot, huh? That’s what makes this book so great. Juggling hopes and dreams for the future while falling in love over coffee and baked goods. What’s not to love?

#9. Silicon Valley

Kristin Billerbeck’s Ashley Stockingdale series is the best of Chick Lit.  I was super close to Silicon Valley a few years ago when I visited San Francisco, but I never made it out there. What I’d really love is to see Kristin’s version with pasty engineers walking around in broad daylight, the curb where Ashley melted down and got arrested for nothing, and of course, the ultra-hip coffee shops.

For more info check out Wikipedia’s page on the TV show.

#10. Antartica

Say what? I know it sounds wacko, but Madeleine L’Engle’s Vicky Austen sequel, Troubling a Star made a beach girl want to pal around with penguins. Not that I want to get stuck on an ice flow like Vicky, but I wouldn’t mind seeing the majestic beauty carved out by ice shelves and glaciers. This one is WAY out there on my bucket list, but it’s there all the same. I’d probably take a penguin home with me if I could. 🙂

What places do you want to see? Go on, I know you’re Dying to tell us . . .