Because I'm a geek

[prosodic]

...and because I love books and travel and I love to make lists...

I'm currently making a list of books about places or books in which a place is important.

For example, when I was in Paris, I read A Moveable Feast by Hemingway, because it was about Paris. I like reading books that feature places I have been, although I would rather read them when I'm actually visiting that place.

So there's The Historian, which features a lot of places I've been: Amsterdam, Istanbul, Venice...etc. etc.

So...help me make this list. What books can you think of that are about places, or at least a place that figures prominently in the book? They don't necessarily have to be fiction. I have Under the Tuscan Sun and A Year in Provence on the list. I also have A Tale of Two Cities, Girl With A Pearl Earring, The Da Vinci Code...etc. etc.

I'm curious to see what you come up with.

Comments

[onelargecat.livejournal.com]

A couple that come to my mind immediately:

Crow Lake by Mary Lawson (place: Canada)
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt (place: Savannah, Georgia)
Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden (place: Kyoto)
Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver (place: Arizona)
Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver (place: Congo, Africa)
All the Bill Bryson books, of course

[prosodic.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry that I didn't read Midnight before my visit to Savannah. *IF* we get orders to Georgia, I'll have to make sure I read it before we go there again. John Berendt also wrote another book about Venice, which I have read. I should put that on the list.

There was one I thought of this morning, as I drifted in and out of sleep, and now I can't remember it. Hopefully it will come to me at some point when I can write it down.

Bill Bryson is good. His book about his travels through Europe is gut-busting hilarious. I don't remember a book ever making me laugh so hard in my life.

[heartsinarmor.livejournal.com]

I'm going to throw in Angels and Demons by Dan Brown (author of The Da Vinci Code). I've also greatly enjoyed reading Ted Bell's series of books about Alex Hawke, a kind of modern day pirate. They take place in several different places; England, America, The Bahamas, some island whose name I can't remember; but the locations are nothing more than landing pads for the story. It's not at all like The Historian where the location is more of a character.

I'm a little surprised that you would read The Historian. I read back at the very beginning of winter (I remember that because the first snow fell while I was reading), and I thought of you because it was so rich in history and location... Actually, I thought of you when I bought it because the book jacket (for whatever reason) made me think of you. But I didn't think it would be your style. Have you read it yet? If so, did you enjoy it?

[prosodic.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah... Angels & Demons actually seems pretty obvious, doesn't it? Yet I forgot to include it. It's far better than The Da Vinci Code, IMHO.

I LOVED The Historian. It's not really a horror novel, and I'm not generally a big fan of that genre...it's more historical fiction, which I'm mad about...and maybe even a bit gothic? I read it early last year...started it during my trip to Italy. I loaned it to my mother, because she's always had this fascination with Vlad Dracula. She liked it a lot too, which surprised me, because it's certainly not light reading.