Literary Tourism

I invite you to consider this a Part 2 to last week's blog post, which was inspired by my yearning to fast forward two years so that I can backpack through Southeast Asia. But whereas in that post I listed books to enjoy in lieu of travel, in this one I will list destinations for people who enjoy books.

1. London, England - I have heard great things about this city's bookshops. Plus many great writers, such as John Keats, David Bowie, Virginia Woolf and Charles Dickens were born, inspired by, or resided here. Plus the cold and rainy weather is ideal for reading (according to every Pinterest user ever, at least).
2. Writers' houses-turned-museums - There are bajillions of them, but the Mark Twain House in Hartford, Connecticut sounds especially beautiful.
3. Walden Pond Reservation, Concord, Massachusetts - THIS IS THE NATURAL HAVEN IMMORTALIZED IN WALDEN BY DAVID HENRY THOREAU! You can actually visit it! There's a replica of his shack! You can look for the pond where he bathed! You can find the exact view of Walden Pond that he so beautifully described!
4. Dublin, Ireland - James Joyce's books Ulysses and The Dubliners take place in this city, and the James Joyce Center offers walking tours that takes you to locations featured in both books.
5. Santiago, Chile - The Nobel Prize-winning poet Pablo Neruda lived here. His poems are so simple, warm, and musical - I'd love to see La Chascona, the colorful house where he wrote them. Today, the city brims with secondhand bookstores and outposts of the Cafe Literario, a library/coffee shop.

I feel you, Thoreau.

Next time my family and I drive through Massachusetts, I will force them to make a detour to Walden Pond Reservation. I will literally grab the steering wheel if I have to :P

-Carly

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