“A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. The man who never reads lives only one.”
In this famous line, George R. R. Martin captures one of the things I love best about reading. A good book, carefully chosen, can take you on a grand adventure—even while you never leave the comfy chair in your living room.
The third category for the 2017 Reading Challenge—for those of you who want to put the “oomph” back in your reading life—is “a book set somewhere you have never been but would like to visit.” Why? Because armchair travel, living room adventure, and vicarious exploration is fun. (Although if you want to be lofty about it, we can talk about how reading outside your typical experience stretches your boundaries, boosts your empathy, and broadens your horizons. But also—and importantly, for this challenge—it’s fun.)
The sky’s the limit on this category: you can read about a town an hour’s drive away or outer space, somewhere halfway around the world or a place that only exists in the imagination. If you’ve never been but would like to visit—whether that’s actually possible or not—it’s fair game for this category.
Need ideas for this category? These twenty titles set all over the globe are either personal favorites, or books I’m considering reading for this category myself.
20 books to take you around the world:
Daughter of Smoke & Bone
Tender is the Night
In the Woods (Dublin Murder Squad Book 1)
The Luminaries
The Rumor
No Knives in the Kitchens of This City
A Moveable Feast
The Constant Gardener
Into the Wild
State of Wonder
Cutting for Stone
Four Seasons in Rome
A Gentleman in Moscow
The Year of Living Danishly
Still Life (Chief Inspector Gamache Mysteries, No. 1)
In the idyllic small town of Three Pines, Quebec, where people don’t even lock their doors, a beloved local woman is found in the woods with an arrow shot through her heart. The locals believe it must be a hunting accident, but the police inspector senses something is off. The story is constructed as a classic whodunit but it feels like anything but, with its deliberate pacing, dry wit, and lyrical writing. A stunningly good first novel. Still Life is the first in a series that keeps getting better. Great on audio.
More info →Travels with Charley in Search of America
The Husband’s Secret
Maybe in Another Life
All the Light We Cannot See
Brideshead Revisited
Where have you never been, but would love to visit? What are YOU reading for this category?
50 comments
This may as well be my reading list for the rest of the year! Except for A Gentleman in Moscow. I’ve already read that one twice and love it so much I may read it again soon. (It has now become one of my “3 I love” were I ever to be on your podcast.)
We just booked our summer vacation and I’m already plotting my vacation reading. I think the Moriarty and Le Carre will do nicely. Thanks as usual for a great list of books.
What an interesting list of books! I’ve been meaning to read Patchett’s State of Wonder for ages, this has pushed it up even further on my TBR-list! 🙂
I’m drawn to Paul Auster’s New York Trilogy at the moment (despite having visited once!), it’s the spring season’s fault I suspect!
I was very impressed at how well John Le Carré transmitted the ambience of Nairobi and Kenya.
“Palace Walk” by Naguib Mahfouz took me inside homes in Cairo. It was the kind of book I never would have chosen but for the author winning raves after his Nobel Prize and I figured I should educate myself. It was an utter pleasure. I felt a little culture shock every time I put it down and found myself in the South of France and not in Egypt.
It reminded me a bit of “Death Comes for the Archbishop” by Willa Cather. Not plot-driven yet not boring.
One more: “Christ Stopped at Eboli,” by Carlo Levi. Life in deepest Italy.
These sound like excellent books! Love Willa Cather already and will look for the others
If you’re looking for something lighter (way lighter, compared to Hemingway & Steinbeck), I suggest “Aunt Dimity’s Death” by Nancy Atherton. It starts out in an unseasonably cold Boston spring (how timely!) and moves to a quaint English village in the Cotswolds but a large part of the story describes WWII London. Still my favorite of the 20+ book series after over 20 years.
A Thousand Days in Venice and A Thousand Days in Tuscany by Marlena De Blasi. Gorgeous and wonderful, and probably technically food memoirs. You will want to move immediately to Italy (if you don’t already feel that way now!)
I’ve already read my book for a place I’ve never been but want to visit, “Homegoing” – which was really wonderful. I’ve wanted to visit Africa for several years now. There are several books on this list, however, that I definitely want to add to my queue!
I love this category! I actually traveled to Scotland a few years ago due to my love of the Outlander novels and planned our itinerary around places/landmarks from the books. This past year I went to England for the Harry Potter play and got to enjoy all that the country has to offer for Harry fans. Would love to find another read that inspires an actual trip! Thanks for sharing such a great list!
Ahh, so many great choices on this list! A Gentleman in Moscow was one of my favorite novels last year; talk about traveling through a novel. Wow! What a great read! Thanks for sharing this list, Anne!
A Year in Provence… you can smell the lavender, break the first piece off the baguette, and taste the wine. Better than being there and having to deal with the local tradespeople.
I read travelogues out loud on camping trips to my husband (a tradition we started a few years ago when he forgot his reading glasses). This has been one of our favorites.
Try Blue Highways by William Least Heat Moon.If you read now you will find that certain places he travels would be entirely different today.
Loved loved loved A Year in Provence.
Wonderful online bookclub suggestions…
Great lists! Can’t wait to read some of these the next time I travel. I’m looking forward to Into the Wild.
Alexis|| https://lidsandtricks.com/
I’m on book four of the Gamache series, and really the only place I want to go now is Three Pines, to stay with Olivier and Gabri. She writes cozy so well!
What a great list, but I’m with you. I have been saving A Great Reckoning for this category.
Thank you, Anne, for such a great list! I love reading books that are set in places I will see in the future. I just added “Into the Wild” to my TBR list as we’ll be traveling there in July. Does anyone know of books set in Stockholm or Copenhagen? We’ll be going there in the fall!
If you haven’t already read it, I would recommend The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey. It’s set in Alaska, and the setting is almost like a character in the book. Plus it’s a fantastic and beautiful novel!
I read Lars Kepler’s book The Hypnotist, which is set in Sweden. Though it’s quite scary it’s a stunning thriller and describes the location quite well during winter time.
Another wonderful worldly book—and major foodie book—is Keeping the Feast by Paula Butturini. Paula and her husband are news correspondents. Paula’s husband gets shot while working in Warsaw. The cooking of foods in Rome nurse them both back to emotional and physical health. I tracked this author down and met her when I was in Paris. I don’t know why this book didn’t get more attention. It’s one of my favorites.
Well-known author Bill Bryson writes fabulously and with great wit about his adventures in various places (Appalachian Trail, England, US road trip). He is one of my favorites and has more than a few books that would be a great option for this category.
Excellent suggestion! A Walk in the Woods is one I could read again and again, and it always makes me fantasize about hiking the Appalachian Trail someday. I love Bryson’s style, whatever the topic.
All the Light We Cannot See is fabulous. I recommend it to everyone.
In the Woods has appeared on multiple of your lists, but I didn’t like it at all. The writing is fine, but the main character is not likable and I found the end dissatisfying on many levels. It does take place in Ireland, but it doesn’t convey much of a sense of place, which I think would be a requirement given the name of the list.
When ever I have wanderlust, I read Bill Bryson’s A Sunburned Country and Lost on Planet China: One Man’s Attempt to Understand the World’s Most Mystifying Nation. Both are hysterical.
No 1 Ladies Detective Agency series – Alexander McCall Smith
You can smell and feel Africa in these books, not to mention taste Mma Ramotswe’s famous red USB tea!
I am new to your site, Mrs. Darcy, and am enjoying all your suggestions. Years ago my daughter gave me an anthology of John Steinbeck novels. It included Grapes of Wrath, East of Eden, Cannery Row, Of Mice and Men and The Moon is Down. The poor book is now spineless and tattered from all the reading and lending. I’ve purchased other of his books, some in the Steinbeck museum in Monterey, on a trip up the California coast, but have not read Travels with Charlie. This will be my next selection.
Armchair travel is my life. I love this prompt for book suggestions! I’m a huge Fitzgerald fan, but have yet to read Tender is the Night. I KEEP hearing that I need to read Tana French, so this is reminding me of that as well.
The Husband’s Secret! Good quick read.
Have you read Euphoria? I’d be curious to hear your thoughts on it!
This list is so cool. I cant wait to start reading! Thank you for sharing. My name is Brandy, and im new to the blogging community, its nice to meet all of you. Have a blessed day! http://whimsicalwolfblog.com/
Great idea…
How about Australia/The Thornbirds?
Norway/Lotta Jansdotter?
Sweden/The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo?
Canada/The Shipping News
Love this list –
I loved The Shipping News! Annie Proulx is fabulous, I have yet to read her latest Barkskins. Set in the late 17th century it takes the reader from Canada or “New France” to Europe, China and New Zealand. Quite the trip.
New Zealand is at the top of my travel list. Has anyone read a book that would be fitting?
Per your suggestions, I devoured the Inspector Gamache books last summer. I was absolutely fascinated by Quebec (the walled city! The bays! The deep woods! The rock outcropping!) and consistently googled-imaged the places she described. I would love love love to visit.
Hawaii by James Michener. Still the definitive book on the islands. Hugely entertaining and we learned a lot reading it on our first trip to HI. The first section on the geology of the island can be skipped, it’s a bit contrived… and I’m a geologist.
“Out” by Natsuo Kirino was an un-put-downable thriller set in Tokyo at a bento box factory and it completely transported me, terrified me and years later I still link Tokyo with this book!
Another book that completely transported me was Inferno by Dan Brown. It felt like I was part of the mad rush through Italy and Turkey, etc. Loved it!
Wonderful recommendations! I try to read books set in my travel destinations. In 1999, I read “Outlander” in its “Cross Stitch” persona in Scotland while visiting many of the sites mentioned in the book. I’ve enjoyed reading Maeve Binchy, Edna O’Brien, Marian Keyes in Ireland. I do the same when visiting domestic locales such as Louise Erdrich in Minnesota and JT Ellison in Nashville. I’m going to Cape Cod for genealogy research in May and am looking for books set there.
As i was surveying your list, one of the absolute favorites of my whole life kept popping into my mind… and lo and behold it made your list…. Cutting for Stone…. Some books grab me at page one; but eventually lose me…. but not this one!!!! Verghese’s descriptions of even the weather held me spellbound!! I want to read it all over again… but I need to figure out who was the last person to borrow my treasure!!! Thanks for your great list!
Woohoo! (And it’s my pleasure!)
I just finished “The Snow Child”. It’s set in 1920s/1930s Alaska. A middle aged couple still grieving the loss of their only baby tries to make a new life for themselves homesteading in the wilderness. And then they come across a magical child… Really transported me.
The Thornbirds is an epic classic Australian saga that spans generations and brings the reader into an entirely new world.
That’s a great one for this list!
This is an awesome list…will jumping straight online to order “A Gentleman in Moscow” – it sounds great. Here are a couple of suggestions in return…
Australia, in the 1800s – My Brilliant Career by Miles Franklin
Australia – The Dressmaker by Rosalie Ham
France, today and 1200s – Labriynth by Kate Mosse
Happy reading!
The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series is an all-time favorite. It makes me want to visit Botswana so badly!
I had to post this on Facebook! I hope you don’t mind. Awesome Blog! Can’t wait to read some of these books!
I just started A Year of Living Danishly and it’s laugh-out-loud funny so far! I have to say though, coming from Alaska, I cringed to see Into the Wild on the list. It’s a great armchair read, that’s for sure…the problem is when it actually inspires wanderlust! So many tourists set out each year to see The Bus and end up needing to be rescued. The bus should really be moved outside a visitor center or something.
In preparation for my first trip to New Orleans last week, I read Ruta Sepetys’ Out of the Easy. I got to see the book’s setting come to life. And now that I am home, I am reading The Last Madam: A Life in the New Orleans Underworld by Christine Weltz. I can picture all the street now and the architecture of the buildings. Reading about your upcoming destination adds a new level of interest and excitement for the trip.
Thank you for this reading list! I have added four to my stack. I can recommend BRIDE OF THE SEA by Eman Quotah which is set in Saudi Arabia, MOUNTOLIVE by Laurence Durrell (yes, of The Durrells of Corfu) set in Alexandria and Cairo, and MURDER IN OLD BOMBAY by Nev March.