Last year, I received the best gift for my birthday – I discovered a whole new genre of fiction that I love. By the end of the month, I’d read 15 books (plus all the bonus material on the author’s website), and I was hooked. I’m still going strong.
When I was young, I could never quite understand people who said they didn’t enjoy reading. I felt like they just hadn’t discovered what they enjoyed reading yet.
I think I understand better now – perhaps it’s the process that’s the problem, the actual consumption of words on a page.
But for me, reading is a passport to new worlds. A gateway to knowledge, stories, and opportunities (especially now that learning a new skill is as easy as reading material online).
And bookshops? They are magical portals. Here, I know I’m not alone. The Sunday Times in the UK just published an article on some of the best bookshops for browsing, and the response was so strong they wrote another article with all the readers’ feedback.
It made me curious about book/literary tourism. It comes in many forms – here are my favourite five:
1. The Novel Effect
Before the Netflix Effect (the current phenomenon of people travelling to a place solely because they watched a show/movie filmed there, e.g. Cornish village Port Isaac, where Doc Martin was shot), there was the Novel Effect, epitomised by Peter Mayle and his memoir ‘A Year in Provence’. Published in 1989, it spurred an increase in tourism to the lavender-fielded French region.
2. Armchair travel
Mayle’s memoir is also an example of the second type of book tourism – armchair travel. ‘A Year in Provence’ remains one of the most successful travel books to this day, largely because it’s so captivating, it transports you right into the French countryside. My new favourite literary genre definitely has this effect, though in its case, it would be a post-apocalyptic Louisiana – New Orleans is now top of my travel bucket list (a clue to what I’m currently reading!).
3. Authors’ famous haunts
The third type of literary tourism is travelling to the places where popular authors spent most of their lives. For instance, Karen Blixen’s house in Kenya, the birthplace of the ‘Out of Africa’ safari dream, is a major tourist magnet.
4. Bookshop addiction
The fourth? Creating a travel itinerary around the world’s best bookshops (which was already an established item on my bucket list). Livraria Lello in Porto, Portugal, and its Harry Potter-worthy interiors, London’s oldest bookshop, Hatchards (established in 1797), and the space-age Dujiangyan Zhongshuge bookstore in Chengdu, China, are worth the trip.
5. Writing your own story
This refers to travelling with the intention of writing a book (cue log cabin in the woods, Henry David Thoreau-style), and being so inspired by your travels that you commit them to paper, or writing about travel (real or fictional). Around the World in 80 Days is an old-school-still-cool favourite.
So, a question to get your bookish adventure started –
Imagine being transported into the world of a book you’ve read. If you had to pick just one, which book would you choose, and where would it take you?
Mindful Musings
What the world was musing over this past week
Samsung introduces Galaxy S24 Ultra
Say hello (in any language) to AI in smartphones – live translation included.
A medal for a courageous canine
Buddy, a retired SAPS K9 Border Collie, was honoured for his amazing bravery and super-dog sniffing skills.
Bart, Lisa, and Marge IRL
Ever wondered what the Simpsons would look like as real people?
Frozen broekies
While we’re baking in the heat, Chicagoans are literally freezing their pants off.
