Booking Through Thursday: Other Worlds

Today's Topic: Are there any particular worlds in books where you’d like to live?
Or where you certainly would NOT want to live?
What about authors? If you were a character, who would you trust to write your life?

Are there any particular worlds in books where you’d like to live?

Well, if you've got even the slightest hint about me at all, you could probably guess that I'd love to live in the world of Harry Potter. Hogwarts, Hogsmeade, Diagon Alley - all are fascinating to me, and I think it would make for a magical place in which to reside.

On a completely different note, I think I would like to live in the Mitford created by Jan Karon in her books about Father Tim and the other Mitfordians. It's so sweet and simple, and everyone knows everyone else. It has a very Mayberry feel to it, which in theory is appealing. On the other hand, having spent four years in a very rural area of Vermont (and barely escaping with my sanity), I am not sure that I would like it as much as I think I would like it.

Similarly, I think I'd like to live in any of Rosamunde Pilcher's beautiful stories. Her beautiful writing has always made me believe that there could be nothing better than sitting in a stone kitchen with an aga stove sipping tea and looking out over my lush gardens. (Which just goes to show how great she really is, because I hate tea, cooking, and gardening....)

There are some books that I would like to be able to be dropped into at certain key points and then removed from after the adventure was over - Timeline and Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton spring to mind, not that I want to get chased around by dinosaurs, but I would like to see them.

A less fictional place that I'd like to at least visit is the area depicted in Frances Mayes' Under the Tuscan Sun. I found her descriptions of the area, the food, the people, the architecture to be delicious, and I would love to experience even a little bit of that before I die.

Or where you certainly would NOT want to live?

Harry Potter's world as long as Voldemort was running amok. After his demise, though, count me in.

The Papua New Guinea areas explored in Kira Salak's The White Mary (see my review here to get a better picture of why).

In any setting of a Stephen King novel.

What about authors? If you were a character, who would you trust to write your life?

This is definitely tougher. I think most of my favorite authors could make my life more interesting, but is that what I would really want? J.K. Rowling, Cornelia Funke, Phillip Pullman would all create excitement and fun, but also they tend to get their characters in quite a bit of trouble. I think of all the authors I adore, Jan Karon might be the most trusted for not making my life more exciting than I could possibly stand.