Bookish Bucket Lists
Reading can help people explore and understand new worlds. So, it's only natural that readers would want to bring some of their favorite books to life! If you're a bookish person planning a vacation, you have to include a few of the following literary landmarks on your itinerary.
1. Hotel Ritz Paris
Paris was one of the hub for the Lost Generation writers whose names you'll surely recognize from AP lit syllabi. And the watering hole of choice for those writers was the swankiest of swanky, the Hotel Ritz. Ernest Hemingway destroyed his third wife's picture in a hotel toilet after learning she wanted a divorce, while Marcel Proust practically lived at the Ritz while searching for lost time.
2. Cavendish
For fans of Canada's favorite red-headed orphan, Prince Edward Island is an absolute must. While the whole island has Anne of Green Gables memorabilia, if you only have time for one place, make it Cavendish. L. M. Montgomery based Avonlea on the resort community she called home.
3. Verona
In fair Verona we set our scene for the perfect vacation. Shakespeare set two of his plays in this charming Medieval city: Romeo & Juliet and The Two Gentlemen of Verona. While Shakespeare himself may have never visited Verona, there are multiple areas named in reference to his plays.
Alessandro Carrarini on Unsplash
4. Ashdown Forest
About two hours from the center of London is the inspiration for the Hundred Acre Wood! A. A. Milne regularly took his family on walks through the ancient forest, and many of the spots where Pooh, Tigger et al, frequent can be easily mapped onto Ashdown. You can even play Poohsticks at Poohsticks Bridge.
5. Haworth
What was once a remote corner of West Yorkshire has become a major tourist destination thanks to a priest named Patrick Brontë and his famous children. Charlotte, Emily, and Anne grew up in this gloomy parsonage on the moors, writing their best-known novels there. The Brontë Parsonage Museum has a wonder collection of family treasures from clothing to manuscripts.
6. Shakespeare & Company
One of the most famous bookstores in the world, Shakespeare and Company has been in operation since 1951. Named after the the Left Bank bookstore publishing and circulating banned books during the early 20th century, Shakespeare & Company is famous for its selection of new, used, and rare books. Aspiring writers can even apply to live and work in the bookshop!
7. Edinburgh
Dubbed UNESCO's first City of Literature in 2004, Edinburgh's fortified hills and cobblestone streets have been well-trod by the likes of Sir Walter Scott and Robert Louis Stevenson. Edinburgh is full of bookshops, libraries, and workshops fostering a new generation of Scottish writers. Time your trip for August to coincide with the world's largest literary festival!
8. Mainz
When most people think of German literary cities, they probably think of Berlin rather than Mainz. However, if you want to go deep into literary history, head to Mainz, where Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press in 1450. there's no better place to see where the Print Revolution began.
9. Walden Pond
If you, too, want to go into the woods to live deliberately, you can visit the Massachusetts pond where Henry David Thoreau spend two years, two months, and two days of his life. Today, Walden Pond is a State Reservation where visitors can meander in quiet contemplation, just like Thoreau. There's even a replica of the cabin Thoreau stayed in.
10. Aracataca
A visit to Aracataca, Colombia is a chance to follow in the footsteps of Nobel Prize-winning author Gabriel García Márquez. Once a dilapidated town lacking basic services, García Márquez fictionalized his childhood hometown as Macondo. Since his death in 2014, Aracataca has transformed into a site of pilgrimmage for fans of Gabito.
11. Bath
If you're a Jane Austen devotee (or Janeite), you probably already know about Bath. While Austen spent most of her life in Hampshire, she, like many other young women of the era, traveled to the resort town of Bath to find a husband. While her husband quest was unsuccessful, Austen memorialized the city in Northanger Abbey, and Bath continues to pay tribute to her today.
Pedro Szekely from Los Angeles, USA on Wikimedia
12. The Morgan Library & Museum
The private library of one of the richest men in America, J. P. Morgan is no longer an exclusive club. A cathedral to literature, the Morgan is a gorgeous building filled with first editions, tapestries, and prints. Many of these artifacts cannot be found anywhere else, such as Egyptian papyri and autographed sheet music by Mozart.
Intricate Explorer on Unsplash
13. The Plaza Hotel
Another hotel that's famous in its own right, the Plaza in Manhattan has hosted its fair share of literary luminaries. F. Scott Fitzgerald featured the Plaza in two of his novels—The Great Gatsby and The Beautiful and Damned—and plunged fully clothed into the hotel's pool; Truman Capote hosted his famous Black and White Ball in the ballroom. And, of course, we can't forget the Plaza's most famous resident: six-year-old Eloise who lives on the tip-top floor!
14. Llandudno
This name may not ring a bell (and could tie non-Welsh tongues in knots), but its' best-known vacationer certainly will. Alice Liddell, the inspiration behind Alice in Wonderland spent several happy holidays in Llandudno. To commemorate the Liddells, the city installed a trail of 34 sculptures featureing the White Rabbit, Chesire Cat, and Alice herself.
15. Buenos Aires
The Paris of South America, Buenos Aires was home to some of the most influential writers of Latin American literature including Jorge Luis Borges and Julio Cortázar. Buenos Aires has almost 700 bookstores to explore, so pack an extra suitcase. Our favorite is El Ateneo Grand Splendid, which used to be an old theater.
16. Trinity College
Dublin has too rich of a literary scene to capture in a few sentences, so we've restrained ourselves to just one spot: the Library at Trinity College Dublin. The largest library in Ireland is also one of the most beautiful in the world. The library houses over 7,000,000 volumes going back over a millennium.
17. The House Of The Seven Gables
Most visitors to Salem probably come for the spooky vibes, and miss out on this literary treasure! The Turner-Ingersoll Mansion, better known as the House of the Seven Gables, is a colonial home that inspired Nathaniel Hawthorne's gothic romance of the same name. The house has been restored and is open for tours.
18. Accra
Ghana may not be the first place people think of when they think of literature, and that's a shame. Ghanaian literature ha been taking off recently thanks to writers such as Yaa Gyasi and Roseanne A. Brown. There's no better way to explore an underrated literary culture than by experiencing the beating heart of its capital.
19. Key West
Hemingway may have been the most famous resident of the Florida Keys, but he certainly wasn't the only one. Just around the corner from Hemingway's home filled with six-toed felines is a small museum dedicated to Tennessee Williams. The Pulitzer-winning playwright called Key West home for 34 years.
20. Jimbōchō Book Town
Given the popularity of Japanese cozy fiction in recent years, we assume that Tokyo is automatically on most bookworms' bucket lists. While you're there, make sure to check out Jimbōchō Book Town in the Kanda-Jimbōchō district. The area has around 200 used book stores, many of which stock English books.
