Top Ten Tuesday #163

Hi everyone! I hope you’ve all had a good week since I last did one of these. I’m going to be heading off to France tomorrow for a few days of sun and poolside reading (weather dependent!) so I’m super excited for that.

It also means that today’s travel topic is quite apt! Now the official topic is Books That Awaken The Travel Bug In Me, but honestly, I have such a severe case of wanderlust that all books awaken the travel bug in me, I just want to go everywhere and books are one way of me doing that (certainly a cheaper way!). So I’m going to go with Books That Made Me Want To Visit Specific Places (and tell you whether I’ve actually been to those places or not):

1. Percy Jackson and The Olympians-Rick Riordan-Greece and New York

I’ve always been obsessed with the Greek Myths, but reading Percy Jackson just made me want to visit Greece even more and also gave me the desire to go to New York so I could visit the Empire State Building and try to get to the 600th floor (don’t worry, I didn’t!). I have now done both of these things, I went to New York with my family in 2012 (and we did go up the Empire State Building, though only to the 86th floor observatory as going to the top was too expensive. One day I would like to go back and go to the top) and I went to Greece with my friends to celebrate my 21st birthday last year.

2. Skulduggery Pleasant-Derek Landy-Ireland

Yes, I know, Ireland is right across the sea from me and I still haven’t been, it’s bad! I’ve always thought that Ireland was the perfect setting for any kind of magic, no idea why and the Skulduggery Pleasant books just confirmed that for me. So I would definitely like to go visit someday!

3. Daughter of Smoke and Bone-Laini Taylor-Prague

I read this book last year and thought that Prague sounded like the most beautiful, wonderful place to visit and I wished I could wander the streets with Karou and Zuzana, visiting Poison Kitchen and eating pastries and all of that. Luckily, this book made my friend Nicola want to visit Prague too, she’s been doing her study abroad semester there since February and I’m going out to visit in just over a week’s time! So yeah, yay for friends who travel to cool places!

4. The Crown’s Game-Evelyn Skye-Russia

I know I can’t visit Imperial Russia anymore, but Skye’s descriptions of St Petersburg in this book sounded so amazing, it really made me want to go and visit St Petersburg and skate on the Neva, and walk the streets and eat some of the delicious food she described. I haven’t yet been to Russia, but hopefully one day I will!

5.Virginia-Maggie Stiefvater-The Raven Cycle

Whilst I know Henrietta itself doesn’t exist, I would still love to visit Virginia, as I know it’s big for horses and I’m a massive horse person, so obviously I would love that and it also just sounds like a really beautiful state, so I’d love to visit it and see it for myself (and pretend to search for ley lines like the Gangsey!).

6. Hawaii-Heidi Heilig-The Girl From Everywhere

Granted, I can’t visit the 1884 version of Hawaii that Heidi Heilig describes in this book, but still, she describes Hawaii in such a way that makes it sound so beautiful that you just can’t help but want to visit!

7. Italy-Caroline Lawrence-The Roman Mysteries

The Roman Mysteries was one of my favourite series when I was a kid, I used to check them out from the library obsessively when I was a kid (unfortunately never managed to finish them) and I always wanted to go and visit the places that the characters in the books did! I did actually go to Naples back in 2010, visited Pompeii and Vesuvius and Herculaneum and Capri, and it was an amazing trip, but I would love to go back to Italy and get to visit Rome and Florence and Venice and all the other beautiful cities there.

8. India-Tara Sim-Chainbreaker (Timekeeper #2)

I love reading about places that I don’t get to read about often in books and Tara Sim’s Victorian India definitely fitted the bill. Her descriptions of India were so gorgeous, they made me feel like I was there, and now I really want to visit to see the place for myself!

9. Alexandria-Rachel Caine-The Great Library Series

I’ve always loved the idea of going to Egypt, it’s a place that is catnip for a History lover like me, and Rachel Caine’s Great Library series has definitely made me want to take a trip to Alexandria (especially because in the real one you have no chance of being chased by bloodthirsty automatons) as I’d love to see the few ancient places that there are left there, especially the ruins of the Serapeum of Alexandria (the daughter library of the main one) and just generally explore, because Caine’s book makes Alexandria sound like such a beautiful place.

10. Poland-The Storyteller-Jodi Picoult

Part of Jodi Picoult’s 2013 novel, takes place at Auschwitz as the main character’s grandmother is a Holocaust survivor. Reading books like this one really make me want to go and see Auschwitz for myself, not because I think that going to see a concentration camp would be fun (obviously going to see a place where people died is not fun) but because I feel like it’s something that I need to do. It’s so important that we don’t forget what happened to these people and I think that going to see the place where so many Jews died in the Holocaust is part of that.

So there we go, Books That Have Made Me Want To Visit Specific Places! Have you ever been to any of these countries? Are there any countries that you’ve read about that you really want to visit? Let me know in the comments!

Next week, I’m talking my Summer TBR, since it’s a week too late for me to choose books to read by the pool! In the meantime, I will hopefully have a Writing Corner post up for you guys very soon.