One of the joys of reading a novel is immersing yourself in a different world, whether it’s the verdant hills of Middle Earth, the magic around every corner at Hogwarts, the intrepid and dangerous seas aboard the Pequod, or spaceships and strange planets hitchhiking around the galaxy.
If you could pick one fictional world/setting/time period to live in, which one would it be?
Briana says
If we're talking fantasy, then Hogwarts. But otherwise I'd choose to live with the Bennetts in Pride & Prejudice. Send me to Austenland!
Richard Gibson says
The Galaxy of Asimov's Foundation, specifically on Terminus during the time of the Merchants.
Scott says
Right on, jtb. Only, from the looks of things, there won't be a whole lot of women there. They're all off in magic high or the land of hairy feet.
Oh, wait, Liberty Speidel might be interested. ๐
Sarah Callejo says
I'd choose Wild Cat Island in Swallows and Amazons (Arthur Ransome)
and would now and then hop into a closet to walk through to Narnia.
Brittany says
1. HOGWARTS!
2. Warriors. I wouldn't mind being a cat.
3. The Gallagher Academy. I'd love to be able to do karate like a Gallagher Girl!
Munk says
"Where the Red Fern Grows"
J. R. McLemore says
While I love to read books such as No Country For Old Men, The Handmaid's Tale, The Stand, and countless others such as that, I would never want to live in any of those worlds. That's the beauty of reading such novels: I never have to leave the comfort of my world to experience them!
Now, if I had to choose a fictitious book-world in which to live, I imagine I might choose John Grisham's A Painted House. Some place that's at least somewhat normal.
Susan Gourley/Kelley says
Hogwarts for me. I love reading Pride and Prejudice and Lord of the Rings but let's face it, as a woman those weren't the best of times.
Sissy says
I second Pemberly, but only if Darcy was single. Hogwarts is a close second and Du Weldenvarden from Eragon sounds just lovely as well.
Shawn says
Oh wait. It's Ira Levin.
Never mind.
I'd end up having to kiss a dude.
Pam says
The Forest of Hands and Teeth
Inkheart (the Inkworld)
Sookie Stackhouse
Amanda Sablan says
No idea. I've never been one for fantasy, so practically all of what I read is set in the real world in situations I wouldn't really want to live in…
lucidkim says
I was going to say Narnia because I loved those books – but then that whole time frame when Aslan ditched them for ever and a day (always winter, never Christmas: remember??) would suck – and besides, I'm not really an outdoorsy type. Hogwarts might be cool, but visions of air conditioners doesn't come to mind when I think of it – so I'm going to have to go with one of Scalzi's scifi worlds – war or not, I'm thinking A/C is involved (and if I can get a new, hot body – I'm all for that!).
T.J. says
Even though it was a tv show first, there were still novels written for it: I'd be on the Starship Enterprise of Captain Picard's time. If not, I'd gladly be at Hogwarts (well, I'd rather work in Diagon Alley.)
abc says
Pam, The Forest of Hands and Teeth? With crazed zombies trying to kill you all the time?
ryan field says
Breakfast at Tiffany's
Worddance says
I never want to leave the landscape of good historical or fantasy story. Most of all, I would love to step into Jane Austen's England, where I would dance with Mr. Darcy and pick strawberries with Mr. Knightly.
lynleigh says
I'd want to live in Gregory Maguire's "Wicked" Oz.
K.L. Brady says
I'd like to go back to 18th century England – Pride and Prejudice. Love and marriage seems like it was so much simpler then. No facebook, no myspace, no online dating. You found someone half way attractive, hoped they were worth at least 5,000 pounds a year, danced, talked, took walks, fell in love (quickly) and got hitched.
Women didn't have to worry about mortgages because we couldn't own property. Didn't have to work, just read and learned to sing, play an instrument, and/or draw. What a life.
Although I'd like to qualify this by saying I'd only like to live in that time if I could be beautiful, rich, white, and have fully functional plumming . . . and Starbucks. I could, however, live with the candlelight.
K.L. Brady says
that's supposed to be "plumbing" not plumming. LOL
brain fart.
Romy says
How did this get to 121 comments and not one mentioned Katherine Kerr's Deverry?
Though Deverry itself is a tad rougher and dirtier than I'm used to, so I think I'd choose to live rather among the Elves in the Westlands.
JulieanneReeves says
Ok, I'm going to be the rebel here.
Honestly. I'd stay in the world I live in. Even with all its faults and failures it's still the one place that has ALL of those worlds right at our finger tips.
It's like the holodeck on the USS Enterprise. All you have to do is pick up a book and you're anywhere else, you want to be.
YOu can slay a dragon without being burnt to a crisp, or traverse the fiery mount doom without actually falling into the lava. You can walk along 'the avenue' of Green Gables. Step through the stones into Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series and be married to the very sexy Jamie Frasier. *wipes drool off keyboard* Sorry off topic.
Anyways you get the point.
Think of all you'd miss if you chose just one.
Diana says
Easy. Middle Earth in general; Hobbiton in specifics. Fangorn if Hobbiton is not available.
Laurie says
Oz from the books, or Hogwarts. Narnia wouldn't be too bad, either.
bridgetcarle says
I also wouldn't mind visiting E. Nesbit's Enchanted Castle before that awful woman came along and wished away all the magic. Still outrages me.
Naomi Canale says
The Little House on The Prairie. Or a time that took place in the Bible (does that count) I'd really like to know what all really went down ๐
Gil says
I prefer to live in Bartleby's office.
Katrina L. Lantz says
@abc, LOL. I didn't put Anne of Green Gables as my preferred world, but I LOVE THOSE BOOKS. And I think your hunch is right: we might be a type that people can spot.
Tori says
Hmm… Well since I already convinced myself at the age of nine that Harry Potter was real and I was going to be going to Hogwarts via exchange student program (I swear, the letter is just several years late. Any day now…), I think I'll have to pick a runner up. That would be Tortall in Tamora Pierce's books. Although that could be because I'm reading one of them at the moment ๐
Anonymous says
Wonderland. Definately.
Katrina L. Lantz says
Would you really pick a world that's scary? Like FALLEN with its warring angels or WINGS with its trolls? No matter how pretty it is in the summer, I'm staying out of Avalon until every last troll is dead.
D. says
The world from Lev Grossman's "The Magicians." Hogwarts for real people.
Sarra says
Sometimes I think I'd like to live in Ayn Rand's ATLAS SHRUGGED… of course, only at the end when the world has fallen apart, and ONLY if I get to be one of the chosen few who can start over with Galt and Dagny. I realize this makes me weird.
If I could choose two, though, I'd go with the parallel universe in The Golden Compass. The idea of having my own daemon makes me happy. I wonder what mine would be…
Jil says
Mowgli in the Jungle books was who I longed to be as a kid= with all those animals looking after me.
Now i'd choose the world of Jane Ayre or Wuthering Heights where the men were so wild and passionate!
cwsherwoodedits says
Avonlea.
Steve Masover says
I suppose it's kind of obscure by now, but I think I might choose Riverworld of Philip Jose Farmer fame. The premise is that everyone ever born in history is revived on a planet that is more or less one huge, winding, deep river canyon (like a whole world that's the Grand Canyon on steroids). The books devolved over the course of the series, I thought, but I can still feel the excitement of entering Riverworld for the first time as a teenage sci fi nut. The premise left so much room or possibility…
Alexis says
I would live in the book of Timeline (NOT the movie), get in real tight with those quantam physicists, and figure out a way to time/space/reality hop into Hogwarts, Middle Earth, the ship in Ender's Game, all the provinces of Hunger Games, pre-The Flood from Many Waters, Leviathan, Narnia… oh! And I'd hop in the boat with Pi and live on the ocean with him and that Bengal Tiger for a while.
Was that cheating? Oh well.
WriterGirl says
no contest! hogwarts. like a lot of people!
Michael Pickett says
This is cheating a little. There are tons of novels written in this universe, but it was thought up for film. It's the first fictitious place that comes to mind for me, though, so I'll say it anyway.
The Star Wars Universe
Jck says
I have to say Iris, from the Mortal Instruments.
Gehayi says
This is tough, because–like Josin L. McQuein–my favorite books and series tend to be rather dangerous. Which would not be comfortable to live through.
The other issue is–would I be allowed to gain other abilities by moving from one world to another? I also have to figure in the fact that I have a disability that I presume would not be alleviated if I moved from one world to the next. Treatment for it requires technology and electricity–which eliminates worlds like Middle Earth, Narnia, Pern, Darkover and the various lands featured in GRRM's A Song of Ice and Fire series.
As for The Dresden Files novels, which I adore–well, forget it. I wouldn't be able to go near wizards or any magic, because magical people in that universe are walking techbanes that can fry anything technological at a hundred paces (and yes, that is canon). So I'd be out about 25,500 dollars–the cost of my medical equipment, plus a new computer system–if Harry Dresden even dropped by for two seconds. Garth Nix's Abhorsen Trilogy features something similar–technology shatters, unravels, rusts and just plain stops working whenever even a wind blows across the wall from the Old Kingdom.
And Hogwarts–as cool as I think the Potterverse can be–would be hell on earth for me; my lymphatic pump definitely wouldn't work at Hogwarts (no electricity) and all those stairs! Stairs that move, mind you, and that sometimes require a person to hop on this step or dance on that one. Hogwarts is really not designed for a person with a walker.
I think that I'd do best in the world of the Discworld novels. They have steampunk-y technology not unlike our own (including space travel, and BlackBerry and Internet equivalents), they have flying brooms which apparently work for non-witches, and a library that connects to all other libraries in all other universes in all other dimensions. And you don't actually have to have magic to live well there. That, I think, is the world for me.
Rebecca says
Middle Earth. Or Pern.
Rissa Watkins says
Gah! I hate to be trendy, but I have to agree with a lot of others-Harry Potter. Magic would be so cool.
Middle Earth would be nice to visit, but no eletricity? How would I watch Glee or Doctor Who? And then I would never find out what Lost was all about if I missed the last episode. *stop snickering, it's okay to hope*
The Red Angel says
Definitely either Hogwarts or Wonderland! I really love these "You Tell Me: What Novel…?" posts. ๐ They're loads of fun to answer.
~TRA
https://xtheredangelx.blogspot.com
Adventures in Children's Publishing says
Definitely Manderley of Daphne Du Maurier's Rebecca. Seaside cliffs, sprawling mansion, drama. What more can I ask for?
Marissa
Karen C says
Finally someone said Discworld!
Oook oook!!
Kimber An says
Prince Edward Island
Nicole says
Definitely Pern!
Hogwarts is a close second ๐
Mary Hoffman's Newsletter says
I do spend a lot of time living in Talia, which I created for the Stravaganza books.
But I wouldn't mind living with Howl in his Moving Castle or Ankh Morpork, or Rivendell (though best of all to be Eowyn at Meduseld).
Or the world of Robin McKinley's Spindle's End. Or maybe Earthsea.
Seems to me though that I HAVE lived in all those places.
Stephen Prosapio says
What a great question!
No one's mentioned any Erotica novels yet??? ๐
Okay, okay. "Peter and Wendyโ the novel form of JM Barrie's wonderful play, โPeter Panโ.