Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. This week’s theme is:
March 27: Books That Take Place In Another Country
For this week’s theme, I’m going to look at a few books that inspire wanderlust and a desire to travel. Most of these are contemporary novels, but there are a few fantasy in there that might just surprise you.
The places in these books include: *huge intake of breath* Italy, France, The Netherlands, Austria, Monaco, Japan, China, the USA, Hawaii, Spain, Africa, and Czech Republic. *exhales* That’s a lot of places.
The Gentleman’s Guide and Wanderlust both give me serious travel feels because they don’t just visit one country, but several. Both books involve tours across Europe, albeit at very different periods in history, and each city is described in tantalising detail.
Japan is the setting for Strange Weather in Toyko and Red Girls and just thinking about them makes me want to go back so badly. After I spent three months living in Osaka last year, Japan is going to be my #1 place to visit for the rest of my life. The culture, architecture, scenery, food, and people there are just incredible.
When Dimple Met Rishi and You Know Me Well are based partly in San Francisco and reading them made me want to go back and revisit the long, winding streets and the Golden Gate Bridge in the next few years.
I’d been vaguely interested in visiting Czech Republic in the future for a number of years, but when I read Daughter of Smoke and Bone that interest shot through the roof to a mighty need. Although it’s a fantasy novel, the descriptions of hidden Prague streets and the Charles Bridge made me desperate to go see them for myself and experience the beautiful architecture of the city. Likewise, The Girl From Everywhere, despite involving time travel, made me curious to see Hawaii and Forest of A Thousand Lanterns, while set in the past, made me want to visit the big cities in China. I’ve been to Portugal and Spain before, but The Alchemist‘s magical descriptions of Tangier, North Africa, me intrigued to see that city too.
Which books give you wanderlust? Where are you hoping to visit over the next few years?
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So many good ones! The Gentleman’s Guide definitely inspired wanderlust for me. A grand tour of Europe would be a dream come true!
Daughter of Smoke and Bone made me want to visit Prague so bad!
Cora | http://www.teapartyprincess.co.uk
Ohh Wanderlost also made me want to go away and visit tons of countries haha 🙂 Lovely choices! 🙂 x
There are so many books that inspire wanderlust in me (in fact the second I saw this topic I couldn’t wait to pick some books I could feature!)
I loved The Gentleman’s Guide and The Girl From Everywhere. I would love more than anything to be able to travel the way Nix does in The Girl from Everywhere. How amazing would it be to be able to visit anywhere you had a map to, even if it as a fictional place.
Also Daughter of Smoke and Bone is another favourite that actually made my list as well this week. I visited Prague solely because of this book so I couldn’t resist featuring it.
Great post, and great picks for this week Kate! 🙂 ❤️
Wanderlost made my wanderlust go wild. I was so ready to join a hop on hop off bus tour after reading that book. I also LOVED Daughter of Smoke and Bone for its imagery of Prague. It was like I’d stepped into the country when I was reading it and definitely made me eager to visit th city.
Ahahah I’m not surprised! There are sooooo many cool cities featured in that book! Totally agree with you about the descriptions of Prague in DOSOB, I’m hoping to visit this year because finishing the trilogy made me want to see it so much. Laini Taylor’s writing has such an evocative quality that you can almost imagine standing in the streets of the city 🙂
Daughter of Smoke and Bone definitely made me want to visit Prague and push it to the top of my list. And it was a wonderful place to visit so no disappointment there.
Lynn 😀
Aww I’m so glad you got to go to Prague! Is it as amazing as it sounds? I’m hoping to go this year at some point 😀
So it’s not a book but lately I’v been watching Turkish dramas most of which take place in Istanbul, and the city looks so pretty on screen that it makes me want to go and visit.
Yes, Istanbul looks amazing, and the food is meant to be great there too. 🙂 What sort of Turkish dramas do you watch? If they’re anything like the k-dramas I tend to watch they’ll be full of melodrama and all the more enjoyable for it. 😀
The ones I watch are very dramatic very intense usually full of family drama but they also tend to be sort of violent 😬 if you want to start with something lighter then I recommend Sura and Seyit which is on Netflix but not my favorite
Daughter of Smoke and Bone without a doubt! Prague has been stuck in my head ever since and I really, really want to go there one day.
Forest of a Thousand Lanterns: also a big yes! 😀
I really love books about traveling ❤ I loved The Gentlemen's Guide to Virtue and I definitely want to read more books about backpacking/ traveling in Europe or America.