Which Book would you live in, if you could?

[waryan]

Alot of people are of course 'taken away to another place' when reading a good book, though i don't usually get this sensation I decided to challenge myself to looking back into the worlds I've read about, and choosing which I'd like to visit.

Any book that you've read and wish more so than others that you could at least visit the world between the covers?

I think such a desire would be one utmost form of appreciation toward a writer... so any one?

Myself would probably visit THE GREAT GATSBY, BRAVE NEW WORLD, DON QUIXOTE, and probably settings in the stories of Dylan Thomas...:thumbs_up

[johann cruyff]

For some twisted reason,I'd actually like to visit the world from 1984,of course with the option of leaving whenever I want to.

[DapperDrake]

Its funny, I can't think that I'd like to live in any of them. They're all full of prejudice, poverty, suffering, ignorance etc.. fine to read about but to live?
That's classic literature anyway, there are plenty of fantasy/sci-fi worlds I'd like to live in.

[mortalterror]

Kama Sutra

[DapperDrake]

Kama Sutra

:lol:

[amalia1985]

"Wuthering Heights" or "Pride And Prejudice".

[Kafka's Crow]

Having broken my left knee twice, I know the taste of living with a single cruth, throw a chainless bicycle in the mix and a nameless Irish landscape with a hostile population or 'they'. Yes I'd love to be Beckett's Molloy. Oh the joys of incapacitation!


I had one leg so to speak, I was virtually one-legged and I would have been happier, livelier amputated at the groin. And if they had removed a few testicles into the bargain, I wouldn't have objected...

Such savage sarcasm, such horribly funny dark humor. I'd give anything for a sentence like this.

[aabbcc]

Paradiso. :D
And, for some twisted reason, Master and Margarita.

[Charles Darnay]

Oliver Twist - oh to be a pickpocket would ever so fun :)


OR

As You Like It - I could certainly live in the forest of Arden

[valleyjune]

I'm not sure about living but, for sure, I would like to visit and be for a while in:
-some Victorian world, like the ones in the Brontes and Austen's novels
-the underworld of the Phantom of the Opera
-the elf and hobit worlds of the Lord of the Rings
-Beagle's, Pulman's and Kay's worlds
-Huxley's world in the Brave New World
-and finally, I would like to live forever in the places and "worlds" described in Rosamunde Pilcher's books. You know Cornwall, Scotland, Wales desolated, picturesque, peaceful areas. When living in the city, they seem like "out of this world" literally... :(

[kelby_lake]

the great gatsby or brideshead revisited. wouldn't it just be so fun to live in a beautiful house?

[_Shannon_]

The House at Pooh Corner- of course!

[moose gurl]

The Never-ending Story. I would want to be the little kid or maybe his best friend and find a magical world all on my own. Something whimsical and fantastical like that would suffice for me.

[downing]

Gone with the wind

[thegreenthing]

I'd quite like to be in the '20s Paris as described by Hemingway, and why not
Middleearth in the Lord of the Rings? Or Alaska from the point of view of a dog?

[kratsayra]

I still want to be in the magical, fun, exciting worlds that I read about as a kid. I want to be with the kids in The Egypt Game or The Changeling, both by Zilpha Keatley Snyder. Or practically any book by Madeline L'Engle. I just love the characters so much and they are so close to my heart. :) I still look for hidden doors to secret rooms and dream about exploring abandoned mansions. ;)

[texas_star]

Anne of Green Gables...even though I don't have red hair, I would LOVE to be Anne for many, many reasons.

By the way, HI...I'm the newbie in town. It's nice to be here :)

[waryan]

hi texas_star, welcome to the forums

[Sir Bartholomew]

i'd love to stay in jane austen's world

[LadyWentworth]

Austen's Persuasion

Although I wouldn't mind experiencing the life that Laura Ingalls Wilder lived in her "Little House" stories.

[Oniw17]

Utopia.

[cipherdecoy]

To Kill a Mockingbird. That book really evinces a sense of nostalgia, even though I wasn't born then. And, I would love to be Scout or Atticus Finch. Brave New World or 1984 would be interesting, but I would never want to live in a dystopia. :alien:

[kelby_lake]

you'd want to live in a racist small american town in the depression era?

[PeterL]

There are many that I would love to be in. The Boat of a Million Years is just one.

[togre]

Personally, I'd love to live in the Lord of the Rings and it's not just that I'm a Tolkien fanboy (although I am). Two things would make it perfect for me.

First, I am far more suited, physically and mentally, for a pre-industrial agrarian society. Manual labor and farming isn't easy, but it is fulfilling.

Second, I find the clarity between good and evil refreshing. Give me a sword. Let me slay or be slain in a righteous cause. Shades of grey, imperfect people, pettiness and so on are realities of this world, but seem less prominent in the Middle Earth. It would be a welcome change to engage evil externally rather than just wage the battle within.

[texas_star]

hi texas_star, welcome to the forums

Hi Waryan...thanks for the welcome :)

[OswaldTheOsprey]

Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis. Zenith, Winnemac 1920-what a town!

OswaldTheOsprey

http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p123/OswaldTheOsprey/AIAP7/AIAP8/AIAP9/AIAP10/JS1565442.jpg
George F. Babbitt (Willard Louis) eyes Tanis Judique (Carmel Myers) in the 1924 film Babbitt.

[Rakthor]

Probably The Count of Monte Cristo for me, if I could be nobility. Traveling to the great cities, spending money without a care... To me, this is a dream.

[Vincent Black]

For me, to be a member of the Society of the Friends of the ABC in Les Miserables, there's something very romantic about martyrdom...

[Woland]

And, for some twisted reason, Master and Margarita.

It would seem a strange dream, but I would pass on early 20th century Russia.

The Great Gatsby - It seemed an optimistic time.

Star Wars - Gimme a light sabre

Le Morte de Arthur

[cipherdecoy]

you'd want to live in a racist small american town in the depression era?

That's the downside, but it's the kind of experiences the novel takes you through that I find appealing.

[Joreads]

For the fun of it Harry Potter I would have to be a witch though. Come to think of it I have been called a witch in this life oh well:lol:

[Khapi]

I would like to live in the Swedish author Johan Norbergs book In Defense of Global Capitalism. First I start off with living in a cage, later on I live in the most luxurious capitalist-country home. Now that's something!

Yes, I know it's not fiction, but I still like the scenario.

[PeterL]

Utopia.

No place would be an interesting place to live.

[ballb]

I`d live at Blandings Castle, the creation of PG Wodehouse. It never seemed to be anything other than sunny there.

[Scheherazade]

I would like to be in Three Men in a Boat.

[suziemb]

The Notebook. I would not want to get altimers at the end of my life but I would love to have a special bond with someone like the couple in this book. Suzie

[ThousandthIsle]

This wouldn't necessarily be one of my top choices, but I recently felt as though I were living in a novel I was reading.

Wide Sargasso Sea, by Jean Rhys, takes place in the Caribbean. It chronicals the marriage of Rochester (yes, of Jane Eyre), and his 'mad wife in the attic' - Bertha, before she was mad, or locked in an attic in England, or known as Bertha.

I recently dropped out of school, and I would read this book in the early daytime hours. I have six large windows in my bedroom, and sunlight pours in, and my decor is largely "rustic" wooden pieces that look as though they might have been sitting in a humid Caribbean home for awhile, causing the paint to chip and peel off and the finished wood to split. Antoinette (or Bertha), seemed to spend quite some time laying in her bed, which is where I layed in my room to read this book, in my ivory colored sheets. Having dropped out, I felt slightly mad and vulnerable myself, like Antoinette... A bit dazed, despondant, on the last thread of sanity. (Better now, BTW) It just so happened I had a large reserve of Creole-seasoned dirty rice to eat during the week as I was reading Wide Sargasso Sea, along with tropical fruits (cantalopes, oranges), and water and wine galore. I was a bit reclusive myself, almost imprisioning myself in my upstairs room.

A very "foggy" novel to read, and I was in the right mindset.

It was an experience I'll never forget.

[JBI]

Madame Bovary, oops, I just ripped off Woody Allen.

[PeterL]

The more I think of it, there are many books that I would love to ive in for a short time, then go elsewhere, The Hobbit and Bored of the Rings for two examples. I have no interest to live in most books that are based on actual history, but some of the fantastic worlds created were interesting. A few hours in [The Faerie Queen[/i] would be great, but longer would be unpleasant.

[sharpie]

I'd like to visit Master and Margarita's Moscow........live in room 50.

[Seabird111]

Definitely the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy-verse. That would be incredibly hilarious.

[dramasnot6]

Jane Austen's Emma. As Emma Woodhouse, of course.

I second that,for now. I need to put some thinking into this one...

[Statistic]

I dream of a home in the land of Zamonia, as described by Walter Moers in his novels "Rumo & His Miraculous Adventures", "City of Dreaming Books" and so many others.

[Erichtho]

I would like to live in the world of A. Stifter's stories. Very peaceful, simple and idyllic.

[Lioness_Heart]

I'd like to be a Jane Austen heroine... people say that I'd fit into that era better than ours :blush: and being a JA heroine would ensure a happy ending :D

The trouble with lots of literature is that the best deals with the biggest themes, so the characters encounter a lot of suffering. I like reading dystopian literature, but there's no way I'd want to live there... kind of the point of the writing, I suppose. Do you think that a writer of dystopian literature would be offended if people said they wanted to live in their worlds, just like the writers of other books might be flattered?

[PeterL]

The trouble with lots of literature is that the best deals with the biggest themes, so the characters encounter a lot of suffering. I like reading dystopian literature, but there's no way I'd want to live there... kind of the point of the writing, I suppose. Do you think that a writer of dystopian literature would be offended if people said they wanted to live in their worlds, just like the writers of other books might be flattered?

I think the authors would be amazed, because their intentions are, in most cases, to point out what is wrong with the present society and sometimes to suggest a way out.

[ex ponto]

In a Dickens book. Not because of places described in them,but because of the way they are told. That's more about the state of mind.

[browneyedbailey]

Ooh ooh ooh! Twilight! Twilight! I love that book! I want to be Bella!

[ex ponto]

I was just going to say, "I hope you don't end up in a work house!" LOL I love Dickens, too, and I love the way he told his stories. He's one of my favorite authors.

I was going to say "It's nice to hear that, lady Anti...- and than I for the first time really read your name here. I've always read it in my mind as Antiaquarian, and I thought about asking you what do you have against water. Hehe

[Greenpoe]

Despite the ignorance, the world of Fahrenheit 451 would be kinda nice.

[hellsapoppin]

I love New York City and enjoy reading of its history. If I could visit life as portrayed in the many stories written about it, I would choose among these: Stephen Crane's The Bowery Tales, O Henry's New York Tales, Henry James' Washington Square.

My favorite choice would likely be one you probably never heard of:

Ned Buntline's Mysteries and Miseries of New York {1850}.

Buntline was known as the "Great Rascal" because he was a terrible trouble maker and began the Americanist movement. His impact on American history has been largely overlooked.

[kasie]

Definitely the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy-verse. That would be incredibly hilarious.

As long as I can take my own towel, I'll come along too for the ride!

In Jasper fforde's books, the characters can go and live in other books but they are not allowed to do anything that will change the plot; if they do, then the books are irrevocably changed back in the 'real' world and the Literary Police come after them and they face dire consequences. In The Eyre Affair a Literary Police agent, Thursday Next pursues a suspect into Jane Eyre and inadvertently changes the ending, thus making herself a suspect - and so on! At first I thought it was a one-joke book and would become tedious, but having been amused by the absurdity, I have gone on to enjoy the rest of the series. I think The Well of Lost Plots would be an interesting place to spend a few days - and it's a useful place to hide when you have a homicidal maniac on your tail.....

[jikan myshkin]

war and peace. i sometimes find myself wondering what natasha rostov is doing then i remember that she's a fictional character

[Eulalia]

I would not mind living in Durrell's Alexandria Quartet, with all its poetry, mistery and intrigue. I could be Clea, or Justine, or even Mountolive...

[Jane's Nemesis]

"Wuthering Heights" or "Pride And Prejudice".

Wuthering Heights sounds like a nightmare...people getting dug up out of their graves, animals being killed, child abuse, not to mention the hero, who is almost pyschopathic!

[browneyedbailey]

Ooh ooh ooh! Twilight! Twilight! I love that book! I want to be Bella!

either that or Melinium Snow ( it's manga ) I want to be Chiyuki!