The World at the Palm of Your Hands, Literally
See the world in a flying magic book ride by cuddling up with an endless flow of coffee as you flip through the works of your favorite authors.
The King’s Maine Court. A native of Bangor, Maine, Stephen King grandly presents his hometown not only as a dark background for the chilling stories he weaves right out of his imagination but also as an actual nature trip. In The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, the challenge posed by the Appalachian Trail on the nine year-old Trisha describes the raw beauty and sheer power of nature over man. His other works like Dreamcatcher, Stand By Me and Bag of Bones, the backwoods of Maine is shown to be a place for respite and the ever dependable soul-searching waiting to happen.
Austen’s London. Amid the hustle and bustle of England packed with busy souls – from the professionals rushing off to work to the tourists prancing from museums to boutiques- lies the laid back town of Chawton. This quaint little town was the home of Jane Austen, where she was inspired to write Emma and Mansfeld Park. A quiet field trip in this place with fellow Austen enthusiasts would prove to be a pleasant trip through time.
The Real Yoknapatawpha. William Faulkner’s fictional town was no doubt inspired by his very own home- Mississippi. He dramatically bared the lives of his loved ones and neighbors through his fiction. His work spoke about the daily ordeals and triumphs of the farmers, the blacks, the outdoors men and the decaying rich men slowly turning into old drunks.
Surreal Japan. As if the complexity Japan is not surreal enough to foreigners, Haruki Murakami drapes a silken curtain over metropolitan Japan to create a dreamlike landscape. Seemingly normal scenes like the crowded subways, the endless strings of jazz bars, the high-nosed Akasaka district are all transformed into portals where one may meet ghosts, illusions, past loves and even a peek at the future.