When books come to live, it's easy to get lost in the wonder. While many of us would love to jump into our favorite books, there are some locations around the world that could make that a reality.
1. Hobbiton, New Zealand
"He often used to say there was only one Road; that it was like a great
river: its springs were at every doorstep and every path was its
tributary. “It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out of your door,”
he used to say. “You step into the Road, and if you don’t keep your
feet, there is no telling where you might be swept off to.” - J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings
A significant location in the Lord of the Rings trilogy based on the novels by J.R.R. Tolkien, the Hobbiton film set in New Zealand is located on a family run farm. You can go on a tour and see Bagshot Row, the Party Tree, and Bilbo's Bag End home. The "Green Dragon" inn was also recently re-opened to the public and, yes, you can get second breakfast here and spend the day like any simple hobbit would.
2. The Yorkshire Moors, England
“My love for Linton is like the foliage in the woods: time will change it, I'm well aware, as winter changes the trees. My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath: a source of little visible delight, but necessary. Nelly, I am Healthcliff! He's always, always in my mind: not as a pleasure, any more than I am always a pleasure to myself, but as my own being.” -Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights
The Yorkshire Moors set the stage for one of the best classics ever written. Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë tells the story of how Catherine and Heathcliff's love was molded by the very moors they spend their childhood exploring. These marshy and rolling hills that are now a national park open to the public for your own wandering and exploration.
3. Orkney Islands, Scotland
“I determined to visit some remote spot of Scotland and finish my work in solitude. I did not doubt but that the monster followed me and would discover himself to me when I should have finished, that he might receive his companion. With this resolution I traversed the northern highlands and fixed on one of the remotest of the Orkneys as the scene of my labours. It was a place fitted for such a work, being hardly more than a rock whose high sides were continually beaten upon by the waves.” – Mary Shelley, Frankenstein
In Frankenstein, after realizing the horrors of his monstrous creation, Victor flees to the Orkney Islands of Scotland to finish his work in solitude. It is said that Shelley chose for Victor to go to these islands because featureless and desolate landscape,the prefect location to begin work on his female creation.
4. Bran Castle, Romania
"This was all so strange and uncanny that a dreadful fear came upon me, and I was afraid to speak or move. The time seemed interminable as we swept on our way, now in almost complete darkness, for the rolling clouds obscured the moon. We kept on ascending, with occasional periods of quick descent, but in the main always ascending. Suddenly, I became conscious of the fact that the driver was in the act of pulling up the horses in the courtyard of a vast ruined castle, from whose tall black windows came no ray of light, and whose broken battlements showed a jagged line against the sky." -Bram Stoker, Dracula
Bran Castle has a rich history full of rulers and nobility, good and evil. While it is said that Bram Stoker was actually unaware of this castles existence while writingDracula, but the castle has ties with the infamous Vlad the Impaler, the real-life ruler who inspired the vampiric character. Today, the castle offers tours to the public and was actually on sale in 2014 for a whopping $66 million, makes sense for the 57 bedrooms.
5. Long Island, New York
"The
truth was that Jay Gatsby, of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from
his Platonic conception of himself. He was a son of God—a phrase
which, if it means anything, means just that—and he must be about
His Father’s business, the service of a vast, vulgar, and meretricious
beauty. So he invented just the sort of Jay Gatsby that a seventeen
year old boy would be likely to invent, and to this conception he
was faithful to the end." F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
Our native Long Island, while not overly exotic on the outside, is home to many great stories like the classic The Great Gatsby, and more modern works like The Amityville Horror and Percy Jackson and the Olympians. So get outside and explore, you don't have to travel across the globe to experience some literary wonder.