9 Literary Locales I Wish Were Real

My favorite books are the ones in which I become totally immersed. I become attached to characters, invested in plot developments, and painfully, deeply emotionally involved in the story. Strange and exotic sounding people, unusual and fantastical food and drink, fictional sports – all the things a good book can make us long to experience. With that in mind, I was thinking about the places that I wish were real, from books and stories. I’m heading out on vacation today, so have travel and exploration on the brain. These are the fictional places I’d most wish to visit. I left out Hogwarts and Middle-earth – they seemed too obvious. But now that I think about it, the Hogwarts dining room, with the floating candles and enchanted ceiling, would absolutely be on the list, too.
1. Discworld from the Discworld books by Terry Pratchett
Discworld is flat, so yes, there is an edge one can fall from. It is balanced on the back of four elephants. The elephants stand atop an enormous turtle.
2. B612 from the The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint Exupery
B612 is an asteroid roughly the size of a house, and is home to three volcanoes and a number of Baobab trees which threaten to overwhelm it.
3. Kahani from Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie
In the magical, beautiful story world of Kahani, the ocean is becoming polluted by sadness, tangling the story streams and making the world unhappy and frightening. It is up to young Haroun and his father to save the day.
4. The planet Ixchel from A Wrinkle In Time by Madeleine L’Engle
The alien planet of Camazotz is shadowed by The Black Thing and has become a dark planet steeped in fear. But there are still good planets, fighting the shadow and battling for good. This one, Ixchel, is inhabited by kind, wise, loving furry creatures such as Aunt Beast.
5. Neverland from Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie
Neverland is an island in the minds of children where children don’t have to grow up. It is reached through flight, which is powered by happy thoughts.
6. Oz from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
After a cyclone lifts Dorothy’s house (with her and Toto the dog inside), she finds herself in Oz – land of munchkins, witches and flying monkey slaves, with opiate poppy gardens and a yellow brick road.
7. Earthsea from A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. LeGuin
In the island archipelago of Earthsea, legend says that humans and dragons were once one race, and magic is a real part of everyday life.
8. Narnia from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
What child didn’t look longingly at wardrobes when nobody was around, reaching through hanging coats with hope? Narnia is a magical land created by the revered lion Aslan. Its inhabitants include animals (many talking), dryads, centaurs and other mythical creatures.
9. Pern from the Pern books by Anne McCaffrey
When constructing the planet of Pern, McCaffrey imagined a dangerous weather phenomenon called Thread. On Pern, Thread falls from the sky like rain, but is a deadly spore that destroys everything organic it touches, including humans. Those caught unawares risk being Threadscored or even killed. But since Pern had to be realistically inhabitable, McCaffrey combated Thread with the addition of fire-lizards and dragons, which, after chewing a specific rock called Firestone, are able to breathe fire and burn the thread before it falls low enough to endanger those on the ground.

From www.abebooks.com