I visited 221B Baker Street in high school on a trip to London and loved it. It is set up as part ACD museum, part Holmes’s flat. My dad bought me a deerstalker cap I sadly haven’t seen in years.
Just visited the newly renovated Folger Library in DC - to see 89 copies of Shakepeare’s first folio (!!) and other rare literary treasures & first editions!
A number of years ago I needed a break from work and took a literary tour of the southeast. I visited F.Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald's home in Montgomery, Alabama, went to Oxford, Mississippi and visited Rowan Oak, home of Faulkner. Spent a day in Greenville, Mississippi, where Walker Percy and Shelby Foote were boyhood friends and stayed at a bed and breakfast next door to the building Tennessee Williams based Belle Reve on in the play A Streetcar Named Desire, Ended up by spending a day in Monroeville, Alabama, home to Harper Lee and her friend who visited there, Truman Capote. Whirlwind tour by car but enlightening and worth the time and effort.
Never been to Jack London State Historic Park. But as one of my favorite authors and one I read first as a boy (and continue to read), this is somewhere I would love to visit.
(Edit)
OK, just one more----- I am fascinated by manuscripts. I would like to visit a medieval monastery and take a long peak inside a scriptorium.
The treasures room at the British Library. The items on display rotate, but you're likely to see a First Folio, the original Alice in Wonderland, Beowulf, Jane Austen's writing desk, letters from historical figures, da Vinci notebooks, a Magna Carta, Beatles lyrics, Handel sheet music, etc.
My wife and I were there briefly in May. We stopped by too late to see the collections, but the King's Library is amazing. Definitely one of those things you just have to see to believe.
Gettysburg, if you plan a visit hire a guide. The Army still uses it today for officer training. You will be in the middle of how one of the most pivotal events in our history unfolded. And can see what many authors write about.
I visited the summer after I read Shaara's Killer Angels in college. To stand there on a warm day, hearing the sounds of the birds and insects, watching the wind in the trees, and so easily imagine it all turn into a hellish scene of cannon fire and screams...Just wow.
I spent the night in the town and woke up early on a slightly hazy morning and walked the quiet fields. As you say peaceful but for all the monuments describing the battle. Being there at that time of day gave me pause.
I did a staff ride there when I was still in the army. We hired a guide, and he was absolutely phenomenal. It was an incredible visit. I asked him if he could only pick one book to read on Gettysburg what would it by. He said Gettysburg by Stephen W. Sears. I bought it and it was a great book.
For my birthday in 2006, my sister took me to Radio City Music Hall to hear readings by Stephen King, JK Rowling, and John Irving. (Introduced by actors who had starred in their movies, including Kathy Bates, Stanley Tucci, etc) And we stayed at the Algonquin Hotel for the weekend. It was the best gift ever. ♥️
I haven’t been yet but since Jane Austen is my favorite: I’d love to see Bath someday, preferably during the Jane Austen Festival + the Chatsworth Estate (the real-life Pemberley), preferably during Christmas when the estate is all lit up & they have a Christmas event!
Vote for Monk's House and Charleston Farmhouse in West Sussex, homes of Virginia Woolf and her sister Vanessa Bell of the Bloomsbury Group - toured both two years ago, the writing hut in the orchard alone... 🩷
Here in Cincinnati we have the Harriet Beecher Stowe house. Big Sur comes first to mind though (Kerouac). Speaking of the Beats, I've always wanted to visit the Naropa Institute in Colorado, or the Chelsea Hotel in NYC.
My wife and I went to Estes Park for a few days for our honeymoon in 2022. The first thing we had to do when we got there was go to the Stanley Hotel. Same thing when we went in November of last year when our kids came with us. Also, we visited the Peabody Library in Baltimore last week and it was incredible to see century-old books from all over the world. Just a beautiful library
I visited 221B Baker Street in high school on a trip to London and loved it. It is set up as part ACD museum, part Holmes’s flat. My dad bought me a deerstalker cap I sadly haven’t seen in years.
Just visited the newly renovated Folger Library in DC - to see 89 copies of Shakepeare’s first folio (!!) and other rare literary treasures & first editions!
A number of years ago I needed a break from work and took a literary tour of the southeast. I visited F.Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald's home in Montgomery, Alabama, went to Oxford, Mississippi and visited Rowan Oak, home of Faulkner. Spent a day in Greenville, Mississippi, where Walker Percy and Shelby Foote were boyhood friends and stayed at a bed and breakfast next door to the building Tennessee Williams based Belle Reve on in the play A Streetcar Named Desire, Ended up by spending a day in Monroeville, Alabama, home to Harper Lee and her friend who visited there, Truman Capote. Whirlwind tour by car but enlightening and worth the time and effort.
Never been to Jack London State Historic Park. But as one of my favorite authors and one I read first as a boy (and continue to read), this is somewhere I would love to visit.
(Edit)
OK, just one more----- I am fascinated by manuscripts. I would like to visit a medieval monastery and take a long peak inside a scriptorium.
The treasures room at the British Library. The items on display rotate, but you're likely to see a First Folio, the original Alice in Wonderland, Beowulf, Jane Austen's writing desk, letters from historical figures, da Vinci notebooks, a Magna Carta, Beatles lyrics, Handel sheet music, etc.
My wife and I were there briefly in May. We stopped by too late to see the collections, but the King's Library is amazing. Definitely one of those things you just have to see to believe.
Gettysburg, if you plan a visit hire a guide. The Army still uses it today for officer training. You will be in the middle of how one of the most pivotal events in our history unfolded. And can see what many authors write about.
I visited the summer after I read Shaara's Killer Angels in college. To stand there on a warm day, hearing the sounds of the birds and insects, watching the wind in the trees, and so easily imagine it all turn into a hellish scene of cannon fire and screams...Just wow.
I spent the night in the town and woke up early on a slightly hazy morning and walked the quiet fields. As you say peaceful but for all the monuments describing the battle. Being there at that time of day gave me pause.
I did a staff ride there when I was still in the army. We hired a guide, and he was absolutely phenomenal. It was an incredible visit. I asked him if he could only pick one book to read on Gettysburg what would it by. He said Gettysburg by Stephen W. Sears. I bought it and it was a great book.
I’ve always wanted to go to Andalusia, Flannery O’Connor’s home.
For me, gotta be Synge's Chair: https://www.visitgalway.ie/explore/heritage-and-history/historic-buildings-and-places/synges-chair/
Two places (can I pick two): the Algonquin Hotel in NYC for its 1920s Dorothy Parker vibe (Is the place still there) & Le Deux Magots in Paris
For my birthday in 2006, my sister took me to Radio City Music Hall to hear readings by Stephen King, JK Rowling, and John Irving. (Introduced by actors who had starred in their movies, including Kathy Bates, Stanley Tucci, etc) And we stayed at the Algonquin Hotel for the weekend. It was the best gift ever. ♥️
I haven’t been yet but since Jane Austen is my favorite: I’d love to see Bath someday, preferably during the Jane Austen Festival + the Chatsworth Estate (the real-life Pemberley), preferably during Christmas when the estate is all lit up & they have a Christmas event!
Jack London State Historic Park. Jane Austen’s House in Chawton and Coleridge’s Cottage in Nether Stowey (the garden!).
Vote for Monk's House and Charleston Farmhouse in West Sussex, homes of Virginia Woolf and her sister Vanessa Bell of the Bloomsbury Group - toured both two years ago, the writing hut in the orchard alone... 🩷
Anything in Paris, New York, or Istanbul.
I found Walden's Pond peaceful and inspiring when I visited it in the fall a few years ago.
Louisa May Alcott’s home in Concord Massachusetts and Twain’s home in Connecticut.
Here in Cincinnati we have the Harriet Beecher Stowe house. Big Sur comes first to mind though (Kerouac). Speaking of the Beats, I've always wanted to visit the Naropa Institute in Colorado, or the Chelsea Hotel in NYC.
My wife and I went to Estes Park for a few days for our honeymoon in 2022. The first thing we had to do when we got there was go to the Stanley Hotel. Same thing when we went in November of last year when our kids came with us. Also, we visited the Peabody Library in Baltimore last week and it was incredible to see century-old books from all over the world. Just a beautiful library