So I have a question has anyone else enjoyed visiting a place tied to an author or landmark? Or have a place they want to visit because of an author?

My place I have visited because of an author is Mulberry hill in Victoria Australia, which is the house of the author Joan Lindsay who wrote picnic at hanging rock ( I have also visited hanging rock). It’s a really good house preserved by the national trust.

The places I want to visit are, Agatha Christie’s house - Greenway in Devon Seishi Yokomizo house that he lived in during WW2 which is now a museum ( even if all the information is in Japanese.) Also the city of Matsuyama in Japan where the book Botchan is set by Natsume Soseki.

I recently moved and went through my bookshelf as I packed, using the need to box everything up as a reason to reevaluate the state of what I own and if I want to keep it. While doing so, I sold/donated a lot of books I haven’t looked at in several years but realized I also have some childhood favorites that I still just can’t bear to get rid of even I don’t look at them that often.

Which got me wondering if other people have those books and if so, what they are/why you still like them/keep them. Share below! (If you want, I mean!)

Mine are:

• An old Puffin Classics copy of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne. It was one of my first sci-fi exposures and it l gives me nostalgia. I don’t reread it often but I can’t part with it either.
• Heir Apparent by Vivian Vande Velde. It also has nostalgia wrapped around it for me, while still genuinely making me laugh/smile. It’s such a silly book but I do love it.
• The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor. I have a soft spot for Alice in Wonderland retellings and this one has lived rent free in my brain from the first time I read it when I was like ten. This Wonderland is so rich, and this take on it is even more so.

Want to recommend a book for consideration? Please leave a comment here! Keeping book suggestions to this thread helps me keep track of suggestions by containing them to one space.

From the intro thread, books should be: 🌱 Focused on a particular type or a specific plant or fungus 🪴 Engage in ethno/botony, environmental science, mycology, and ecology 🌷 Celebrate the natural world ➡️ Non-Fiction Only

and should not be:

🧑‍🌾 Gardening or plant/medicine dictionary style content 🐞 Heavily focused on animal or bug life 🍅 History of food or ingredients 🔁 Very similar to a title already included

Books can touch on these things, but should not be primarily focused on them. Books also must have some kind of narrative component; please do not recommend dictionary or encyclopedia style books.

Please also be intentional about the balance of author demographics and the ethical considerations of botany. Recommendations that uplift marginalized voices will be prioritized when I am considering additions. In particular, books that highlight these topics from non-western perspectives are of high interest to me. I would love help with more representation from Africa, Polynesia, the Levant & North Africa, South Asia, Central Asia, et all. with a special emphasis on Indigenous voices from these places over white/Europeans studying those areas.

I really do appreciate recommendations - I would love to know why you recommend a book, too, to help me vet titles. I don't promise to add everything but I definitely will consider everything suggested here.

Thanks for helping me make this quest great!