Everytime I get a question like this it leads to about twenty minutes of me standing in front of my bookshelf trying to pick just one ... well I can never pick just the one and have come to accept that. I'm crazy and obsessive and that's exactly the type of person questions like this were made for, so I figure it's all good.
So here are the worlds I've chosen - in no particular order:
Avonlea (Anne of Green Gables [series] - L.M. Montgomery)I know that Prince Edward Island is a real place, but it is the Avonlea from the series that I wanted to live in - the town, the houses, the people. I love the Anne series, and the world of Avonlea was a big part of that. It was, to me, an almost perfect place to live: the people were lovely, the land beautiful and the community friendly. It was a place were the biggest thing you had to worry about was how to remove the freckles from your nose and even the classroom bully turns out to be your one true love. Who wouldn't want to live there?
Oz (The Wizard of Oz [series] - L. Frank Baum, et. al]I'll be honest in saying that I'm not sure if I want to live in Oz because I truly love the land itself or because I have read/watched The Wizard of Oz so many times that it would seem disloyal NOT to include it. Given the choice I'd prefer to live in Munchkin city (though I'm probably - definately - too tall) or maybe the Emerald City (from the movie, not the book).
(?) The World of Thursday Next (Jasper Fforde)A parallel reality where there is actually a need for a literary detective and you can have a cloned Dodo for a pet? Who would say no to that? I love this world because literature has such a high standing in it (people practically have whole belief systems built around who they believe the 'real' Shakespeare was) and a sense of the ridiculous is greatly expanded.
Lyra's Oxford & World (His Dark Materials trilogy - Phillip Pullman)I'd be happy enough to live in the real Oxford (how beautiful!), but Lyra's Oxford, not to mention the rest of her world, is just amazingly rich and detailed. The presence of magic in both a highly revered form (the witches) as well as the constant and commonly integrated (the daemons) is so unique. And yes, I will admit to my just wanting a daemon.
Middle Earth (The Hobbit/The Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien)
Shire - I think I could quite easily be a Hobbit - lazing about for your morning, do a bit of work here and there, take a break every once in a while for a meal, then sit on your porch with a cup of tea and your pipe ... okay, I don't want a pipe, but all the rest sounds pretty good. I think I'd make a good Hobbit. I'll go pick up my hairy feet tomorrow.
Rivendell - I love Rivendell, it's just so amazingly beautiful. I love the sculpted architecture (the movie captured it exactly as I imagined it) and the georgeous trees. Plus, if I lived in Rivendell then I could be an elf and have pretty elf ears and elf clothes :)
Lothlorien - I love Lothorien for all the same reasons that I love Rivendell - but moreso. The organic beauty of it is just amazing. Plus it has the added bonus of meaning that I could live in a tree ... and if you know me and we have talked about books/worlds/etc before than you probably already know about my tree/house/stranded obsession (the island from Swiss Family Robinson very almost made my list).
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (Harry Potter [series] - J.K. Rowling)What person my age or younger (and some older, it certainly has the audience) DOESN'T want to attend Hogwarts? Aside from the fact that Hogwarts = castle (which, trust me, is a huge draw there), it is already a story of a relatively 'real' person (Harry) going into the 'fictional' (Hogwarts) - so the jump from me to the world of the book is already not that far ... did that even make sense?
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (Harry Potter [series] - J.K. Rowling)What person my age or younger (and some older, it certainly has the audience) DOESN'T want to attend Hogwarts? Aside from the fact that Hogwarts = castle (which, trust me, is a huge draw there), it is already a story of a relatively 'real' person (Harry) going into the 'fictional' (Hogwarts) - so the jump from me to the world of the book is already not that far ... did that even make sense?
Dinotopia (Dinotopia - James Gurney)Before we even get to Dinotopia itself, this world already has the shipwrecked/stranded aspect to it. I loved reading Dinotopia in the school library when I was little ... though I think, in this case, I was actually more interested in the pictures than the story (can you blame me? They're amazing!) I always wanted to get stranded there, I definately wanted a Saurian life partner, and I wrote more than one (yes I'm a nerd, we all know that) letter in Saurian to friends who had no idea what they were missing. I couldn't say where I'd live if I were there, because that would all depend on my placing (don't know what I'm talking about? - go read the book!) but given the choice, I think I'd proabably have to go for Waterfall City. It's the capital of Dinotopia and is the centre for everything. It has amazing libraries, hundreds of people and Saurians - and you're always guaranteed a good rainbow!
Or where you would certainly NOT want to live?
I have been trying to think of something and all that's coming to my head at the moment is the world of Louis Lowry's The Giver. I'm sure I'll think of something else/better tomorrow when I'm not half asleep so I'll come back and do that then.
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