Map your favorite book!

Image from Lucius Beebe Memorial Library on flickr

Have you read a book and wondered what the location really looked like?  In my case, I did not read Tony Hillerman's Jim Chee mysteries until after I had lived south of Gallup and Grants for several months and moved away from the state for a couple of years.  Yet I found having the personal knowledge of the towns, distances, and local quirks contributed depth to my appreciation of the novels.
In my mother's case, when she read Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch books, she wondered how many places were based on a real place.  As luck would have it, another fan of the books shared that thought and made a Google map to answer.

If connecting a story to real places catches your fancy, you might also be interested in the Placing Literature project here: http://placingliterature.wordpress.com/page/2/ .  This project focuses on books set in Duluth, New Haven, and San Francisco (see their site for the reading list).

If you are interested in following walks through well-known towns and titles, Ruidoso Public Library has three: one for Santa Fe, another for Dickensian London, and one on Hemingway's Paris.

Armchair travel connects exotic locales and literature without leaving the comfort of home (or the public computers at the library!).  I found a Google map of St. Petersburg, Russia, including photos of locations from Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment (available online to read or listen to).  Comment below, email the library, or call us if you would like to find a map connecting a specific author, book, or city through literature.