Tag Archives: armchair travel

Literary Locations You Can Visit! (Or Just Read About)

Inspired by Alyssia’s post Literary Homes You Can Buy! (Or Just Visit), my recent vacation where I toured historical sites, and the summer travel season, I thought I’d bring you a post on literary locations you can visit. Though it won’t be through any such means as a magic wardrobe, that doesn’t mean it can’t be just as fantastical!


Cover of The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien

We’ll start this list off with two epics, and being a biased fan, we’ll begin with my favourite world: Middle Earth.

Most people know that the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit trilogies were filmed in New Zealand and that, besides the incredible bigatures, much of the stunning scenery we see on screen are straight shots of actual locations. So I’m here to recommend three lesser known places than Matamata, NZ (home to the Shire) to visit.

Moseley Bog, Birmingham, UK served as Tolkien’s inspiration for the Old Forest, a place that might be more familiar to book fans than movie fans. In the books, it abutted Buckland—ancestral home to Merry Brandybuck—and was full of living, angry trees and a curious (and much debated) character named Tom Bombadil.

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Love and Travel

Photo of Santorini, GreeceFor the last few months, many people, even the most avid readers, have been having trouble picking up a book and getting through more than a few pages before their minds start to wander. My colleague Kasey wrote about this recently and I can certainly relate.

One way that I have been coping with the anxiety of these uncertain times, besides my weekend stress baking, is reading more romance novels. Romance is often considered an escape. It tends to be about regular people living their lives, and you know there will be a happy ending, whether it’s happily ever after or happy for now. There’s something comforting about that, and even the predictability of the story lines can be reassuring – you know what’s likely to happen but you get invested in the characters and you continue the story to its satisfying conclusion. Continue reading

Adult Summer Reads: Armchair Travel

Travel the world from the comfort of your own home, no passport required.

Adult Summer Reads

Instagram: vaughanpubliclibraries

I’m excited to bring you the Armchair Travel edition of the Adult Summer Reads, the entire 15-item list of which you can find on this list on Bibliocommons: VaughanPL: Adult Summer Reads: Armchair Travel.

This installment is the Armchair Travel edition, which will take you around the world from Antarctica to Scotland to… well, around the world, all from the comfort of your very own armchair (armchair not included – you’ll have to provide your own). You don’t have to worry about packing, or the dollar, or your passport, or anything else, which frees you up to simply enjoy the vacation-of-sorts in its entirety. Hurrah!

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