Friday, July 24, 2015

Books set in your destination

Pick the plot's landmarks by choosing your destination. Benjamin Disraeli (The British Prime Minister in the Victorian era, not his father Isaac Disraeli) said, when I want to read a book I write one. If you want the illusion of creating your own book, here's the solution.

Travellers often pick up guidebooks about the destination from the airport or on the ferry, but what about fiction? Some destinations are obvious places to buy books set there. For example, in the UK, a book by the Brontes when visiting the Bronte museum in Haworth, Yorkshire in the north of England. I bought Withering Heights by Emily Bronte, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, and the novel by Anne Bronte. Many homes in the area are places featuring in the novels or were homes of the Brontes or their friends. Dickens features many landmarks. You can do walking tours of London and see sites connected with famous authors, then read the books.

I often visit homes of famous authors. Or pick up the children's or adult's book set in the local area. In Australia I bought Snugglepot and Cuddlepie by their best selling author May Gibbs after visiting a museum about the author and the illustrations of Australian plants.

In the USA I bought books by Arthur Miller, Hemingway, Edgar Allen Poe, and Jack London.

But now here's a new concept. The book which you change by slipping in your location.

The idea of audience interaction dates back a long time. At the Canadian Expo in the sixties you could watch a performance of a play in which the audience voted. So if there were four times when you could vote there were - was it sixteen variations? I'll have to get a mathematics expert to help me on this one. Yes, my tame statistician confirms there are sixteen variations.

Now there's a pioneering story which changes the plot to include local landmarks in major cities. I'd like to change all my books to happy endings. Surprise endings and happy endings. I may not be with the majority on this. Women's magazines require short stories to have happy endings. But films and novels are different.

I think it was one of the great American novels by Hemingway, later made into a film, where studio audiences were shown two variation and asked to vote. To the surprise of the film producers the audiences chose the sad ending. More realistic? The Chinese like classic works to show grim reality. Not me. But I do like local landmarks on my literature.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-3172264/Is-ultimate-holiday-read-New-travel-book-uses-GPS-adapt-plot-include-nearby-landmarks.html

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