21st Century Literature discussion

Has any book you read ever made you want to travel to a place that wasn't already on your radar? What was the book and what was the destination?

Recently The Adventures of China Iron by Gabriela Cabezón Cámara did that, I had Patagonia on the list for a long time but the nature descriptions in the novel are really impressive and makes you long for a trek through the pampas

I actually went to a place after reading a book about it:
Astoria: John Jacob Astor and Thomas Jefferson's Lost Pacific Empire: A Story of Wealth, Ambition, and Survival.

It helped that it was not terribly far from where I live. I took 2 weeks, and drove from Nevada to California and up the Oregon coast to Astoria, staying in bed & breakfasts along the way. Also did some hiking. It was a beautiful summer vacation.

Kamchatka

Tenochtitlan (now called Mexico City), thanks to Alvaro Enrigue

The Fens in Cambridgeshire after reading Waterland by Graham Swift . I'm completely beguiled and keep going back .

As a teenager I read North and South by Mrs Gaskell and moved to Manchester . Have lived less than an hour from the city ever since .

I'd love to go Finland and see Tove Jansson's island home

Ruben wrote: "Tenochtitlan (now called Mexico City), thanks to Alvaro Enrigue"

Good answer! It especially made me want to see it as it was in the 1600's.

Hester, I love your answer!

The Fat Woman Next Door is Pregnant led to a life-long obsession with a Montreal that no longer exists. The real Montreal is pretty nice to visit too though.

Thanks Emmeline . And I'm going to ferret out a copy of Michel Tremblay s novel . Sounds right up my street . I could also recommend Magnolia Street by Louis Golding followed by Five Silver Daughters written in the nineteen thirties and looking back at working class Cheetham Hill in Manchester . I'd forgotten all about it until you replied . Also the groundbreaking A Classic Slum by Robert Roberts that explores his own childhood at a similar time in Salford, Manchester. Some cities never leave you alone and part of the fun is living through the decades of transformation .

I'm reading a book that is doing exactly this (the Australian highlands); although I'm scared of spiders =/

Dusk

I recently read Latitudes of Longing and it really makes me want to visit South Asia especially the Andaman Islands