Living the Harry Potterlandia Dream....

I am just finishing up the Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone book for the first time. Indeed, until a couple weeks ago I had yet to jump on the HP bandwagon. This was not out of principle or smug defiance to a trend so much as my genuine disinterest in the fantasy fiction genre (the joke between Matt and I is that I steer clear of any book that begins with a map - luckily HP doesn't have that). Still, after taking a children and YA lit course this last semester and seeing it aligned with the "classics" like the delightful Winnie the Pooh, Anne of Green Gables and How to Eat Fried Worms I realized I was only cheating myself at this point. The time had come.

And what an inspiring place I live to commence my long-overdue read! I have long been keen on reading books relevant to the place where I live. I read The Grapes of Wrath while living in Oklahoma for a summer, The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate while living in Texas and Wallace Stegnar in Utah. It isn't just the Britishness of this book that makes it a timely read while in Edinburgh. Edinburgh is its birthplace to be sure. There are loads of HP references here. JK Rowling lives not far from the LDS church in the Polwarth area with a few collegues on "Writer's Block" and the Elephant House coffee shop gets all kinds of business since it was there that Rowling penned her first manuscripts of HP. Though the Elephant House uses the HP birthplace to enhance notoriety, not all places in Edinburgh are as appreciative of their involvement in the series. Many say that the impressive 5* Balmoral Hotel was not at all impressed with Rowling writing the message "Harry Potter was finished here..." on the bottom of a small figurine in the room when the 7th book was completed. Not to be trifled with, the Balmoral passed up the opportunity to make a themed room out of the event or even put the figurine up on something like eBay. Instead they promptly charged Rowling the price of the figure on her bill.

It is not just where the book was written that makes this a particularly fun read here in Edinburgh. There are loads of places which inspired different parts of the book and you happen upon them during a walk in all different areas of town. Just adjacent to the Elephant House is Greyfriar's Cathedral and Kirkyard which aside from being home of the heroic and anecdotal "Greyfriar's Bobby" it also contains graves of such recognizable characters as "William McGonagall", "Tom Riddle" and the like. What is particularly whimsical to me though is having views of Fettes College while making beds on the 3rd floor at the hotel where I work. After a good ariel view of the college, it is no wonder how a place like Hogwarts took shape. And in just a month's time, Matt and I will take a wee trip on the Jacobite steam train from Mallig to Fort William. Yes, this is the train that could be likened to Hogwart's Express, no 9 3/4 platforms necessary though....

So I am curious. What books should you be reading where you live? What inspiring places are around you that result in the imaginative or literary?