Books I'd Like To Live In by Louise Wykes

Hello my name is Louise Wykes and I can be found lurking on Twitter at @jaustenrulesok and I am delighted to be invited to the gorgeous and talented Simona’s blog to tell you about the books I’d love to live in.

Firstly, like many people, of course I’d like to inhabit the magical world of the Harry Potter books and to have wonderful spells at my disposal but here are a couple more books I’d like to jump right into if I could.

I have a brother and adore him but I’ve always felt like I’ve missed out on having a sister, someone to confide in and laugh with and swap clothes with so would love the chance to live with the March family in Little Women by Louisa May Alcott,  presided over by the wise and wonderful Marmee.  Even though the sisters go through tough times, they get through them together and get up to all kinds of fun putting on plays and having adventures.

Next, I adored the warm loving world of Avonlea as described in Anne of Green Gables by L M Montgomery.  Anne loved books and talking (not like me at all!!) and she had wonderful adventures, laughter and tears with the friends she made in childhood.  I also loved how the books followed Anne through her childhood, then her  teens and right through until she became a mother herself so felt as if I really knew Anne.

Aside from books, I adore chocolate so would love the chance to go and explore Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl.  What wonderful times could be had travelling along the chocolate river and trying to find the Oompah Loompahs.   I would love to try the three course chewing gum although not sure I would want to meet Augustus Gloop or Verucca Salt!!

Looking back on the books I’d like to live in I am struck by the fact that the worlds I’d like to inhabit are filled with warmth, love and family and that sometimes the best adventures that can be had are when you’re with the ones you love.

Many thanks to Simona for having me on her fantastic blog and thinking about chocolate has made me wonder where did I put those Ferrero Rocher?!

Books You'd Like To Live In by Tay Pickering

Hey everyone my name is Tay and you can find me at chicksthatread.com and today I am so happy to be featured on Sky’s Book Corner doing a guest post with an amazing subject.

I think this is a wonderful subject for a guest post, and there is so many fabulous books that create amazing and awe inspiring settings that you just want to lose yourself in them. For example, Harry Potter, how many of us wish we could be eleven all over again and find that beautiful acceptance letter by our front door, I know I would. My favourite thing about reading is that you travel not only the world but an author’s imagination, you can be in a Hollywood mingling with superstars and divas, and the next you are in a magical forest surrounded with wolves and vampires, you really can live a thousand lives by simply picking up a book, and that is why I love reading.

Now Rebecca Raisin’s Gingerbread Café series is one of my top picks, the series is set in Ashford Connecticut where there is beautiful quaint shops with a gossipy and fabulous cast of characters, my favourite shop being the bookshop, run by Sarah Smith the loveable bookworm who loves books just as much as I do. The reason I love this setting is because growing up in a small community in Yorkshire I always loved the feeling that everyone knew each other and everyone had their own place. It also helps there is the Gingerbread Café where I could enjoy delicious treats and good coffee YUM! With romance, friendship and laughter filling this beautiful town it almost feels like it never followed suit with the rest of the world it remained a classic American town.

My second top pick is a book that I only recently got my hands on and I haven’t even finished it yet but I have completely fallen in love with the setting. Break in Two by M J Summers is set just outside Colorado Springs on a ranch. Yes a bloody ranch, with cowboys that have heart melting smiles and rock hard abs, the ranch has a Jacuzzi and luxury cabins and I just want to go take a holiday there and spend my time watching the men chop wood and ride horses, selfish I know but come on a little eye candy never hurt anybody.

Finally I have to pick Lisa Dickenson’s You Had Me At Merlot, it comes in four parts and each part is to die for. Best friends Elle and Laurie are the last ladies in their group who are single, Laurie is tired of it and drags Elle all the way to Tuscany to a vineyard that’s built for singles, if you haven’t read it yet you are seriously missing out, and it’s bloody hilarious. Anyway the reason I want to live in Tuscany is pretty simple to be honest, beautiful backdrops and wine, easily pleased hand me a glass of wine and let me watch the sunset and I am a happy woman, not only that Lisa Dickenson describes it so vividly I felt like I was tasting the wine and squashing grapes barefoot  and now it’s on my bucket list, I also have a really bad urge to ride around on a pink Vespa with expensive sunglasses and ridiculous hat, I don’t really know why, I just do.

So they are my  favourite books that I want to live in, the reason I haven’t chosen any supernatural or magical books is because honestly I couldn’t be bothered saving the world right now, I mean I have to do the school run in the morning.

Thanks for having me Simona

Happy Reading Lovelies

Tay

Xoxo

Books I'd Like To Live In by Jenny Duffy

“Books have to be heavy because the whole world's inside them.”

Inkheart is a book I read years ago, but it has always stayed with me and I have re-read it many times since. It is one of those books that I vividly remember reading the first time. It is a book I would recommend to any book lover – it is about characters being read out of books and into the real world, and every chapter starts with a quote from a book. Inkheart is a magical fantasy adventure, and is one of my favourite books. I love Inkspell, especially getting to see the Inkworld the characters in the first book came from. And the thought of being able to read yourself into a book is so amazing! The wait for Inkdeath, the final book in the trilogy, was agonising...I think it was the first time I experienced waiting years for a book to come out. When I got a proof copy in my local bookshop to review, I screamed with delight. So, the Inkworld is the world I have chosen  for this post, although there are so many fictional worlds I would love to live in (I’m still hoping my Hogwarts letter will turn up!). I will avoid talking much about the plot, I don’t want to ruin any of the wonderful suspense for those who haven yet to read the book!

The first glimpse we get of the Inkworld is in Inkspell. Meggie and Farid arrive in the Wayless Wood, a beautiful, light-filled place: ‘carpets of moss, pools of cool water, flowers and sweet berries everywhere, trees growing up to the sky, and the voices of their leaves speaking to the wind above you.’ The Inkworld seems to glisten in the descriptions, I found myself wishing I could read myself there as the characters had! Even without the fairies and the magic, the Inkworld seems like an enchanting place I would love to live in – forests, castles, sparkling lakes, bustling medievalesque towns.

Yes, it is a dark and dangerous place, but it is also a world of fire-eaters, glassmen and fairies, a world where reading has power. This intrigue and adventure is what made the books so gripping, and the magic is one of the main reasons I would love to live in the Inkworld. But I’m not sure how well I would cope with many of Meggie’s adventures in the Inkworld...I definitely wouldn’t fancy my chances against Mortola or Basta!

A movie of Inkheart was released in 2008, but (in my opinion) the books are much better! If you haven’t read the trilogy yet I would highly recommend it. Cornelia Funke has said she may write another book about the Inkworld, so even if I can’t visit the Wayless Wood or The Castle of the Night in person hopefully I will be reading about them again before long...

Thank you so much Simona for having me on your blog, I loved the series idea. If I work out a way for us all to read ourselves into books I will let you know!

My blog address is: http://thebookstheartandme.wordpress.com

Twitter: @Jenny_books_art

Books I’d Like To Live In by Charlotte Foreman

The above title suggests that I know precisely which books I’d like to live in . . . but I don’t. How can I possibly make such a decision?

If you gave me 10 seconds on the clock, off the top of my head I could name you at least 20 books I’d like to declare squatters’ rights over, and 10 minutes later I would have thought of a 100 more. For now though I’ll just give you my top five:

Harry Potter

An obvious choice, I know, so I’ll keep it brief:

Who wouldn’t want to live at Hogwarts with a prodigy boy-wizard, the female Einstein of spells and the most adorable ginger kid in the world? No one, that’s who.

Twilight

I was more than a little obsessed with the saga, and still hold out hope that I may one day get to visit “the wettest place in the continental US” aka Forks.

See, I hate rain on a level very few people can comprehend. I despise the feeling of damp clothes, holding an umbrella makes I arm ache, everyone is miserable and it ruins my hair (I’m not being vain, but imagine your hair being ironed flat to your face and that’s what I look like if my hair isn’t blow dried). Appalling weather aside, I would love to hang around acting all Bella-esque, looking moody, constantly gasping and whatnot, watching out for sparkly vamps and man-boys to turn into oversized wolves.

Kiss Chase

Whenever I write about my favourite books, Kiss Chase always gets a mention.

I long to be one of Phoebe and Felix’s friends, part of their motely crew, who mostly appeared to be hilariously drunk for most of the story - no one writes a drunk better than Fiona Walker. Fact. I want to be in that bar when Felix walks into the tune of ‘Fever.’ I want to shake some sense into Phoebe and urge her to face up to Saskia. But most of all . . . I want to be at the murder mystery party because it sounds like the best fun ever!

The Keepers Series

Being a huge fan of NA, paranormal and romance reads, Rae Rivers serves up Heaven on a plate for me with her Keepers series.

I adored everything in these books and I’d like nothing better than to see the Beckham grounds in real life, as well as being one of the protected Beckham witches. Although maybe without the life-threatening situations, as I’m a bit of a wimp.

Beautiful Disaster/Walking Disaster

Oh the emotions, the angst and so many more feelings all contained within this one book. While I’m not too keen to be on the receiving end of all these emotions, I’ve love to be a spectator to the epic love story that is Abby and Travis.  

Books I Would Like To Live In by Jo Hurst

I would like to thank Simona for giving me a chance to do this guest post.  When she sent the tweet asking about books we would like to live, I immediately thought oh I know what I can write about.  Once I sat down to write I thought, oh no this isn’t that easy, so you will have to bear with me haha.

I would love to be in any of Holly Martins books as she creates such wonderful characters, I must single out The Guestbook as this was really well written but also sounded absolutely lovely place to visit.

Where else would I like to live, well I would love to live in Dallas with Aven Ellis’s Dallas demons heros, Nate being a particular favourite of mine, I would love to be able to go and watch a Ice Hockey game and cheer on someone I loved playing the game.

If I was to go on holiday in a book it would be with Eve from Travel2gether, Eve is the main character in Elaine Spires Singles Holiday books, in these books I have been to Antigua (gorgeous sounding place), India sounds amazing but I’m not really sure I would like to visit and in the Christmas edition Elaine takes you to Essex.

There are so many other books I would like to live in but I’m sure you don’t want to here me going on about them.

Jo xx