7 Best Cities for Book Lovers
Visit the places that inspired your favourite authors
ST. PETERSBURG, RUSSIA
A city of intrigue and beauty, the ‘Venice of the North’ was the setting for some of the greatest works of Russian fiction. Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment and Alexander Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin are both set here. However, it’s Dostoevsky and Pushkin themselves who provide the best reason to visit, with both of their former residences now museums.
DUBLIN, IRELAND
It’s only natural that the capital of the country with the gift of the gab produced some of the greatest writers in history. Home to James Joyce, W.B. Yeats and Samuel Beckett, Dublin is a literary Mecca. It was named a UNESCO City of Literature in 2010, testament to the fact that it has produced more Nobel Prize laureates for Literature than any other city. Today, fans of Joyce and others can get a taste of Dublin’s literary history by visiting the Dublin Writers Museum, the National Print Museum and the Abbey Theatre.
PARIS, FRANCE
Few cities in the world have inspired as many bons mots as the City of Lights. Many expat writers such as Henry Miller and Gertrude Stein left their home countries to lift their pens in Paris’s cafés. Paris’s homegrown talent is legendary as well. Tributes to Honoré
de Balzac, Voltaire and Jules Verne, among other giants of French literature, can be found throughout the city in its boulevards, memorials and cafés.
TOKYO, JAPAN
Japan’s capital boasts almost 1700 bookstores, more than any other city in the world. However, much of Japanese literature (beyond Haruki Murakami) remains unknown to outsiders. Tokyo’s International Literary Festival aims to change this. Wandering the backstreets of Tokyo will give you a glimpse into the world of literary greats such as Natsume Soseki, Yukio Mishima, Kobo Abe, Kenzaburo Oe and Banana Yoshimoto.
BOSTON, USA
Boston was home to some of the greatest literary minds of the 19th century. It attracted writers from abroad, and also produced its own legends. Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson lived and wrote in Boston, while expats Charles Dickens and Henry James were guests. The city has also been a backdrop for countless works, such as William Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury.
EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND
Edinburgh was UNESCO’s first City of Literature. The city’s narrative runs the gamut from philosophy (David Hume and
Adam Smith) to poetry (Robert Burns) to printing ( Encyclopaedia Britannica was first printed here). Next to Burns, its most famous literary natives are Robert Louis Stevenson and Sir Walter Scott. Local contemporary authors include Irvine Welsh, J.K. Rowling, Alexander McCall Smith, Iain Banks and Ian Rankin.
LONDON, ENGLAND
London’s reputation as a centre of literature needs no justification. From William Shakespeare to Dickens and Arthur Conan Doyle, London has played host to some of the most famous authors in the pantheon of English literature. The British Library stocks some 150 million items. Fans of the Bard can find a reconstruction of the iconic Globe Theatre, and 221B Baker Street is the real-life address of the fictional Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson.