BOOKPATHS

Sweden

Stieglarsson.com offers Millennium Trilogy maps of Stockholm and Hedeby.

Amsterdam, Netherlands

City-Lit series publisher Malcolm Burgess chooses "10 of the best books set in Amsterdam."

Madrid, Spain

David Farley discovers Ernest Hemingway's Madrid.

Hemingway is associated with a handful of places around the planet -- most notably Paris, Pamplona, Havana, Key West and Ketchum, Idaho, where he took his own life in July 1961.  But none may have held a warmer spot in his heart than Madrid, which he called 'the most Spanish of all cities,' referring to its diverse population from every region of the country.  He also titled a short story based in Madrid 'The Capital of the World.'

Egypt

"Celebrated novelist and political commentator," Ahdaf Souelf, "has the perfect way to support Egypt's revolution: come on holiday."

Probably the most immediate way for us to get back on our feet is to get tourism going. This is the moment for everyone who wishes the Egyptian revolution well to come and visit. Everyone who's interested in the great experiment we're living through should come and be part of it.

Barcelona, Spain

Matthew Tree chooses "10 of the best literary haunts in Barcelona."

Glen Ellen, California

Timothy Egan questions the proposed closure of Jack London State Historic Park.

It belongs to you and me — the ranch, the cottage, the pond, the stone scraps of an old winery — an inheritance that is now being dismantled. California created the state park idea with Yosemite in 1864, before it was a federal reserve; it is destroying it in 2011 with a plan to permanently close one-fourth of its parks.

 

Lake Geneva, Switzerland

Tony Perrottet visits "Lake Geneva as Shelley and Byron knew it."

Byron and Shelley got on famously and soon decided to rent adjacent summer houses in the hamlet of Cologny, about four miles north of Geneva. Byron took a grandiose villa with his doctor and servants, while Shelley, Mary and Claire settled into a more humble house by the lakefront.

London, England

Malcolm Burgess, publisher of the City-Lit series, chooses "10 of the best books set in London."

Sierra Leone

Author Aminatta Forna describes her encounter with "the Beggar King" in Sierra Leone.

There was much cheering and clapping. The Beggar King bowed, leapt from the wall and was gone. We followed the manager into the airport. An hour later a plane landed. We boarded it and left, some for ever.

 

Venice, Italy

Jonathan Jones believes that Invisible Cities, by Italo Calvino, is the "perfect guide to Venice."

He never mentions Venice, instead he describes all the other fantastic places he claims to have visited. But when Khan asks him to speak of Venice he replies: 'What else do you believe I have been talking to you about?'