I am recently back from a work trip and short vacation in the same area, and I am reminded once again of the statement I decided on almost a decade ago: Read Locally.
This doesn’t have to mean that the author is from a local place, though it can. What I mean in this case is that the book is about the place you are visiting, the place you are in, or the place you mean to be in shortly.
I had the privilege of visiting Malta many years ago, and before going, I read three different books on the island: two nonfiction and one fiction. When we arrived, city names had meaning to me, the hills we walked on had history to me, and when I saw the city of Valletta, I felt a connection to its history and understood why it looked the way it did, a connection I hadn’t even felt about my own hometown.
I was reminded of this most recently in New Orleans, where I had my short stay. When I picture New Orleans, a cavalcade of images trots out across my mind. The colors of Mardi Gras, of course, wrought iron balconies, and walkable streets all jostle about. The sounds of jazz music coming out of every corner bar and a city that wakes up starting at nightfall all come to mind. All of it is nestled in a swamp, surrounded on all sides by a pressing morass that wants to swallow the city whole but never does.
And in so many ways, New Orleans is exactly what I pictured it to be. But I hadn’t read ahead—not directly, that is. Many fantasy novels and urban fantasies take place in a city like it, given its rich background, cultural diversity, and plethora of real-world characters to draw on. But I hadn’t read any nonfiction until I arrived. Our hotel had a book on the table, Unfathomable City by Rebecca Solnit and Rebecca Snedeker. It was an atlas that displayed the city from different viewpoints—22 viewpoints, if I recall. I managed to get through about half in my time there, and it was fantastic. Even that little dribble of local knowledge made our time in the city feel more real. It reminded me that we need to read locally.
Don’t wait for a far-flung vacation to do it either. Read about your local area, your town, your state, or your country. Find a book that interests you and makes the reality around you more vivid and gives it more depth.
Ask around for local authors, and you might just find one willing to share their experience and their knowledge.
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