General settings I love
NYC - I don't have a single book in mind for this, just that I love NYC so books set there make me happy. Jack Finney's Time and Again covers both old and new New York, so you get a little variety. But I'm all for NYC as it is now and anything where I can think "I know that area" makes me smile.
Boston - speaking of knowing the area, after having lived in Boston for almost a decade I like books set there. I like knowing my way around the setting and little quirks of the neighborhoods that the author may not necessarily come right out and say. It's one of the reasons I think I enjoyed Mystic River by Dennis Lehane and All Souls by Michael Patrick McDonald so much.
Italy - Again with the knowing of the area. I didn't spend as much time here, but I fell in love with the place those four months I did live there and so I love anything taking place here. Almost to the point where I'll pick up Under the Tuscan Sun or Eat, Pray, Love. Almost. Instead I sate myself with Bryson's Italian travels in Neither Here Nor There
Specific settings I wish I could go to
Hogwarts from Harry Potter - It would be awesome to actually be able to do magic. And Hogwarts seems like a fun place to hang out, even if it's pretty unsuitable for children. There probably shouldn't be that many ways to die in a school but whatever.
Bookworld from the Thursday Next series - Notice the title? It's a world. Of books. How can that not be amazing? For those unfamiliar, Bookworld is literally a world where the characters from novels live. They reside primarily within their own book but can hop around and visit others, visit the seedy Well of Lost Plots, or even work for JurisFiction (yup, that's policing fiction).
Well, I came up with 5 settings anyway. I'm sure as I hop around I'll see some more and think "damn, I should have thought of that one".
What are your favorite book settings?
