I have just been looking at a new literary website for travellers, www.literarytourist.com. It looks like a great site with lots of interesting information for the travelling bibliophile with information on bookstores, literary landmarks, festivals, rare book libraries, etc.This site seems to have lots of information. Unfortunately, to get past the initial listings, you have to buy a yearly membership for $24.95.

I performed my usual litmus test and searched local information i.e. Alberta and found many of our local literary organizations. Unfortunately, they missed the Community Heritage and Family History Room at Calgary Public Library when they were talking about rare book libraries and special collections.

You can find pieces of the information on this site with an online search. For instance, I found Bookstore Guide, an amateur guide to shopping throughout Europe, and Literary Festival Central, which lists literary events.

You can also find a wealth of information about literary landmarks for free through your Calgary Public Library. The following are just some of the great titles that will guide you on your literary travels.

"From the charming city of Bath, featured in Jane Austen's Persuasion, to the Amazon of Mario Vargas Llosa's La Casa Verde, this unique travel guide brings you to the places you've only read about. Whether you want to learn more about a destination or follow in the footsteps of a favorite character, Reading on Location helps you make the most of your trip." (Syndetics)

In National Geographic's Literary Traveler Series, well-known authors offer insights into places which are signigicant to them.

Into a Paris Quartier: Reine Margot's Chapel and Other Haunts of St.-Germain - "Acclaimed author Diane Johnson brings to life the legendary St.-Germain-des-Pres quarter of Paris--her adoptive home for many years--with riveting stories that explain its continued mystique in the heart of the world's most alluring city." (Syndetics)

Imagined London: a tour of the world's greatest fictional citiy - "Novelist and Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Quindlen indulges her love of London with a short but satisfying tour of the real and the imagined city. Though she has visited London innumerable times in the pages of literature, she did not make her first real trip there until 1995. Here, she takes the reader with her as she discovers her imagined London and recalls the pages and places of writers from Shakespeare and Dickens to Kathleen Winsor, Martin Amis, and Zadie Smith." (Library Journal)

Search "literary travel" as a series to find other books on other locations.

Other great reads that you can find at the library are:

To find more fascinatilng books on literary tourism, search "literary travel" or "literary landmarks" in our catalogue. Happy travelling!!