Top Ten Tuesday: It's All About the Setting

 For this week's Top Ten Tuesday, the lovely ladies at The Broke and The Bookish have us  contemplating setting--all of the real or imaginary places we've loved reading about.

In no particular order, here are the first ten settings from novels that popped into my head when pondering this list:

1. Hogwarts (Harry Potter series)
It's a castle. With paintings that speak to you. And secret rooms that have requirements. And staircases that change their layouts. And turrets. It's just SO COOL.

2. Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women (Gallagher Girls series)
I want to go to spy school. Real bad.

3. Pemberley (Pride and Prejudice)
It's grand. It's opulent. It houses Mr. Darcy. It could be a freakin' shack, and if Mr. Darcy lived in it, I would go to there.

4. Any book set in Nineteenth-Century London
Obsessed. It's sort of an issue. I spend far too much time thinking about nineteenth-century London.

5. Any book set in London
Let's be honest. If it's set in London, I'll read it.

6. Claudia's Room (Baby-sitter's Club series)
When I was younger and thoroughly obsessed with this series (I definitely wrote fan letters to Ann M. Martin) I thought Claudia's room was just the best place ever. It seemed so comfy and warm and inviting. And there were always snacks.

7. Cassie Clare's New York City (The Mortal Instruments series)
I think the way Cassandra Clare uses New York City is brilliant. Not only does she capitalize on real places in the city as set pieces, but she changes your perception of them. Never again will I go to Central Park and think of the pond as just a pond.

8. Narnia (The Chronicles of Narnia series)
I was sooo in love with these books as a kid. I should probably re-read them. But I remember being so struck by the detail of the world C.S. Lewis created that I would find myself writing short stories where I would make up characters that would find the wardrobe in present day and climb through to find Narnia. Yeah. I did that.

9. Radar's House (Paper Towns)
 This is maybe the most awesome, most hysterical, most random set piece in a book EVER. I love it. I love John Green for thinking of it. And I really hope that somewhere, Radar's house exists. 

10. The Hundred Acre Wood (The Adventures of Winnie the Pooh)
This is basically the happiest place I can think of. And there's a new Winnie the Pooh MOVIE coming out NEXT MONTH! Wheeeeee!

Bonus: I've always thought it'd be fun to have characters from one very particular genre of book be placed into another very different genre of book--like taking the characters from Pride and Prejudice and  dropping them into Middle Earth or something. I guess that's more of a mash-up type of thing, and that it probably exists somewhere, but I definitely think it'd be fun to read.

Did I miss your favorite setting? Let me know what it is in comments!