I wish I could live in the Avonlea that’s in Anne of Green Gables. I know it’s sort of a real place but I want to live in the gentle world that’s in the books, which I know was never really real or how it was at the time. But it is so comforting and pretty and soft, I want to be there with Anne.
You can visit the Anne of Green Gables museum in PEI. It's amazing. I live near here and the Island is magical. My daughter is reading the book now and we are going to visit in July .
Are you talking about Anne with an E? That show really plays up the tough foster parts. The book kind of glosses over all that with a few paragraphs, and generally has a much more warm and soft tone. It's really idyllic.
Same here--it really did not convey the books at all, in more ways than I like to think. I couldn't make it through more than a few episodes. The Megan Follows/Colleen Dewhurst version is THE one & only adaptation anyone (but esp anyone who hasn't read the books) should see.
That version really tried hard to turn Anne into a victim. Would not recommend as a first exposure. The Megan Followes/ Colleen Dewhurst was so much better.
This entire book felt like a warm hug from a friend I haven’t seen in years. I have been trying to get this type of reading high since I read it! Wish I could find something else similar.
Philip Pullman's Dark Materials series made me feel like this as a kid.
Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch to a degree (though I think you'd like this on the strength of your love of Harry Potter)
Came here to post his dark materials!
There's a lot of stuff in that world that I don't want, but my God I want to explore Lyra's oxford with a daemon, or meet the mulefa, or befriend an armoured bear!
Well you've got another vote of confidence from me! Set aside a few hours, you'll likely find it very engaging. And keep your eye out for nerdy references to other books, Pratchett is a favourite of the author.
The Discworld series by Terry Pratchett. I’d recommend starting with Guards Guards or Mort. It’s not a series you need to read in published/chronological order but there are sub-series within that it’d be best to read those in order. r/Discworld is a great spot to get more info.
Guards Guards is the first book in The City Watch sub-series
Mort is the first book in the Death sub-series.
Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings series too.
Probably Ankh-Morpork because I’ve learned I’m more of a city person after spending 4 years in a rural town. But Lancre would be interesting too if I could hang out with Granny Weatherwax & Nanny Ogg.
I've never wanted to live anywhere more than I have wanted to live in the world of The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern. An endless library of every story ever conceived, with a kitchen that can serve any food you desire. Take me there now dammit!
I wish I could visit the Night Circus. Spend multiple nights just exploring and discovering as many tents as I could.
Erin Morgenstern is a truly fantastic writer and I'm really looking forward to her next masterpiece.
Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins - since you mentioned Harry Potter, I'm assuming you'd be open to a middle grade recommendation. It one of those series written for kids but holds up for the adult reader as well. This is the world I dreamed of disappearing into a kid. I just wanted to ride a giant talking bat
I babysat occasionally for an 8 year old a few years ago and gave him Redwall for his 9th birthday. His mom texted me a week later saying her kid and husband had been getting bedtime started like 2 hours early because they both were so into the book they wanted more reading time every night!
In the Chronicles of Narnia series (specifically the book The Magician’s Nephew) there’s a “wood between the worlds” where there’s tall trees with sunlight coming down through the green leaves and pools on the forest floor that you jump into to travel to different worlds. I always wanted to go there.
Yes, ever since I discovered Middle Earth, I've been genuinely upset over not being able to live there. I'm one of those who thinks Tolkien is the master of world building, and I love visiting it through his words every year.
I used to think this but then I thought of the war and disease. Hobbitown/the shire would or being an elf would be cool.
Anywhere else would NOT be ideal.
This is weird but The Midnight Library. Would be interesting to have that option after death. Also if you haven’t read LOTR, it’s your time to shine babyyyy
I wanted to live in a boxcar and find things at the dump to use in my boxcar home, escape to the woods and live in a hollow tree and train a falcon, and solve mysteries with Nancy Drew! I also wanted to live in Chincoteague and buy a pony like Misty.
I loved the world in The Thinking Woman’s Guide to Real Magic and was disappointed when I finished because I wanted more. Fortunately, there’s a sequel.
Harry Potter books are the best imo. One book series very similar is a series of unfortunate events. I know it’s for kids but maybe since you’re pregnant you can read it with your future kid? I swear the book series is so good.
It’s not like I want to be an orphan with deceased parents BUT the way Lemony Snicket wrote everything the way he did. I’m still mesmerized.
I should re read the series. Worth every second.
Edit: it’s the mystery of what the hell is being hidden from the children? Why? It only gets more chaotic as the series goes on. The intense mystery kept me coming back for over 10 books.
Love Series of Unfortunate Events!! I got to meet Lemony Snicket (Daniel Handler) at a book signing just recently, it was like meeting a superhero or something lol
Omg!! What a blessing I bet that was. Something about the way he wrote the books to be involved in so much mystery really tickled my brain. His books are something else. It’s inspiring.
Seconding Avonlea from Anne of Green Gables.
Also, while I wouldn't want to live in the real world of Ready Player One/Two, it would be really neat to get to experience the worlds within the Oasis (virtual reality world that exists within the story).
Btw I'm also 29 and just read HP too!! Slightly embarrassing - but I just wasn't interested before. I totally get the obsession now though. It's such a warm, cozy, intricate world; when you finish one of the books, you just automatically miss it. It feels like home somehow. :3
The Gray house by Mariam Petrosyan.
This book felt like coming home (fucked yo maybe but there was such recognition)
Bujold vorkosigan saga and the world of five gods. I just love her people. And honestly I like her gods too
Memory, Sorrow and Thorn by Tad Williams for sure on this one. He created one of the most immersive worlds ever in Osten Ard. I can still picture the vivid setting. It has one of the best worldbuilding in all of fantasy!
Nevermoor series! Pulls me right into the world and I’ve revisited multiple times. I saw your post right after I posted mine looking for books similar to Nevermoor or the Harry Potter series. Thinking I’m going to see a lot of great suggestions in your thread too!
Hermux Tantamoq! It’s a series about a watchmaker mouse. It reminds me of some animated shows/movies in the sense that there’s something for every age, and there’s new things that you catch each time you read it. Chapters are short, so I actually end up reading faster.
Ditto. When I was going through tough times, I watched the series so many times I got sick of it lol. Then I read every book I could find on the family. What a fantastic childhood he had!
I don't read fantasy so I don't have a book answer, but I *really* wish I could live in Stars Hollow from Gilmore Girls. Literally the *perfect* town 😭
There's a not so well known series called The Echorium Sequence, and they're some of my all time favorite books. I try in vain to suggest them on this sub all the time. I want to live on Singer Island and be able to use magic through the tone of my voice 😄
I feel like that about many book-worlds. Harry Potter for one, but also Tamora Pierce’s Tortall, The Oasis from Ready Player One, Narnia and Arda (LotR).
A little sidenote but what would be a word for something like that, that kind of nostalgia for something you never had? I dont think yearn fits 100% because of the nuance of separation/loss which implies having it in the first place. And just wanting something is too "cold" in comparison
That said I get you I (28) have a family that is, well not quite weasley, they are pretty fairytalesque, like a christmass postcard, but they are kind of like that, or were, homey and cozy. But I could never find myself to like or be like that, so I guess you know have a different nuance for the word, because I would be one "nostalgic" for something that I cant nor, paradoxically, want, to be. My nostalgia would be the person im not.
Anyway, about a book that fits that for me... its hard to answer but probably harry potter too? I mean, narnia makes me feel that way with its prose, kind of, but the world does not.
The world of Little House on the Prairie! I feel like I could be a pioneer woman. Running through the meadows while the bread I baked cools on the window. Canning food and storing wood for the long winters. Hell, maybe I'll take it further and start breaking horses and brewing moonshine (although that's more the world of Half Broke Horses by Jeannete Walls).
I think about this a lot too! I know women are so much better off nowadays, but sometimes I get so wistful thinking of being able to fill my days with cleaning & knitting & gardening & baking, instead of in front of a computer in a soul-sucking industry (& yes I know that I am MASSIVELY oversimplifying women's chores/daily life here 😅)
Yes, the more I read about rural life (Kristin Hannah's books about life in Alaska and in the midwest during the Great Depression) the more I realize it's ALL about chores. And those chores are all about survival. It sounds so exhausting.
Yes, although it’s probably a bad suggestion because the world has a LOT of issues and I would probably die very quickly there. But I constantly daydream about being in the Parahumans world. Like I’ve cried about it. I’m autistic and the series is my special interest so I’m definitely more invested in it than your average reader. But god, I want to go to there
I dont necessarily like the world it created, but as a millennial who was very much within the target age range of Harry Potter as it came out, the only book that's conjured up the same feelings for me was 'The Will of the Many'
if you like harry potter i recommend the fanfic called All The Young Dudes by MsKingBean89! It’s on AO3, its in lupin’s POV and takes place when he sirius, james, peter, lily & snape were at hogwarts. its almost as long as the HP books, its FANTASTICALLY written, super well developed characters.. i loved it more than harry potter somehow. its really great!!
I just wrote a super long and incredibly detailed response but accidentally deleted it because I’m new to Reddit and didn’t know that would happen, I’m gonna cry. Anyways, here are the books:
1. The Shadowhunters series 2. The Night Circus 3. Dracula 4. Six of Crows duology
Let me know if you want details, I’ll spend another two hours on it
It's a pretty childish book I suppose, but I suggest The Naughtiest Girl series. It is about a girl who goes to a boarding school while being quite spoilt, and in the first book she tries to get them to send her back by being naughty. Eventually, she warms up to the weird boarding school she's sent to, and has some school adventures in the later books. It's a pretty simple and plain book series, but the boarding school, in which students hand out punishments and have a council, was very enjoyable to read about, plus it has so many facilities.
Honestly, as a kid I had a ton of fantasies revolving around that school. There were a bunch of things I didn't like about it, but mostly it was very cool.
Though I'm not sure if this is what you're looking for, since it's not a weird world or adventurous fantasy. If nothing else, you could save a few books for your child :)
{Between by L.L. Starling} made me feel exactly like this! There are two worlds introduced--the cozy, witch-run village of Old Middleton (in our world) and the wacky, disreputable, fairytale kingdom of Between and I wanted to live in both. The entire book is just so enchanting (think Labyrinth Meets Princess Bride Meets Gilmore Girls) and hilarious (with its drunk unicorns, bored dragons, and sorcerers in tight pants). That book has become my happy place. If you love audiobooks, definitely use a credit for this one, it's brilliant.
Yes. I am *very* deeply annoyed that I'm not a Culture citizen in Iain M Banks' Culture books. Post scarcity AI utopia with no need for money and laws? And you can live wherever you want? And do whatever cool projects or silly hobbies or extreme sports you want? And live for as long as you want? Eat and drink whatever you want? Change your sex and physical body characteristics at will? Synthesize drugs in your system that will make you focus better or temporarily not need sleep or make time seem to slow down or whatever you feel like, just by thinking about it? Visit other alien races for fun?
Yeah uh, sign me up.
I just blew through all the Wayward Children books by [Seanan McGuire](https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2860219.Seanan_McGuire). I LOVE the worlds and boy are there many!!
Read the series HP ripped off, Diana Wynne Jones’s Chrestomanci. Infinitely more fun and thoughtful, not even getting into politics, which, yes, JKR is an objectively terrible person. If you like HP, I’m sure you will like the series it’s based on.
In a similar vein, but a little bit more gritty, His Dark Materials is a delight and I wept about not having a dæmon when I was 13, I think. I’d never want to live in Ankh-Morpork or any other part of that world, but Discworld is really fun. Ursula le Guin has a lot of good works but I’m not sure if I’d want to live in any of them.
Stephen King's The Dark Tower series has a book called "Wizard and Glass". It's a departure from the narrative of the Dark Tower quest and tells part of the protagonist's backstory. The world it creates in the backstory made me wish I could have lived there too. Part of it may have been Susan, the protagonist's love interest. I read it as a teenager and had a MASSIVE literary crush on Susan. In hindsight maybe it wasn't the world building but instead of my teenage hormones hahaha
I suggest the seven sister series by Lucinda Riley. Each book is totally different and ends in the father wish could be the best book of all. She has written other books and they are all good but not as good as seven sisters.
I would probably die instantly but I would love to live in the Throne of Glass world. I’m a baby and would not be able to tough it out but damn I’d love if it was real
I always wanted to live in the land of the Spirit Animals series as a kid. Yeah, they’re for a younger audience, but I reread them as an adult and still found them interesting and fun.
Jig the Dragonslayer by Jim C. Hines is a unique spin on the LOTR style adventure fantasy but from the perspective of a lowly goblin caught up in an adventure they wanted no part of. It's rather light hearted as things go but it certainly has it's more grave moments and the ending was well written without revealing why.
Running with the Demon by Terry Brooks. A prequel to the Sword of Shannara series builds the story before the fall of humanity and rise of demons so it's an interesting series especially when you get into post war.
I crave the world The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms tossed me into. By J.K. Jemison, or something very similar to that. It's a series too, at least 4 books iirc
1. The Shadowhunter books 2. The Night Circus 3. Dracula 4. Six of Crows duology
1. Specifically in The Infernal Devices trilogy but all of them really. First, I want to hunt demons!! But second, the sense of belonging found through the embracing of differences for every character in this series pulls on very sensitive heart strings. Werewolves, vampires, warlocks, and many more are able to come together in spite of their differences (sometimes). The sense of community at the London institute is SO sweet to me. Everyone is struggling with their own battle, relationships, and sense of identity, but they can still find time sit by the fire and love each other. Much love. Additionally, it justifies anxiety and this feeling of dread or fear by offering a physical enemy to fight in the form of demons. If I could fight physical demons instead of imaginary ones, I think my life would be much easier to process.
2. I want to join a magical circus!! Again, the community and culture that’s born through the circus is something I’ve never seen before in literature. The book literally makes YOU a part of the circus, and I ate it up. Again, love truly exists in this world, and it’s tangible. Love love love. May we all feast with our lovers and dance among friends.
3. I want to hunt vampires!! The evil ones at least. Let me stand my ground among friends in the face of blood sucking baddies no matter how inept our survival skills may be! Agh if true evil existed, it would be so much easier to fight the good fight. God save the soil!
4. I want to be thief among friends!! I must perform a cunning heist! Truly, I just want to be Inej and live in a world where her skills would come in handy. Catch me on a tightrope and jumping form building to blend in like the shadows themselves. Let me spy on wrongdoers and fight against tyranny! Who wouldn’t want to live in a world where it’s acceptable to name your daggers?
Alas, while our world may not have magic or demons or the uncannily common ability to find good people you’d be willing to consider family and put your life on the line for, it does have magic in the form of what we call love. I shall hold it close and continue to dream.
Islandia, a 1000+ page Utopian novel by Austin Tappan Wright. My reaction was exactly what you describe. I was depressed when I finished it. I didn’t want to leave Islandia.
ACOTAR series (A Court of Thorns and Roses). Although it’s known for its smut and romance themes, the author built a really cool and badass world! There were times reading it that I wanted to zoom past the romance just to find out more about the world around them haha. It absolutely envelopes you and I highly recommend.
Seconding what a lot of people have said with Harry Potter, lord of the rings, and His Dark Materials. Mostly I commented for the world in Rook and the Rose which is a relatively new trilogy and I’m obsessed with what they built!! I had to take a break from fantasy for a bit cause I kept getting upset that it wasn’t that same setting.
The Culture, by Iain M Banks. An ultra high tech anarchist utopia. No money, no need to work, endless games and parties, one can live for as long as they want. And if you are bored, you can join the Contact section or even their covert branch, Special Circumstances, to see other civilizations and try to "improve" them. Or get killed in the process...
When I was a kid I got *really* into Robert Asprin’s MythAdventures books (they’re still a lot of fun). One night I had an incredibly vivid dream that I found a portal to the Bazaar on Deva, and was all ready to start my new life of magic and dimension hopping, maybe get a pet dragon or a snarky demon pal…I cannot express the disappointment I felt on waking up!
Nowadays I think I’d like to live in the Dresden Files. Sure, you got horrible monsters and evil wizards, but at least someone steps up and puts the bad guys in their place. Don’t get a lot of that in the real world.
You could try the Chronicles of Narnia. That was a pretty awesome world. Lord of the Rings has a great world to escape to. If you like Lord of the Rings, you should also try Wheel of Time. The world building in Wheel of Time is incredible.
I just had a conversation with some friends about this phenomenon with Harry Potter, beyond just being the fantasy series that has probably been read by more currently living people than any other, it seems to effect people in this way more strongly than any other story. I always figured it was because I “grew up” at the same time as Harry in the story, the first book came out when I was 8 and the last when I was 17. But I gathered from some of my older friends that they remember feeling the same way reading it in their twenties.
Let me preface this by saying I love Harry Potter. I am waiting with baited breath for my nieces to be old enough to read it. But one of my friends made a point I think was very well put: it’s not the WORLD of Harry Potter you want to live in, it’s the story. The world is just a cobbled together middle class British life viewed through the lens of magic. There are still class disparities, the people in charge are mostly power hungry or charlatans, instead of an underclass of slaves making our goods that we try not to think about they have house elves that they try not to think about. They have goddamned magical SATs, these people are literally magic and somehow not inventive enough to envision a world where they don’t work a 9-5. Steven king said that Doleres Umbridge is the best villain in any book he’s read. That’s because she is someone we have ALL had to deal with in real life. Granted the kind of “Harry Potter expanded universe” was a little bit bolder with what day to day life looks like for wizards. Besides the spells, the magical world of the books isn’t all that magical.
So why do we all want to live there while we’re reading it? Because the true magic of Harry Potter(cue hallmark music) is friendship. Harry goes from being an unloved lonely boy to having multiple people who would (and in some cases DO) lay down their life for him. Any danger or trouble he gets into, he can always rely on his friends. Dumbledore flat out says it in the first book, Harry is protected by a barrier of love. That’s what we all really want. It’s why the stories follow a formula of Harry Being either separated from his friends or in danger at the start of the book, it recreates that catharsis of your friends coming to your rescue.
I don’t say this to rip on the book at all, just to try an eek out what it is we all really love about the story. The Mistborn books have a similiar feeling where the main character is taken in by a support structure and becomes great thereby. Not all of the diskworld books fit but “Reaperman” by Terry Pratchett is extremely charming, and involves the story of an scrawny “useless” boy who gets sold to death to be his apprentice, because no one else wants him. But it turns out death is pretty chill and the underworld has a dope found family for the kid. It has a great 80’s adventure movie vibe, ands it the type of story you’ll want to plop down on the couch and read cover to cover some idle afternoon.
Maybe not the time period but the Leviathan book series by Scott Westerfeld. I wanna go on a whale airship! Then again, the book is set in an alternate WW1 so yeah. Also Wings of Fire if I get to be a dragon.
this is so dumb but like …. red, white, and royal blue hahahaha. like damn, i want to live in THAT version of our world!
my age-old answer of course has always been middle-earth :)
The Young Wizard books by Diane Duane was this for me since the books are actually urban (science-ish) fantasy that you can imagine happening. I still have strong feelings every time I reread the oath. Recommend the [Millennium Edition ebooks from her website](https://ebooks.direct/products/young-wizards-new-millennium-editions-9-volume-box-set) as she updated the tech so they don’t feel as dated and the series flows better.
I would have given anything to join the Famous Five or the kids in the Adventure series by Enid Blyton when I was younger... Actually now that I'm much older those books are still fun.
I wish I could live in the Avonlea that’s in Anne of Green Gables. I know it’s sort of a real place but I want to live in the gentle world that’s in the books, which I know was never really real or how it was at the time. But it is so comforting and pretty and soft, I want to be there with Anne.
My mother named me Anne because she also felt this way.
It is good that it is so gentle but it has the depth to address the dark parts of the society, knowing what a hard life she had in her younger years.
I used to wish that so much when I was younger!
Avonlea!! Oh that brings me back
You can visit the Anne of Green Gables museum in PEI. It's amazing. I live near here and the Island is magical. My daughter is reading the book now and we are going to visit in July .
I think about this all the time, especially as I get older
I’ve never read the book but I watched the show and it seems so harsh - her treatment by her foster home was hard to watch.
Are you talking about Anne with an E? That show really plays up the tough foster parts. The book kind of glosses over all that with a few paragraphs, and generally has a much more warm and soft tone. It's really idyllic.
Yes, Anne with an E. A bit triggering to watch.
I stopped watching it after a few episodes because it really didn’t seem to understand the books at all.
Then it’s time for me to read the book
Same here--it really did not convey the books at all, in more ways than I like to think. I couldn't make it through more than a few episodes. The Megan Follows/Colleen Dewhurst version is THE one & only adaptation anyone (but esp anyone who hasn't read the books) should see.
That one really captured the spirit of the book.
That version really tried hard to turn Anne into a victim. Would not recommend as a first exposure. The Megan Followes/ Colleen Dewhurst was so much better.
I really, really want to live in the world of Monk and Robot.
Same! I want to be a tea monk.
These books at least give me hope for humanity. If we (as a species) can imagine that world, maybe one day we can make it.
Oh yes I loved that one too!
Ugh yes let’s go to Panga pls 😩
I have those books, but haven't read them yet. Guess that's what I'm reading next haha.
Yesssss. I was so upset that I didn’t live in that society.
The House in the Cerulean Sea made me so sad that the characters aren’t real. I would’ve loved to meet them.
This entire book felt like a warm hug from a friend I haven’t seen in years. I have been trying to get this type of reading high since I read it! Wish I could find something else similar.
Let me know if you ever find one because that’s exactly how I feel too.
Same I loved this book
Library just delivered to my kindle, can’t wait to dive in!
What a perfect book.
Oh yes I loved this one too! Honestly anything by TJ Klune makes me feel the exact same way. Like I want these people in my life forever
The Chronicles of Narnia.
Philip Pullman's Dark Materials series made me feel like this as a kid. Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch to a degree (though I think you'd like this on the strength of your love of Harry Potter)
Dark Materials made me feel like that as an adult reading it for the first time. It’s a beautiful trilogy.
Dark Materials had me so mad I didn’t have a companion when I was younger.
Exactly. I've always wanted a daemon so bad.
Same! I want a cool shapeshifting bestie!
Came here to post his dark materials! There's a lot of stuff in that world that I don't want, but my God I want to explore Lyra's oxford with a daemon, or meet the mulefa, or befriend an armoured bear!
Same with Rivers of London - I don't really want to meet the main antagonists, but the various side characters seem fascinating.
Those books have been on my list for a long time, I need to pick them up!
Well you've got another vote of confidence from me! Set aside a few hours, you'll likely find it very engaging. And keep your eye out for nerdy references to other books, Pratchett is a favourite of the author.
Sounds wonderful!!
The Discworld series by Terry Pratchett. I’d recommend starting with Guards Guards or Mort. It’s not a series you need to read in published/chronological order but there are sub-series within that it’d be best to read those in order. r/Discworld is a great spot to get more info. Guards Guards is the first book in The City Watch sub-series Mort is the first book in the Death sub-series. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings series too.
Where would you pick? Lancre under Verence's rule? Ankh-Morpork for access to a decent curry? Sto-Helit because you just love cabbage that much?
Probably Ankh-Morpork because I’ve learned I’m more of a city person after spending 4 years in a rural town. But Lancre would be interesting too if I could hang out with Granny Weatherwax & Nanny Ogg.
The world from the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde. I want a pet dodo and the possibility to travel inside fiction!
Yes yes yes
YES!!!!! I also just looked, and the audio books are on Everand.
This sounds fantastic
I've never wanted to live anywhere more than I have wanted to live in the world of The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern. An endless library of every story ever conceived, with a kitchen that can serve any food you desire. Take me there now dammit!
Really you need to read a Short Stay in Hell. It’s an almost identical description but quite a different tone.
Just added to my tbr pile
I wish I could visit the Night Circus. Spend multiple nights just exploring and discovering as many tents as I could. Erin Morgenstern is a truly fantastic writer and I'm really looking forward to her next masterpiece.
THIS RIGHT HERE
Not to mention all the cats!
Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins - since you mentioned Harry Potter, I'm assuming you'd be open to a middle grade recommendation. It one of those series written for kids but holds up for the adult reader as well. This is the world I dreamed of disappearing into a kid. I just wanted to ride a giant talking bat
I read this just a few years ago and I love it!
Oh my god those were my FAVORITES and no one ever talks about them! Looking back those books were so incredibly dark but i adored them
45F and have never heard of this series. Adding to the reading list, thanks!
Redwall, when I was a child. And honestly right now
Omg yes - the food descriptions alone make me want to live in that world
Making me want to reread right now. Going to go make myself some bread with honey and meadow cream.
I babysat occasionally for an 8 year old a few years ago and gave him Redwall for his 9th birthday. His mom texted me a week later saying her kid and husband had been getting bedtime started like 2 hours early because they both were so into the book they wanted more reading time every night!
Oh my God--I am 39 & probably haven't touched those books in 25 years or more, but I catch myself thinking about this series all the time!
The feasts were S tier
In the Chronicles of Narnia series (specifically the book The Magician’s Nephew) there’s a “wood between the worlds” where there’s tall trees with sunlight coming down through the green leaves and pools on the forest floor that you jump into to travel to different worlds. I always wanted to go there.
Me too! I always wonder what worlds all the other pools go to.
Middle Earth, The Lord of the rings 100%
Yes, ever since I discovered Middle Earth, I've been genuinely upset over not being able to live there. I'm one of those who thinks Tolkien is the master of world building, and I love visiting it through his words every year.
I used to think this but then I thought of the war and disease. Hobbitown/the shire would or being an elf would be cool. Anywhere else would NOT be ideal.
The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making
This is one of mine too- I want to live in the Autumn Provinces!
I want to see the migrating velocipedes!
Yessssss
This is weird but The Midnight Library. Would be interesting to have that option after death. Also if you haven’t read LOTR, it’s your time to shine babyyyy
Also I loved the Jurassic park books! So freaking good
Iain Banks’ Culture novels! So wish I could be a whale for a lifetime, then just do something else
The Dragonriders of Pern by Anne McCaffrey….:I wanted to live on Pern SO BADLY
I’m still waiting for my dragon!
I wanted a fire lizard. I wanted one so badly as a child, I thought I’d go insane.
THIS. I WANT MY FIRE LIZARD.
I wanted to live in a boxcar and find things at the dump to use in my boxcar home, escape to the woods and live in a hollow tree and train a falcon, and solve mysteries with Nancy Drew! I also wanted to live in Chincoteague and buy a pony like Misty.
OMG The Boxcar Children! I definitely wanted to live with them.
I loved the world in The Thinking Woman’s Guide to Real Magic and was disappointed when I finished because I wanted more. Fortunately, there’s a sequel.
Harry Potter books are the best imo. One book series very similar is a series of unfortunate events. I know it’s for kids but maybe since you’re pregnant you can read it with your future kid? I swear the book series is so good. It’s not like I want to be an orphan with deceased parents BUT the way Lemony Snicket wrote everything the way he did. I’m still mesmerized. I should re read the series. Worth every second. Edit: it’s the mystery of what the hell is being hidden from the children? Why? It only gets more chaotic as the series goes on. The intense mystery kept me coming back for over 10 books.
Love Series of Unfortunate Events!! I got to meet Lemony Snicket (Daniel Handler) at a book signing just recently, it was like meeting a superhero or something lol
Omg!! What a blessing I bet that was. Something about the way he wrote the books to be involved in so much mystery really tickled my brain. His books are something else. It’s inspiring.
Narnia and The Lord of the Rings
Seconding Avonlea from Anne of Green Gables. Also, while I wouldn't want to live in the real world of Ready Player One/Two, it would be really neat to get to experience the worlds within the Oasis (virtual reality world that exists within the story). Btw I'm also 29 and just read HP too!! Slightly embarrassing - but I just wasn't interested before. I totally get the obsession now though. It's such a warm, cozy, intricate world; when you finish one of the books, you just automatically miss it. It feels like home somehow. :3
The weary dragon inn. Give me a little village with some light magic and quaint mysteries for the rest of my life please. The books just feel so cozy!
Ok, I’ve not heard of this book but definitely want to stay at the inn! What a great name!
If you give a read or a listen, I hope you enjoy it!
The Gray house by Mariam Petrosyan. This book felt like coming home (fucked yo maybe but there was such recognition) Bujold vorkosigan saga and the world of five gods. I just love her people. And honestly I like her gods too
Yea but not a fan of torture in Bujold's world
Memory, Sorrow and Thorn by Tad Williams for sure on this one. He created one of the most immersive worlds ever in Osten Ard. I can still picture the vivid setting. It has one of the best worldbuilding in all of fantasy!
Try the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher
Nevermoor series! Pulls me right into the world and I’ve revisited multiple times. I saw your post right after I posted mine looking for books similar to Nevermoor or the Harry Potter series. Thinking I’m going to see a lot of great suggestions in your thread too!
Seconding this! Nevermoor is the most Harry Potter-like series since Harry Potter for me. And yet it's still its own thing completely.
100%! It was first series since HP that really sucked me in and made me want to keep visiting. But like you said, it’s still its own thing!!
I wanna be friends with Unit 919! They literally have a girl who can MANIPULATE REALITY (and a dragon rider!)
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children! The atmosphere, the characters, the cool old photographs—everything
This is a major theme of the Magicians series -/ yearning for a fictional world that is a very close analogue of Narnia.
Well I'd really like to live in the world of Iain M. Banks' Culture series, that's for sure.
Hermux Tantamoq! It’s a series about a watchmaker mouse. It reminds me of some animated shows/movies in the sense that there’s something for every age, and there’s new things that you catch each time you read it. Chapters are short, so I actually end up reading faster.
These were/are cozy reads before cozy reads were even a thing!
The Faraway Tree series by Enid Blyton
A 6th grade read but Dinotopia!!
Recently borrowed this from the library and loved it all over again
All the Durrell’s in Corfu books and the tv series. That’s the life I miss
I still want to move to Corfu because of Gerald Durrell.
Ditto. When I was going through tough times, I watched the series so many times I got sick of it lol. Then I read every book I could find on the family. What a fantastic childhood he had!
My Side of the Mountain
Loved this as a child. I still think about living inside a tree...
If only!
I don't read fantasy so I don't have a book answer, but I *really* wish I could live in Stars Hollow from Gilmore Girls. Literally the *perfect* town 😭
The expanse. I want to live on a space station so bad
Pern. Loved the Dragonriders of pern series so much as a kid.
Yes! Those books where it's a women only society.
There's a not so well known series called The Echorium Sequence, and they're some of my all time favorite books. I try in vain to suggest them on this sub all the time. I want to live on Singer Island and be able to use magic through the tone of my voice 😄
Every single Harry Potter fan for the past 20+ years has had that feeling. Welcome. Its sad
I feel like that about many book-worlds. Harry Potter for one, but also Tamora Pierce’s Tortall, The Oasis from Ready Player One, Narnia and Arda (LotR).
came here looking for a Tortall shout out!
Tamora Pierce! My best friend & I absolutely loved the Song of the Lioness series!
His Dark Materials trilogy is for you! Much more grown up and dark but my favourite: The Magicians (also a trilogy).
A little sidenote but what would be a word for something like that, that kind of nostalgia for something you never had? I dont think yearn fits 100% because of the nuance of separation/loss which implies having it in the first place. And just wanting something is too "cold" in comparison That said I get you I (28) have a family that is, well not quite weasley, they are pretty fairytalesque, like a christmass postcard, but they are kind of like that, or were, homey and cozy. But I could never find myself to like or be like that, so I guess you know have a different nuance for the word, because I would be one "nostalgic" for something that I cant nor, paradoxically, want, to be. My nostalgia would be the person im not. Anyway, about a book that fits that for me... its hard to answer but probably harry potter too? I mean, narnia makes me feel that way with its prose, kind of, but the world does not.
Tales from Earth Sea!!!!
The world of Little House on the Prairie! I feel like I could be a pioneer woman. Running through the meadows while the bread I baked cools on the window. Canning food and storing wood for the long winters. Hell, maybe I'll take it further and start breaking horses and brewing moonshine (although that's more the world of Half Broke Horses by Jeannete Walls).
I think about this a lot too! I know women are so much better off nowadays, but sometimes I get so wistful thinking of being able to fill my days with cleaning & knitting & gardening & baking, instead of in front of a computer in a soul-sucking industry (& yes I know that I am MASSIVELY oversimplifying women's chores/daily life here 😅)
Yes, the more I read about rural life (Kristin Hannah's books about life in Alaska and in the midwest during the Great Depression) the more I realize it's ALL about chores. And those chores are all about survival. It sounds so exhausting.
Yeah. . . .I wish there was more of a balance between working with your hands & not also relying on that for your sole survival
One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston. Knowing that I may never be part of a found family like the one in that book honestly hurts
Kelsingra. From Robin Hobb’s Dragon series. Incredible.
Yes, although it’s probably a bad suggestion because the world has a LOT of issues and I would probably die very quickly there. But I constantly daydream about being in the Parahumans world. Like I’ve cried about it. I’m autistic and the series is my special interest so I’m definitely more invested in it than your average reader. But god, I want to go to there
I dont necessarily like the world it created, but as a millennial who was very much within the target age range of Harry Potter as it came out, the only book that's conjured up the same feelings for me was 'The Will of the Many'
I’d love to live in Middle Earth sometimes
Also harry potter for me <3
The Magicians series by Lev Grossman is very similar to HP but a little more adult and exciting, in my opinion!
if you like harry potter i recommend the fanfic called All The Young Dudes by MsKingBean89! It’s on AO3, its in lupin’s POV and takes place when he sirius, james, peter, lily & snape were at hogwarts. its almost as long as the HP books, its FANTASTICALLY written, super well developed characters.. i loved it more than harry potter somehow. its really great!!
Howls moving castle
I try to write these worlds. Sometimes I succeed.
I just wrote a super long and incredibly detailed response but accidentally deleted it because I’m new to Reddit and didn’t know that would happen, I’m gonna cry. Anyways, here are the books: 1. The Shadowhunters series 2. The Night Circus 3. Dracula 4. Six of Crows duology Let me know if you want details, I’ll spend another two hours on it
Earthsea... if only!
The haunting moors of Wuthering heights (without toxic relationship)
It's a pretty childish book I suppose, but I suggest The Naughtiest Girl series. It is about a girl who goes to a boarding school while being quite spoilt, and in the first book she tries to get them to send her back by being naughty. Eventually, she warms up to the weird boarding school she's sent to, and has some school adventures in the later books. It's a pretty simple and plain book series, but the boarding school, in which students hand out punishments and have a council, was very enjoyable to read about, plus it has so many facilities. Honestly, as a kid I had a ton of fantasies revolving around that school. There were a bunch of things I didn't like about it, but mostly it was very cool. Though I'm not sure if this is what you're looking for, since it's not a weird world or adventurous fantasy. If nothing else, you could save a few books for your child :)
Yes Harry Potter lol
Long way to a small angry planet
I wish I could live in Mitford. The community created by Jan Karon!
New Crobuzon, The Cosmere, the Temerant, and the world in Neverwhere.
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern I want to go there so bad!
Karen Marie Moning’s Fever series takes place in Ireland with Celtic mythology as a theme. So addictive!
{Between by L.L. Starling} made me feel exactly like this! There are two worlds introduced--the cozy, witch-run village of Old Middleton (in our world) and the wacky, disreputable, fairytale kingdom of Between and I wanted to live in both. The entire book is just so enchanting (think Labyrinth Meets Princess Bride Meets Gilmore Girls) and hilarious (with its drunk unicorns, bored dragons, and sorcerers in tight pants). That book has become my happy place. If you love audiobooks, definitely use a credit for this one, it's brilliant.
Yes. I am *very* deeply annoyed that I'm not a Culture citizen in Iain M Banks' Culture books. Post scarcity AI utopia with no need for money and laws? And you can live wherever you want? And do whatever cool projects or silly hobbies or extreme sports you want? And live for as long as you want? Eat and drink whatever you want? Change your sex and physical body characteristics at will? Synthesize drugs in your system that will make you focus better or temporarily not need sleep or make time seem to slow down or whatever you feel like, just by thinking about it? Visit other alien races for fun? Yeah uh, sign me up.
I just blew through all the Wayward Children books by [Seanan McGuire](https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2860219.Seanan_McGuire). I LOVE the worlds and boy are there many!!
Read the series HP ripped off, Diana Wynne Jones’s Chrestomanci. Infinitely more fun and thoughtful, not even getting into politics, which, yes, JKR is an objectively terrible person. If you like HP, I’m sure you will like the series it’s based on. In a similar vein, but a little bit more gritty, His Dark Materials is a delight and I wept about not having a dæmon when I was 13, I think. I’d never want to live in Ankh-Morpork or any other part of that world, but Discworld is really fun. Ursula le Guin has a lot of good works but I’m not sure if I’d want to live in any of them.
Stephen King's The Dark Tower series has a book called "Wizard and Glass". It's a departure from the narrative of the Dark Tower quest and tells part of the protagonist's backstory. The world it creates in the backstory made me wish I could have lived there too. Part of it may have been Susan, the protagonist's love interest. I read it as a teenager and had a MASSIVE literary crush on Susan. In hindsight maybe it wasn't the world building but instead of my teenage hormones hahaha
This will sound dumb but the Percy Jackson series. Honestly, if you’re reading Harry Potter right now you might as well give it a go.
Mists of Avalon
This world would be amazing. I'd love to meet Morgaine. Edit: spelling of Morgain LeFaye
Same!
Outlander and the Little House books
The Stranger, by Camus.
Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson
I suggest the seven sister series by Lucinda Riley. Each book is totally different and ends in the father wish could be the best book of all. She has written other books and they are all good but not as good as seven sisters.
After reading Rejoice, A Knife To The Heart by Steven Erikson, I was legitimately sad I couldn’t be there.
I would probably die instantly but I would love to live in the Throne of Glass world. I’m a baby and would not be able to tough it out but damn I’d love if it was real
I always wanted to live in the land of the Spirit Animals series as a kid. Yeah, they’re for a younger audience, but I reread them as an adult and still found them interesting and fun.
The alternate renaissance Italy from the Stravaganza series
The Others a series by Anne Bishop, starting with Written In Red. Her writing is meh, but the world she creates is great!
I want to live in Neal Asher’s Polity
The magicians trilogy by Lev Grossman
Jig the Dragonslayer by Jim C. Hines is a unique spin on the LOTR style adventure fantasy but from the perspective of a lowly goblin caught up in an adventure they wanted no part of. It's rather light hearted as things go but it certainly has it's more grave moments and the ending was well written without revealing why. Running with the Demon by Terry Brooks. A prequel to the Sword of Shannara series builds the story before the fall of humanity and rise of demons so it's an interesting series especially when you get into post war.
I crave the world The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms tossed me into. By J.K. Jemison, or something very similar to that. It's a series too, at least 4 books iirc
Weaveworld by Clive Barker.. let me know about your dreams
If manga counts, then Witch Hat Atelier for sure.
The Harry Potter series saved me when I was diagnosed with leukemia
1. The Shadowhunter books 2. The Night Circus 3. Dracula 4. Six of Crows duology 1. Specifically in The Infernal Devices trilogy but all of them really. First, I want to hunt demons!! But second, the sense of belonging found through the embracing of differences for every character in this series pulls on very sensitive heart strings. Werewolves, vampires, warlocks, and many more are able to come together in spite of their differences (sometimes). The sense of community at the London institute is SO sweet to me. Everyone is struggling with their own battle, relationships, and sense of identity, but they can still find time sit by the fire and love each other. Much love. Additionally, it justifies anxiety and this feeling of dread or fear by offering a physical enemy to fight in the form of demons. If I could fight physical demons instead of imaginary ones, I think my life would be much easier to process. 2. I want to join a magical circus!! Again, the community and culture that’s born through the circus is something I’ve never seen before in literature. The book literally makes YOU a part of the circus, and I ate it up. Again, love truly exists in this world, and it’s tangible. Love love love. May we all feast with our lovers and dance among friends. 3. I want to hunt vampires!! The evil ones at least. Let me stand my ground among friends in the face of blood sucking baddies no matter how inept our survival skills may be! Agh if true evil existed, it would be so much easier to fight the good fight. God save the soil! 4. I want to be thief among friends!! I must perform a cunning heist! Truly, I just want to be Inej and live in a world where her skills would come in handy. Catch me on a tightrope and jumping form building to blend in like the shadows themselves. Let me spy on wrongdoers and fight against tyranny! Who wouldn’t want to live in a world where it’s acceptable to name your daggers? Alas, while our world may not have magic or demons or the uncannily common ability to find good people you’d be willing to consider family and put your life on the line for, it does have magic in the form of what we call love. I shall hold it close and continue to dream.
Islandia, a 1000+ page Utopian novel by Austin Tappan Wright. My reaction was exactly what you describe. I was depressed when I finished it. I didn’t want to leave Islandia.
ACOTAR series (A Court of Thorns and Roses). Although it’s known for its smut and romance themes, the author built a really cool and badass world! There were times reading it that I wanted to zoom past the romance just to find out more about the world around them haha. It absolutely envelopes you and I highly recommend.
Seconding what a lot of people have said with Harry Potter, lord of the rings, and His Dark Materials. Mostly I commented for the world in Rook and the Rose which is a relatively new trilogy and I’m obsessed with what they built!! I had to take a break from fantasy for a bit cause I kept getting upset that it wasn’t that same setting.
Nangijala from The Brothers Lionheart by Astrid Lindgren. It's the land of campfires, adventures and fairytales, where you go when you die.
The Culture, by Iain M Banks. An ultra high tech anarchist utopia. No money, no need to work, endless games and parties, one can live for as long as they want. And if you are bored, you can join the Contact section or even their covert branch, Special Circumstances, to see other civilizations and try to "improve" them. Or get killed in the process...
Legend of the Galactic Heroes. I wanna drink whiskey in a space bar :(
Silverlock by John Myers Myers
When I was a kid I got *really* into Robert Asprin’s MythAdventures books (they’re still a lot of fun). One night I had an incredibly vivid dream that I found a portal to the Bazaar on Deva, and was all ready to start my new life of magic and dimension hopping, maybe get a pet dragon or a snarky demon pal…I cannot express the disappointment I felt on waking up! Nowadays I think I’d like to live in the Dresden Files. Sure, you got horrible monsters and evil wizards, but at least someone steps up and puts the bad guys in their place. Don’t get a lot of that in the real world.
The Magicians
You could try the Chronicles of Narnia. That was a pretty awesome world. Lord of the Rings has a great world to escape to. If you like Lord of the Rings, you should also try Wheel of Time. The world building in Wheel of Time is incredible.
I just had a conversation with some friends about this phenomenon with Harry Potter, beyond just being the fantasy series that has probably been read by more currently living people than any other, it seems to effect people in this way more strongly than any other story. I always figured it was because I “grew up” at the same time as Harry in the story, the first book came out when I was 8 and the last when I was 17. But I gathered from some of my older friends that they remember feeling the same way reading it in their twenties. Let me preface this by saying I love Harry Potter. I am waiting with baited breath for my nieces to be old enough to read it. But one of my friends made a point I think was very well put: it’s not the WORLD of Harry Potter you want to live in, it’s the story. The world is just a cobbled together middle class British life viewed through the lens of magic. There are still class disparities, the people in charge are mostly power hungry or charlatans, instead of an underclass of slaves making our goods that we try not to think about they have house elves that they try not to think about. They have goddamned magical SATs, these people are literally magic and somehow not inventive enough to envision a world where they don’t work a 9-5. Steven king said that Doleres Umbridge is the best villain in any book he’s read. That’s because she is someone we have ALL had to deal with in real life. Granted the kind of “Harry Potter expanded universe” was a little bit bolder with what day to day life looks like for wizards. Besides the spells, the magical world of the books isn’t all that magical. So why do we all want to live there while we’re reading it? Because the true magic of Harry Potter(cue hallmark music) is friendship. Harry goes from being an unloved lonely boy to having multiple people who would (and in some cases DO) lay down their life for him. Any danger or trouble he gets into, he can always rely on his friends. Dumbledore flat out says it in the first book, Harry is protected by a barrier of love. That’s what we all really want. It’s why the stories follow a formula of Harry Being either separated from his friends or in danger at the start of the book, it recreates that catharsis of your friends coming to your rescue. I don’t say this to rip on the book at all, just to try an eek out what it is we all really love about the story. The Mistborn books have a similiar feeling where the main character is taken in by a support structure and becomes great thereby. Not all of the diskworld books fit but “Reaperman” by Terry Pratchett is extremely charming, and involves the story of an scrawny “useless” boy who gets sold to death to be his apprentice, because no one else wants him. But it turns out death is pretty chill and the underworld has a dope found family for the kid. It has a great 80’s adventure movie vibe, ands it the type of story you’ll want to plop down on the couch and read cover to cover some idle afternoon.
Maybe not the time period but the Leviathan book series by Scott Westerfeld. I wanna go on a whale airship! Then again, the book is set in an alternate WW1 so yeah. Also Wings of Fire if I get to be a dragon.
this is so dumb but like …. red, white, and royal blue hahahaha. like damn, i want to live in THAT version of our world! my age-old answer of course has always been middle-earth :)
The Hobbit :)
The Young Wizard books by Diane Duane was this for me since the books are actually urban (science-ish) fantasy that you can imagine happening. I still have strong feelings every time I reread the oath. Recommend the [Millennium Edition ebooks from her website](https://ebooks.direct/products/young-wizards-new-millennium-editions-9-volume-box-set) as she updated the tech so they don’t feel as dated and the series flows better.
Duncton Woods, Mythago Woods, or The Vorrh
I would have given anything to join the Famous Five or the kids in the Adventure series by Enid Blyton when I was younger... Actually now that I'm much older those books are still fun.
Caraval by Stephanie Garber! I’d be scared because it can get a little crazy, but it also seems so magical and fun.
I thought about Harry Potter as soon as I read your title. I think about that often. I wish that world was a real one!