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Books Set in Your Town

Award winning chidren's book "Skellig" was set in the town I grew up in (Felling in the NE of England), along with other books by the author (David Almond). My mam went to school with him, and his books frequently mention the names of the streets I played on as a child.
 
Heh. Clancy set off an nuke here in Denver; wiped out the football stadium in the southwest metro area that doesn't exist, probably right near my house.

Leon Uris lived in Aspen; I worked with his son some years ago.

Mitchener wrote about the area in Centennial; we're near the state of Columbia in his novel Space. And then there's Molly Brown and Baby Doe Tabor, of books and operas.

Alfred Packer, convicted cannibal, resides, quietly, quite near here. Didn't write much, but he was fed the line, "Damn you, Alferd Packer! There were seven Dimmycrats in Hinsdale County and you et five of them!" No reply was recorded.

The local elementary school is named for Ralph Moody, the author of "Little Britches", and the founder of Little Britches Rodeos for youngsters who hanker to be cowboys. He lived here.
 
LibraryLady said:
Most of Anne Tyler's books.

James Michener did most of his research for Chesapeake at my library. And a fine gentleman he was.

One of Tom Clancy's books names my library as a great place to make a drug buy. We don't like him.

The Fifty Minute Hour, which is non-fiction by Robert Lindner, better known for writing Rebel Without a Cause, is also set in Baltimore.
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Which book was that in?
 
tkingdoll said:
The Hobbit is set in my village, as is the start and end of the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Beat that.
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um... So you live in Hobbiton?:boggled:

Oh, and unless your village is in two places at once, it can't be he setting for both the start and the end of LOTR, as the start is in hobbiton and the end is at the grey havens.

Ps. LOTR is one book, not a trilogy.
 
Damien Evans said:
um... So you live in Hobbiton?:boggled:

Oh, and unless your village is in two places at once, it can't be he setting for both the start and the end of LOTR, as the start is in hobbiton and the end is at the grey havens.

Ps. LOTR is one book, not a trilogy.
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Stop being an enormous nerd :D

Yes, I live in Hobbiton, aka Moseley and Sarehole, home to Tolkien and the rough basis for Hobbiton. We have the real mill, Sarehole Mill, which is the mill of the shire, whose principle product was Gamgee Cotton (Sam and Rosie were named after it). Tim Tolkien is making a big statue of an Ent for our village square. If you're a fan, come and visit, I'll buy you a drink in the Hungry Hobbit.

I didn't mean the very very end, I mean one of the myriad 'natural' endings, namely the one in Hobbiton. I was thinking more of the films to be honest.

Although...how are you defining trilogy? The three books were published separately with different titles, but can be seen as one work. That's what a trilogy is.
 
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Bikewer said:
Ah, St. Louis, the favorite of authors...... Let's see, I can't think of any that I might call favorites; can't hardly think of any at all. White Palace.... Nope, can't think of any more.
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Local author David Carkeet set one of his Jeremy Cook novels here--The Full Catastrophe. But you're right--they're few and far between. I attribute that to the regional self-loathing so common around here. . . .
 
tkingdoll said:
Stop being an enormous nerd :D

Yes, I live in Hobbiton, aka Moseley and Sarehole, home to Tolkien and the rough basis for Hobbiton. We have the real mill, Sarehole Mill, which is the mill of the shire, whose principle product was Gamgee Cotton (Sam and Rosie were named after it). Tim Tolkien is making a big statue of an Ent for our village square. If you're a fan, come and visit, I'll buy you a drink in the Hungry Hobbit.

I didn't mean the very very end, I mean one of the myriad 'natural' endings, namely the one in Hobbiton. I was thinking more of the films to be honest.

Although...how are you defining trilogy? The three books were published separately with different titles, but can be seen as one work. That's what a trilogy is.
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Ah, I see. I may have to take you up on that offer if I ever make it to England.

Oh, and on the trilogy: It was written as a single volume, but the publisher thought it was too big so they split it up. You can find both single and three volume versions now. (apparently the original reason for splitting it was something to do with post WW2 rationing, but I'm not an expert on that)
 
Damien Evans said:
Oh, and on the trilogy: It was written as a single volume, but the publisher thought it was too big so they split it up. You can find both single and three volume versions now. (apparently the original reason for splitting it was something to do with post WW2 rationing, but I'm not an expert on that)
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Ah yes, so it is. Wiki claims it was post-war paper shortages and also to keep the price down. So we could say it's one book in spirit but was a trilogy in practice, I guess. Thanks for the background!

I actually have it in a single volume, paperback, and read it one and half times before the weight of the pages overcame the spine. It really is too unwieldy for a paperback, so I now have the three volumes instead. But in the single volume, the three different books are separated by a cover sheet, I guess just because that's what people are used to now.
 
No idea what books have been set in Canberra, but there's a couple in Brisbane. Author Nick Earls has written a heap of books there, as has John Birmingham. Both have had movies made from their books, too.

Athon
 
athon said:
No idea what books have been set in Canberra, but there's a couple in Brisbane. Author Nick Earls has written a heap of books there, as has John Birmingham. Both have had movies made from their books, too.

Athon
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And I'm sure there's plenty set in Melbourne, but none I've read have been particularly memorable
 
tkingdoll said:
Wiki claims it was post-war paper shortages and also to keep the price down.
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I'm baffled. How would printing it in 3 volumes instead of 1 conserve paper or keep the price down?

(Unless they're comparing the price or amount of paper of one volume that is 1/3 of the epic to one volume that is the entire thing, which doesn't seem like a legitimate thing to do.)

It sounds like saying that changing a ten dollar bill into ten singles somehow results in less money.

Wouldn't one cover be cheaper than three?
 
Author Harry Crews (The Hawk is Dying) lives in Gainesville, Florida, and has set many of his works there. I've met him a few times, but have never discussed his books (which I swear I'll read soon).
Also, Marjorie Rawlings lived a few miles away in Cross Creek, where she wrote and set The Yearling, and her homestead is preserved as an historical site.

Not books, but the Phoenix (not sure about that spelling) family, River, Juaquin, Summer, et alia, are from Micanopy, which is about ten miles south of Gainesville.
 
JoeTheJuggler said:
I'm baffled. How would printing it in 3 volumes instead of 1 conserve paper or keep the price down?

(Unless they're comparing the price or amount of paper of one volume that is 1/3 of the epic to one volume that is the entire thing, which doesn't seem like a legitimate thing to do.)

It sounds like saying that changing a ten dollar bill into ten singles somehow results in less money.

Wouldn't one cover be cheaper than three?
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Nope, because paper was rationed at the time and they couldn't get enough at a decent price to make selling it in one book economical, so they released the first part, prices went down, they released the second part etc.
 
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Damien Evans said:
And I'm sure there's plenty set in Melbourne, but none I've read have been particularly memorable
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Yeah there are and I mentioned "On the Beach" in an earlier post. It's about the end of the world (!). But for a good contemporary read about Melbourne, check out the Shane Maloney books
 
Caitlin Kiernan and Robert McCammon, both horror authors, have written about my hometown of Birmingham, Alabama. Not sure what this says about my hometown...

While I was living in Boston I got a kick out of Neal Stephenson's Zodiac -- there's an IHOP featured prominently in it where I've spent considerable time.
 
I'm baffled. How would printing it in 3 volumes instead of 1 conserve paper or keep the price down?

(Unless they're comparing the price or amount of paper of one volume that is 1/3 of the epic to one volume that is the entire thing, which doesn't seem like a legitimate thing to do.)

It sounds like saying that changing a ten dollar bill into ten singles somehow results in less money.

Wouldn't one cover be cheaper than three?
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I was thinking from a consumer's point of view. Release the first book, people will more likely purchase it because the price is low. If you release the whole three volumes at once, most people will think that they will never read all that. Plus the expense of purchasing all three at once, "what if I don't like it?"

Susan
 
quixotecoyote said:
Dreamcatcher by Stephen King had the finale at the Quabbin reservoir, which was in my neck of the woods growing up.
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Same here. When I saw the movie I exclaimed in a LOUD voice, "That's not the Quabbin, it looks nothing like it!" The wife responded with a punch to my arm and the comment, "Shhhh!"

William G. Tapely has his Boston-based character venture out to the wilds of western Massachusetts on occasion.

Another author, Peter Bowen, had hid Montana detective visit Northampton, Mass. once. Interesting to see your home area described by one from another part of the country.

In The Stand, Abigail Freemantle (known as "Mother Abigail"), lives in Hemmingford, Nebraska, not too far from where I am now.

I used to live a mile or so from Emily Dickinson's house. Does that count?
 
Damien Evans said:
Nope, because paper was rationed at the time and they couldn't get enough at a decent price to make selling it in one book economical, so they released the first part, prices went down, they released the second part etc.
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Ah! So they knew (or hoped) when they decided to print it in 3 volumes that paper prices would go down. If that's so, it still would have been cheaper to wait, then print it as one volume.

I think the real reason is just that as one volume it would be a difficult book to make and very heavy to lug around. 3 normal sized books make sense for a lot of reasons, but I don't see how economy is one of them.

sgf8 said:
I was thinking from a consumer's point of view. Release the first book, people will more likely purchase it because the price is low. If you release the whole three volumes at once, most people will think that they will never read all that. Plus the expense of purchasing all three at once, "what if I don't like it?"

Susan
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So the only way it's cheaper is if you compare buying one or two volumes instead of all three to buying the all-in-one.
 
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