Reading and Travel

In the summer of 2007, I traveled to Europe for a month and I brought with me, as entertainment for the flight, the recent James Bond hit Casino Royale. I spent my first few days in Europe in Venice, and as I walked about St. Mark’s Square, I was momentarily taken aback by its familiarity. Then I realized I had just seen this place in the James Bond film. How cool it was to actually be in the same city!

One of the joys of fiction is visiting places I’ve never been. I’ve wandered through the Library of Trantor at the center of the Galactic Empire1. I’ve watched an old man wrestle with a fish off the coast of Cuba2. I’ve sat in shady backrooms of the Tweed machine in 19th century Manhattan3. I’ve been to Manhattan, of course, but never to 19th century Manhattan.

But much as I discovered with St. Mark’s square, there is also a joy of encountering in a work of fiction a place that I have visited. This happened recently as I read Dan Brown’s latest suspense thriller, The Secret of Secrets.

I’m not a huge Dan Brown fan, but I’ll admit to enjoying The Da Vinci Code when it first came out, attracted by the words “Da Vinci” and “Code.” Brown is a kind of modern-day pulp writer—and as one who loves pulp science fiction from the late 1930s and 1940s, I don’t mean this as an insult. His writing is jagged and primary colors, but his stories can pull me in. What pulled me in about this one particularly was that it was set in Prague, and I spent several days in Prague in the summer of 2024.

It was fun to see Robert Langdon race through the various places I’d been in the city: walking across the Charles Bridge; strolling past the Fred and Ginger buildings; watching the clock chime in the old town square; looking over the city from the parapets of Prague Castle. It reminded me that as much as fiction can take you places you’ve never been before, there is no substitute for actually being there. I would have visualized scenes much differently had I not been to the city myself, and that may have changed my perception of the book.

The “Fred and Ginger” buildings, Prague.

Ultimately, I found Brown’s story intriguing—for the first half of the book. After that, I thought it got a little silly. But I kept reading mainly because the story was also a travelogue through Prague, and it was a pleasant reminder of my time in that ancient capital.

Mostly in Second Foundation by Isaac Asimov.