Tag: Setting

Do you prefer to read fictional or real settings, or both?

Bookish Question #193 | Do you prefer to read fictional or real settings, or both?

Do you like to read about real places, or do you prefer made-up settings?

I don’t mind. I enjoy real settings, because it feels like an opportunity to take a virtual vacation. But I also enjoy well-developed fictional settings that are written so well they feel real.

What I don’t enjoy is reading a novel where I have no idea where it is set.

It’s usually obvious whether a story is set in a big city or a small town, but what country is it set in? What part of the country? The location impacts on big-picture story elements like language and culture, so is important. But location also impacts on smaller story elements, like weather and seasons (and is Easter in spring or autumn … or fall?).

I’m also not a fan of authors taking a well-known real setting and changing the name.

Either set the novel in the real place and tell us, or set it in a fictional place (and make that clear). If I’m reading a novel and wondering if New Cambridge is Boston or an imaginary setting , then I’m not thinking about the characters … and if I’m not thinking about the characters, then I’m probably not paying much attention to the plot.

(Okay, so that could be a problem with the plot or characters and not the setting. But it’s still a problem).

I like to be able to place myself in the setting, whether that setting is real or fictional.

I don’t mind which, but I do need enough information that I can imagine myself being there.

What about you? Do you prefer fictional settings, or real settings? Or both?

What is your favourite setting to read about?

Bookish Question #99 | What is your favourite setting to read about?

Setting can be a big part of a novel.

It usually refers to the novel’s geographical setting (place), but can also mean the time setting.

Contemporary Christian fiction currently seems to favour small-town settings.

These can be fun, but they’re not consistent with my own childhood experience of living in a small town in New Zealand. Well, I guess it’s fiction so they make things up, right?

Some Christian fiction is set in big US cities.

Honestly, these all feel the same to me, because I’m not intimately familiar with any of the cities. Sure, I’ve visited many of them, but as a tourist. Tourist LA or Denver is very different from resident LA or Denver. (LA in novels is a lot like LA in the TV series “24”—no one ever gets caught in traffic jams on the 101 freeway.)

While I love reading contemporary Christian romance, I’m almost always reading for the story rather than the setting.

When it comes to setting, I prefer historical settings: Regency London (most of which still exists in real life), or the American West (home to all those mail order brides). In these stories, the setting is vital—almost as though it’s another character. I think my analytical brain prefers these settings because I have no idea if they’re accurate or not, so I can settle in and enjoy the story without thinking about the setting. At the same time, the setting plays a part and adds to the story.

What about you? What’s your favourite setting to read about?