Galaxies and Goddesses: A Sci-Fi & Fantasy Bookcast

Travel to Other Worlds
Andrea: I’m Andrea.
Elizabeth: And I'm Elizabeth.
Andrea: Join us as we chat about sci-fi and fantasy books and beyond.
Elizabeth: Looking for a little escape from reality. So are we.
Andrea: Welcome to Galaxies and Goddesses.
Elizabeth: On this week's episode, we're talking about our favorite bookish escapes.
Andrea: Specifically, we'll be chatting about fictional worlds we wish we could visit for a day, a week, or forever.
Elizabeth: Along with sci-fi and fantasy worlds, we would want to avoid all together.
Andrea: Let's get started.
Andrea: What makes a fictional world vacation worthy to you, Elizabeth? What's the first draw?
Elizabeth: Well, I guess that sort of asks the question of what makes any place vacation worthy. It depends on what kind of vacation you want, of course. Is it something that you wanna like go hiking in the mountains, or sit on a beach, or just you know enjoy beautiful scenery around you?
Elizabeth: And maybe if there are things to do as well.
Andrea: Uhmm.
Elizabeth: Usually if you go on vacation, even though we probably both would be fine just bringing a bunch of books with us and just sitting around reading books. But ideally there's probably some things to do as well. But yeah, what about yourself?
Elizabeth: What would you say is make something vacation worthy?
Andrea: I think a lot of times I wanna go somewhere I haven't been before. The first thing I think of with places I haven't been, when you think of fantasy worlds, is I'd like to go see a dragon. But I only wanna go see a dragon the dragons are friendly. Only friendly dragons.
Elizabeth: Is that a thing? I feel like most of the time dragons aren't friendly.
Andrea: Or you're friends with the dragon rider, so they're like, "Okay, don't eat this one. Don't torch this one." That'd be nice.
Elizabeth: Like with big cats, sometimes there are… not necessarily within a zoo or within like a game drive or something on a nature preserve, sometimes they have places that maybe aren't the most ethical places, where you can pet big cats or touch them or take pictures with them and stuff.
Elizabeth: Like I'm imagining like tigers in India or Southeast Asia or something. I think those are usually not the most ethical places…
Andrea: Right, but I don't want the pony ride of a dragon. I want real dragon, but maybe from afar. You can see it sleeping. When it gets hungry, make sure you're far away, okay?
Elizabeth: Yeah. ’Cause I think people when they go to these places that have big cats, I think they also want the real experience. But I think the real experience is out in the wild.
Andrea: Uhhmm.
Elizabeth: And you try to not get close to them.
Andrea: Yeah.
Elizabeth: Those are the real big cats, or the real dragons.
Andrea: Well, let’s actually like put a, a name to some of these places. Is there a specific book that you would want visit? Like if you could portal into any fictional world?
Elizabeth: So I have to admit that I struggled with this question, because usually speaking in these worlds bad stuff happens, and I don't really wanna choose to go to a place where bad stuff happens. So… I struggled with this question 'cause I was like, “the Shire from the Lord of the Rings.
Elizabeth: I'd love to go see the Shire.” But that doesn't necessarily mean I wanna go to Middle Earth, 'cause I don't wanna deal with Mordor, and orcs, and evil stuff. The Shire is just bucolic and seems very peaceful and a, a nice just getaway.
Elizabeth: But giant spiders and trolls. I don't know.
Elizabeth: Yeah. What about you?
Andrea: I think, there's the creatures that you wanna see, but there's also the different magic systems that take place in these worlds, so that could be another driver to decide where you wanna go.
Andrea: And a place I would wanna visit be Velaris. Again, most of the realm in Sarah J. Maas' Court of Thorns and Roses series is not doing so well, but Velaris is the one secret hidden city that is a town of artists and it has a beautiful view of the stars. And in the book that focuses on Nesta, she stays in a castle that basically gifts her books, and that has always stood out in my mind as like yes, I wanna stay in a magical castle that gifts me the perfect reading recommendation. That sounds amazing. When I think of where I’d like to go that always jumps to the top of my list.
Elizabeth: Yeah, a magic house that knows what you want to read and magically produces your next book for you.
Andrea: Yeah. “Oh you liked that one, here’s another one.” Shows up on your nightstand when you're ready for it.
Elizabeth: Yeah.
Andrea: That sounds amazing.
Elizabeth: The house chooses for you.
Elizabeth: I sort of pictured that town as a medieval European city.
Elizabeth: Maybe a wall, cobblestone streets, charming wrought iron fancy light fixtures that all match, and maybe sometimes they're like on a cool lamp post.
Andrea: With flowers hanging from it.
Elizabeth: Totally. Like really well done flower baskets and ... Yeah.
Elizabeth: And old stone houses, slate roofs, and I pictured the town, the city that way. And those, those old European medieval towns and cities are great vacation destinations, for sure.
Andrea: And then I guess, if I had the potential to bond with a dragon, maybe I'd go to the Fourth Wing realm. But I don't wanna have to cross that parapet.
Elizabeth: Yeah. I feel like in most of the various worlds that have dragons, they're usually pretty territorial and not very nice to strangers.
Andrea: Or tourists.
Elizabeth: Or definitely tourists. So… you know, and I'm just picturing a really sad dragon that has a chain around its leg.
Andrea: Yeah, I don’t want to see a dragon in captivity.
Andrea: No, I wanna see it in the wild, maybe from a safe distance.
Elizabeth: Safe distance, with a really good set of binoculars.
Andrea: It also makes me think of George R.R. Martin's Game of Thrones. I don't necessarily even wanna be in a potential city that could get rained down with fire.
Elizabeth: Is there any amount of distance that is a safe distance? If you can see the dragon, you're in trouble.
Andrea: Yeah.
Elizabeth: You just want your own dragon.
Andrea: Yeah.
Andrea: I feel like it is a scale, right? On the two ends of the scale, you have a cozy escape versus an adventurous escape. So something that's really safe versus really dangerous. And the adventurous destination is the dragon, bad people, but exciting story place to go. And the cozy is like, "Let's just have a cup of tea.”
Elizabeth: Elevenses.
Andrea: Yes.
Elizabeth: Second breakfast. Yeah.
Andrea: Yeah.
Elizabeth: What are some other cozy places? We mentioned like the Shire.
Andrea: Panga, in A Psalm for the Wild-Built, that takes place in a very different society that works with the earth, and I really loved the image of those tree houses in that book. There’s like a village that's built into the trees, and that always seems like a really cool concept.
Andrea: And I think the closest you can get to that in real life would be booking a tree house on some type of vacation rental site. I think often it's marketed as like a couples retreat, but I think I would wanna just take a solo retreat, where I don't have to worry about kids. I just get to read my book, have a nice cup of tea, enjoy nature, and just reset on my own. Long weekend retreat to Panga sounds really good.
Andrea: What about you? How long would you stay in that cabin tree house?
Elizabeth: Oh, I could probably stay there for a while. But yeah, a long weekend sounds nice. And yeah, by yourself could be nice, or at least without children could be nice. 'Cause then children can be loud, and I would imagine that it would probably be really nice to listen to sounds of the forest and the birds and all of that if you were up in a tree house.
Elizabeth: The more you think about it, the more ways you find how everyone has been influenced by Lord of the Rings. But that also sounds like Lothlórien.
Andrea: Right.
Elizabeth: They live up in the trees in Lothlórien too. Lothlórien would be a nice part of the Middle Earth to visit, but it's so close to Mirkwood that I don't know…
Andrea: I wonder if it was all the same forest at one point.
Elizabeth: Well there's the river that cuts through.
Andrea: Okay.
Elizabeth: So it can't quite be the same forest. The river's in the way.
Elizabeth: What about like an adventure destination?
Andrea: This is hard because I think a lot of times when I to decide where to go, it's also about who I'm going with, right? So where do you wanna go, Elizabeth? Where would you wanna go together on an adventure?
Elizabeth: Well you mentioned like Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros, so like Basgiath or Navarre. And then I'm just thinking to myself, they probably could make that, all of the trials that they go through? Is there a name for it?
Andrea: The gauntlet?
Elizabeth: Oh, yeah.
Elizabeth: All of the various trials and the gauntlet and such that they have to do in those books, that could probably be turned into a pretty fun theme park.
Andrea: Yeah.
Elizabeth: Where there's no actual danger of you dying or hurting yourself.
Andrea: Right. You’re wearing like a harness as you walk across.
Elizabeth: Totally.
Andrea: And they’re like pelting you with rain and wind.
Elizabeth: Yeah.
Elizabeth: But if you fall off, you're not gonna die.
Andrea: You’re safe.
Elizabeth: Yeah you'll be caught. There's like a big trapeze net underneath or something.
Andrea: Yeah.
Elizabeth: And so if there were, guarantees of safety…
Andrea: Yes.
Elizabeth: That could be fun. But the whole point is that there aren't guarantees of safety.
Andrea: I'm trying to think, the books that we've read recently, like Foundation was philosophical. There was adventure, but it was spread out over a long period of time, and I don't think I'd necessarily wanna go back to any of the places in the Foundation series.
Elizabeth: Yeah it didn’t necessarily like describe each of the planets to the point of getting a good understanding of the place and thinking to yourself, "Oh, that would be kinda cool to visit." It might describe some of these planets to some extent, but they're such short books and there's a lot packed in there, so it doesn't really waste any time talking about that kinda stuff.
Elizabeth: And otherwise, it’s all like maybe taking place on spaceships or in conference or meeting rooms.
Andrea: Right and I think there would be some spaceships that alone would be really interesting to visit to see where they're like growing their food or a viewing room to look out at the stars. I think those kind of aspects of a spaceship would be really neat to visit. One of the things that comes to mind is the Martha Wells Murderbot series.
Andrea: I don't know what kind of conversation you would have with Murderbot.
Elizabeth: Let’s watch some soap operas!
Andrea: That'd be great. I'd be happy to watch some soap operas with Murderbot.
Elizabeth: Well and also it would be really cool to see space from inside a spaceship, but I think it would lose the wonder and novelty really fast. It'd probably be really cool for like an hour.
Andrea: Right.
Elizabeth: And then I would imagine after that it all kind of looks the same.
Elizabeth: It's just stars, all the stars.
Elizabeth: They're different stars. As you travel through space, you would be looking at different stars, but they all look the same.
Andrea: I saw recently that they invented, this is in real life, they invented a cup so you could drink coffee in zero gravity. ‘Cause you know how liquid turns into these floating blobs basically in space. So they designed a vessel specifically so that capillary action would force the liquid or coffee to go to a particular spout, and then you can drink it or sip it out of the spout. But it's a really strange shaped vessel.
Andrea: Most of the spaceships you read about in sci-fi books some form of artificial gravity. I don't think I would wanna go to space and have to live in zero gravity for any length of time.
Elizabeth: That sounds terrible.
Andrea: That’s fun for two minutes maybe.
Elizabeth: Yeah.
Andrea: Like and then I'm done. I’ve also heard it can make you really nauseous.
Elizabeth: Sure.
Andrea: Yeah.
Elizabeth: Some people just tend to get easily nauseated. That's just the way that some people are.
Andrea: It’s related to the fluid in your inner ear, right?
Elizabeth: Yeah, with motion sickness or sea sickness, like the difference between like what your brain expects to happen and then what you're actually feeling, and then your brain can't really put it together right, like what you're seeing versus what you're feeling, and then you just get nauseated.
Andrea: So the dissonance between those two, it's "Oh, this is not right… something is wrong.”
Elizabeth: Yeah.
Elizabeth: Like motion sickness, like if you're in the car, you're sitting and you're stationary. It feels like your body's not moving, but then you can see all the stuff racing past you, so you are moving, but your body doesn't feel like it 'cause you're sitting stationary.
Elizabeth: That sort of cognitive dissonance, exactly between that then creates, for some people, lots of nausea.
Andrea: Yeah so, I’d only want to visit a spaceship if it had artificial gravity. That would be a big must have.
Elizabeth: Totally.
Elizabeth: It seems like oftentimes with sort of sci-fi, or books that are set in space, there's just the assumption of artificial gravity. But Project Hail Mary, it actually took the time to describe how the ship created gravity, but then that also created problems, 'cause then, Dr. Grace, depending on what was needed at the time, he would put the ship into and then back out of artificial gravity.
Elizabeth: You know it seems like a type of ship that goes back and forth between artificial gravity and not artificial gravity that could potentially cause some problems, depending. It'd be better to have a spaceship that's just automatically always with artificial gravity. Yeah.
Andrea: Yeah.
Elizabeth: And then, yeah, like a lot of times, like Foundation, in the Foundation series, like they never talk about any of that at all. They don't go into the science of the ships. So there's just, the assumption of artificial gravity, I guess.
Andrea: That so many hundreds of years in the future we've figured out artificial gravity.
Elizabeth: Yeah, and it's not even a thought anymore.
Andrea: Right.
Elizabeth: It's just old hat.
Elizabeth: It always seems like the astronauts when they go up to like the International Space Station or with the Artemis mission recently they always kind of show the astronauts, trying out different things, their own little fun little experiments and stuff. But I don't want to think about having to go to the bathroom.
Andrea: I don’t think I’ve ever thought about that. That's a first.
Elizabeth: Yeah.
Andrea: Yeah.
Elizabeth: Yeah. And I remember, what was it with the Artemis mission? So this is not fiction, this is actual science, that they pretty quickly had problems with the toilet.
Andrea: Oh my gosh.
Elizabeth: Yeah, I don't remember what the problem was, but at the very beginning I remember hearing that there were problems with the toilet.
Elizabeth: And it probably has to have suction of some sort.
Andrea: Yeah.
Andrea: I mean I was just talking about how they had a vessel so that they could, direct the flow of coffee. Can you imagine?
Elizabeth: Have you not ever used a weird toilet in a foreign country?
Andrea: I have definitely been surprised by toilets in foreign countries.
Elizabeth: Which toilet in which country?
Andrea: The toilets in Japan. They have some toilets that are set in the ground and then you squat over them.
Elizabeth: Yeah.
Elizabeth: Dude, the squat toilet is the best.
Andrea: I'm not knocking them. It was just I had never seen one before.
Elizabeth: It’s just surprising.
Andrea: Surprising. Yes.
Andrea: I didn’t expect our travel plans to extend to the restroom, but it is an important part of a vacation.
Elizabeth: That is 100% a huge part of travel, of just like, “what are the bathrooms like?”
Elizabeth: That's one thing that I've learned traveling the world is that we're all people and we all have the same problems.
Andrea: I actually just finished reading a book called The Maid and the Crocodile by Jordan Ifueko, and it takes place in a fictional city but it's based on kind of West African mythology. She talks about how, she's in this crocodile god’s villa and there's a bedpan, but she's embarrassed to like use the bedpan and then see this crocodile god on the way to dump it out. So she talks about it, and one of the really interesting things about that book is seeing a different lifestyle and just how different it could be.
Andrea: And her vision of a city is anything that has multi-story buildings because she, grew up in a very small village.
Andrea: It was interesting to hear her talk about using the outhouse, and I feel like we don't appreciate the amenities of our modern day society a lot of the times. And when you read about somebody using an outhouse, you go, "Oh," "I'm glad I have a bathroom in my house.”
Elizabeth: Yeah.
Elizabeth: Once again, I don't think we necessarily expected to talk about bathrooms in our sci-fi and fantasy world travels.
Andrea: Dream vacation.
Elizabeth: In our dream vacation.
Elizabeth: As someone who has traveled extensively bathroom stuff is an interesting and not necessarily it's not necessarily like what you're looking for when you go traveling is to have different bathroom experiences, but it just is what it is.
Elizabeth: That's just what happens is you have different bathroom experiences. And so… these fantasy and sci-fi worlds, if they wanna be like fully realized worlds, maybe they need to be talking more about what the bathrooms look like. Like, how do the bathrooms work? How do people relieve themselves?
Andrea: But yeah, usually they focus on other things.
Elizabeth: I think they are really missing out on a major part of the life experience though.
Andrea: I feel like I have read about some very nice spas or public baths in some fantasy books.
Elizabeth: Yeah.
Andrea: That sound very relaxing, and maybe there's like flowers or different oil scents in the water.
Elizabeth: Yeah. Like some sort of water feature that you can hear the water tinkling.
Andrea: We said in our intro that we would talk about where we'd wanna visit for a day, a week, or forever. Is there anywhere you'd wanna visit forever, Elizabeth? Go and stay?
Elizabeth: I think, yeah, like The Shire or Rivendell. They seem very peaceful, calming, and very beautiful. You know it'd be fun to like experience some hobbit hospitality and drink some tea or, have a meal.
Elizabeth: Sit down for some elevensies with them.
Elizabeth: But I would wanna go after the Ring has been destroyed.
Andrea: Caveat.
Elizabeth: Yeah, like I want all the bad stuff to have happened, and Frodo saved the world, well Sam save the world. And then, things have calmed down. But then all the elves are leaving at that point, so then, you know, does that mean it'd be like an abandoned Rivendell?
Andrea: Right, it’s not fun to stay there, if there’s no elves.
Elizabeth: It wouldn't be as nice. What about you?
Andrea: I think I'm torn between Panga, like nice cozy world of Becky Chambers or Velaris the Sarah J. Maas kind of hidden city. But it's hard because, no matter where you go you wanna be there with friends, right? I don't wanna go by myself forever. So we'd have to make a choice together.
Elizabeth: It would be lonely.
Elizabeth: So just someplace just to visit, like for, a day or a week or a couple weeks or something.
Andrea: That’s a lot easier of a choice, yeah, less commitment.
Elizabeth: That is easier.
Andrea: Yeah, so Valaris is the top of my list, and Panga, and I'd also like to go to Lord of the Rings Middle Earth, with post-ring destruction. I would in real life like to go to the sets in New Zealand where they filmed that.
Elizabeth: Yeah, I was like, "You can actually go to the Shire."
Andrea: Yes, that is on my bucket list of actual places to go.
Andrea: On that topic, are there any places you'd actually like to go in real life because of a book?
Elizabeth: New Zealand, yeah. I'd agree with that, because of the movies based on the books.
Elizabeth: You know, it seems like when they're turning it into a movie or a show or something and they're filming these locations, often things are filmed in Iceland.
Elizabeth: I know a lot of Game of Thrones was filmed in Iceland. A lot of it was filmed in Northern Ireland, like the green fields type filming locations. But for the epic waterfalls and volcanic looking stuff and otherworldly stuff, it's like often filmed in Iceland.
Elizabeth: Oh yeah, and I just two days ago went and saw The Odyssey, the new movie by Christopher Nolan. I went with two friends who have also traveled a lot, and one of my friends has definitely been to Iceland.
Elizabeth: And so as we were talking about the different sort of filming locations that they used, it was obvious that they'd filmed in Iceland for a few different scenes. The like black volcanic rock. And like….
Andrea: Yeah.
Elizabeth: Volcanic like sand, a beach type location, but it's black.
Elizabeth: Yeah. And then I think there was another one when they're in a forest at one point with the Gorgons. My friend was like, "That was definitely Iceland." So yeah, that could be cool.
Andrea: Yeah. I feel like so many books I read and then it's like in one ear and out the other, and I enjoy it in the moment, but then I don't necessarily dwell in it unless there are books involved. So I feel like there are a lot of stories that have libraries in them and I'm like, "Oh, I'd love to go to that library." I'd love to see this library.
Elizabeth: Yeah.
Andrea: In the book A Discovery of Witches, it's fantasy, but it takes place in the real world, and she goes to the Oxford library.
Elizabeth: Oh yeah, the Bodleian. I've watched a show on Netflix.
Andrea: Well, when I was reading the book in my head I pronounced it the Bo-de—lay-en 'cause I thought that sounded very sophisticated.
Andrea: So it's not a fantasy world, but it's still fantasy because it's witches and vampires. I would like to go visit that library at some point.
Elizabeth: Totally. I have not been to Oxford, but now knowing about that library, if I ever go to Oxford, I absolutely am gonna be like, "I wanna go to this library." I don't know, do they just allow the riffraff off the street?
Andrea: I don't know, maybe you can take a tour.
Elizabeth: Yeah. I bet that'd be a really cool tour actually.
Andrea: The history, I mean I’m sure there’s so much history there.
Elizabeth: Yeah, 100%.
Elizabeth: And friend of mine, has a PhD in British and Irish history, and I'm sure she has probably been to that library. And she's probably looked at like primary sources, like archived manuscripts that probably are under lock and key, and you have to probably sign away your first child just to be able to look at them.
Andrea: Wear gloves.
Elizabeth: I was gonna say they probably make you wear gloves.
Andrea: Yeah.
Andrea: Are there any libraries that stick out to you from books that you would want to go see? Any other libraries you'd wanna visit?
Elizabeth: Well, It's a lot easier to think about really cool looking libraries from movies and TV shows and stuff because then you actually can see it and see how cool of a library it is. And this is probably just, like, every millennial woman, you know our age generation, who watched movies in the '90s, it's the library from Beauty and the Beast.
Andrea: Yes.
Elizabeth: Or I should say every millennial woman who likes to read books, that is probably every single one of our fantasies.
Andrea: Yes.
Elizabeth: Yeah.
Andrea: Founding moment.
Elizabeth: That library. And I have heard that it's based off of a real library. Belle's iconic library in Beauty and the Beast was inspired by the majestic Admont Abbey Library that's in Admont, Austria. It's like Baroque architecture, soaring white and gold aesthetic, frescoes on the ceiling. I'm sure lots of like gold filigree. Cool tile on the floor. Man, it looks so cool. So anyway, that library does exist… to some extent.
Elizabeth: I have been to some really cool libraries. Like I've been to the library at Trinity College in Dublin. If you can't necessarily picture that, you definitely if you look it up, in pictures, you're like, "Oh, yeah, I recognize that library," where they keep the Book of Kells is on the floor underneath it, and then the library's upstairs. That library's incredible.
Andrea: Reading fantasy or sci-fi books, the library will influence my overall feel of if I like the book.
Elizabeth: Yeah.
Andrea: Velaris or in the House of the Wind, there's a library attached to it. At the bottom of the library there's some sort of creature, so I don't know if I want to visit that library!
Elizabeth: Yeah.
Andrea: But it has a library, and there are people that are dedicated to the library, which I always like that too.
Elizabeth: Yeah.
Andrea: You get that in Fourth Wing also, fantasy library scribe check.
Elizabeth: Like fantasy world librarian.
Andrea: If I had to go live somewhere forever, it's somewhere where I could be a dedicated fantasy, scribe librarian. That would be my role in a fantasy world, and I have a house or castle that gifts me books when I need them.
Andrea: It's like, "Oh, you’ve worked so hard in the library. Here's a book that you don't have to pick out."
Elizabeth: Yeah.
Andrea: Yeah.
Elizabeth: I know maybe that's a signal to you that you still have time in your life, Andrea. Maybe you've missed your calling.
Andrea: Yeah, I know.
Elizabeth: And you should go back and get a Master's in Library Science. Go be a librarian.
Elizabeth: Oh, only just because I just read it it's Quicksilver and Brimstone.
Andrea: Yes.
Elizabeth: So I just read Brimstone. There's absolutely a library that, plays a big role in that one. And is there somebody that's dedicated to the library? There's the guy that's hidden out.
Andrea: He basically lives there.
Elizabeth: Lives in the library and has for like 500 years, or longer than that. Or there's the, the vampire that... Or no, she's not even a vampire.
Andrea: Oh, there is a steward.
Elizabeth: Yeah, I don't know if that's is she a vampire or she was like a witch or something maybe?
Andrea: She's a special creature or a different type of creature.
Elizabeth: Yeah, she's not a vampire.
Andrea: She’s not a vampire. No. So there is a dedicated library servant in that, or take caretaker.
Elizabeth: She's the Keeper of Records. She's one of the Lords of Midnight in the blood court.
Andrea: Yes.
Elizabeth: And her role is the keeper of records. Yeah, but she's not quite a vampire.
Elizabeth: Also, side note: There are more animated paper cranes.
Andrea: They’re sparrows I think.
Elizabeth: I don't know if they're sparrows. There's animated paper birds.
Andrea: Small birds.
Elizabeth: Yeah. Small, folded, animated paper birds. And I just keep finding these in book after book.
Andrea: Some people go on vacation because they wanna visit a specific city or monument, but I think the specific thing in a I'd like to see is always the library.
Andrea: I was very tempted when we were in Bozeman for Independent Bookstore Day, I was very tempted to ask you to take me to the library, but we had so many things we were doing.
Elizabeth: Yeah.
Andrea: But they have a cool looking library, and I just am very interested in how different libraries are designed and how they incorporate a lot of natural light, but then you don't want too much light on the books themselves, so there's usually dedicated reading areas.
Andrea: Yeah, I love traveling and visiting different libraries. When I was in school, I did a few different study abroad trips, and no matter what city we were in, we would go to the library. It's a public building, it reflects local, values and culture, and the people there are wonderful. Yeah. I love libraries.
Elizabeth: Yes, there is something special about libraries.
Elizabeth: Yeah.
Elizabeth: Let's not forget the library that's on the UW campus.
Andrea: Suzzallo Library. Yeah.
Elizabeth: Totally. That library. People will refer to it as like the Hogwarts library ' cause it's a cool building, and it is beautiful.
Andrea: Tall gothic reading room.
Elizabeth: Yeah, like lots of wood cool reading lights, lamps on the tables, like big, huge tables for many people to sit at, to sit down and read.
Elizabeth: And one big giant room. The ceiling's probably like three stories high maybe. Really high. Yeah, really high ceilings.
Andrea: For a day, we would only do outer space for a day maybe.
Elizabeth: Yeah.
Andrea: I wouldn’t want to be in zero gravity more than a day.
Elizabeth: No, no. Cause then another thing too is zero gravity's really bad for you, like health-wise, you're in zero gravity for too long, it's a really great way to like, lose muscle mass, and thin your bones, and our bodies evolved in gravity, so it's the not having gravity is really bad for you.
Andrea: So I'd be willing to go to space a day.
Elizabeth: A day.
Andrea: And maybe a week if it's basically a space cruise to get to a foreign destination where then I can get off the spaceship.
Elizabeth: Yeah.
Andrea: That destination would be Panga, I’d spend some time in the village in the trees drinking tea and whatever way I can help contribute to the village at the time.
Elizabeth: Yeah. Wander around with the tea monk on their various travels around Panga.
Andrea: And then if it were forever, I would need a library to be involved, and I'd need a role in helping take care of that library.
Elizabeth: What about a place that you would never go to?
Andrea: It's hard. The first thing that comes up is Game of Thrones. But I do wanna see the dragons, so I don't say I'd never go there.
Elizabeth: You know, parts of the Game of Thrones world could be cool, like Braavos. 'Cause that's the one that's like on the water, isn't it?
Andrea: Yes.
Elizabeth: There’s all the canals and stuff, like that could be really cool, and there's like the big giant statue the Colossus of Rhodes style of like it the entrance into the city of Braavos, you go like under the statue or whatever, like that could be really cool.
Elizabeth: But yeah, generally not Westeros.
Andrea: So I’ve read a couple of books that have zombie apocalypse type vibes, and I think any world with zombies, I'm like, "No, thanks. Pass”
Elizabeth: No thank you. Yeah, no. No, I'm not interested in that. I do not wanna go to Arrakis from Dune, like the Dune planet. Like those giant worms?
Andrea: Yeah
Elizabeth: No.
Andrea: Live underground during the day?
Elizabeth: And have to wear those like suits, so that you conserve every single drop of water, and then you're like drinking your own sweat.
Andrea: Yeah. Pass. Pass.
Elizabeth: That sounds gross. yeah. Even though I would be interested in trying the spice.
Andrea: Ohhh.
Elizabeth: That'd be kind of fun.
Andrea: You'd wanna go try the spice.
Elizabeth: Yeah, I'd try the spice.
Elizabeth: Yeah.
Andrea: When I first read Dune, I had spent most of my life growing up in the desert, and so I really connected with that book and felt like I appreciated that way of life. But I do not wanna live in the desert forever.
Elizabeth: No.
Andrea: I need water.
Elizabeth: That's the whole thing, that everyone needs water, so how do you manage the water on desert planet?
Andrea: Does your TBR change if you have real life travel plans? Like if you're gonna go to Japan or Paris, do you find yourself being more likely to read a book about that place?
Andrea: I had a friend who said that's how she would decide what to read next, is like she would read in preparation for going on these trips. I thought that was really cool, to kinda get your mind in the right mindset and be prepared for when you get there, and have things to look forward to. So, I don't think I've ever done that personally, but I like the idea. And I would like to try doing that at some point, pairing my reading with my real world travel plans.
Elizabeth: I don't know that I've ever, or at least not off the top of my head can I think of a time where I read something in preparation for, but definitely after I go to a place, then I'm probably gonna be more interested in reading some stuff afterwards.
Andrea: Like keep the trip going. Like you're still there.
Elizabeth: Yeah.
Elizabeth: There's a fair chance that I probably bought some books or brought some books home from whatever place. You know, I'm just thinking about I went to Japan a few months ago, after I go to a place, because I then know more about that place…
Elizabeth: It's not necessarily to keep the trip alive. It's more like, “Oh, I have sort of a foundation of knowledge now about this place, and so these books about these places might be more meaningful.”
Andrea: Or you understand them better. You can kind of picture it better.
Elizabeth: Yeah, it resonates more. You know I might have some sort of peek into cultural norms about that place, and so then as you're reading about that place, yeah, it helps inform some of the things that you saw while you were there, or maybe it helps you realize what you saw.
Andrea: Yeah.
Elizabeth: Maybe you saw the thing, but you didn't really understand it, or you didn't know what it was, or you didn't know it was a thing. And then as you're reading a book that takes place or is written by someone from that country, then it might yeah just…
Elizabeth: Better way to kinda learn about the place is you've got that foundational understanding of a place, and then you read more about it.
Elizabeth: Since I've been to Japan, I've been paying more attention to Japanese authors. I'm trying to think if I've read anything since I've been back or if I've just collected these books that will be read.
Andrea: Yes. Future reading. You have future reading to do. Yeah.
Elizabeth: Yeah, for sure.
Elizabeth: What about you?
Andrea: Yeah, I don’t think I've really done it intentionally. Like I remember when I read Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, by Lisa See. Reading the book made me want to travel, but I didn't necessarily read it in preparation for going there.
Elizabeth: That's a good book. Set in 19th century rural Hunan Province.
Elizabeth: In that book I really like that one of the festivals that they celebrate is called Catching Cool Breezes. And it's in the middle of the summer, and it's hot, and they go sit outside to catch the cool breezes.
Andrea: And I read Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden, and I read those around the same time, and it made me really wanna travel.
Elizabeth: Yeah, when I went to Kyoto, I didn't even see a geisha. They're very elusive.
Andrea: It's more of a private kind of event that they go to.
Elizabeth: And there's like a specific time of day to like catch them, 'cause I think they like prepare themselves during the day, and then it's usually an evening thing. And so, if they're gonna like go out and walk to wherever they're doing their performance or their event like late afternoon…
Andrea: Yeah.
Elizabeth: Late afternoon, very early evening is sort of the, the time that you might be able to catch them out and about. But it's not gonna be for very long, or you don't have much of a chance, and you're just gonna see them walking around quickly.
Andrea: If you're listening, let us know where you'd like to go on a dream vacation. You can find us on Instagram @galaxiesandgoddesses. Comment on our alert about this episode. We'd love to hear from you.
Elizabeth: Unfortunately, that concludes this week's episode. We've reached the end of another cosmic journey on Galaxies and Goddesses.
Andrea: Don't worry, the adventure never really ends. There are always more stories to explore, and more bookish tangents for us to go on.
Elizabeth: But hey, that's part of the fun. If you liked today's episode, subscribe, leave a review, and share the magic.
Andrea: Stay tuned for our next episode where we'll be starting our next trilogy, the Farseer Trilogy Robin Hobb. Book one is Assassin's Apprentice.
Elizabeth: And in the meantime, keep your mind fueled by the magic of stories.
Andrea: And never stop chasing the worlds waiting for you between the pages. Thanks everyone.