Places I Want to Live in Secretly

Yes, not “places I secretly want to live,” but “places I want to live in secretly.”

Did any of you ever read The Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler as kids? E.L. Konigsburg died recently, and her name in the news made the title jump out at me one day at the store.  I picked the book up for my daughters, but sat down and re-read it again myself.  It was one of my favorite books as a child, the story of a brother and sister who run away from home and live in the Met – the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  I had many a daydream about where I would live as a clever runaway… the Royal Ontario Museum?  The Eiffel Tower? Casa Loma?  It had to be somewhere suitably elegant, mysterious, with lots of cool stuff to look at and preferably a source of food.

Rereading it has reignited some of those daydreams.  If I were to live somewhere without anyone knowing, where would it be?  There’s a real thrill to being somewhere after-hours.  Here are a few of my picks, what would yours be?

The US Library of Congress.  Their goal is to have one of every book in the world.  So… paradise.

This Chapters bookstore in Toronto, which is in a remodeled theater. It’s also supposed to be haunted.   I would feel like Nancy Drew, solving “The Mystery of the Haunted Bookshop.”

Neuschwanstein castle in Germany.   I’m pretty sure you don’t need to ask why.

So, where would you secretly live?

Happy (sneaky) reading!

Christie