Reading Around the World: Prague

Reading Around the World is a feature that combines my love of travelling with my love of reading. Each month I plan to spotlight either a city I have visited, or a city I plan to visit in the near future, and recommend some of my favourite books set there. After all even if you can’t visit these cities yourself the next best thing has to be reading about them and living the experience through the eyes of the characters.

Prague was a place I first discovered through reading, and it was because of the book in question that I travelled to this city. Split into the Old Town, New Town and Lesser Town; the Old Old Town has the castles and cathedrals, the New Town has the famous Dancing House, and the Lesser Town has the gardens and Charles Bridge. The city is full of winding, cobblestone streets that it’s easy to get lost among, but with something new to discover around every corner I don’t know whether you could call it getting lost as much as going on an unplanned adventure.

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Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor is the only book I am aware of that is set in Prague, but it is the very best so this month it’s a case of quality over quantity.

When I first read Daughter of Smoke and Bone the thing that stayed with me was the way Laini Taylor wrote Prague. It sounded like a city full of magic, where anything could and would happen, where there was something fantastical to discover around every corner. I was enchanted, and once I finished Daughter of Smoke and Bone I knew I needed to go to Prague and experience it for myself.

Laini Taylor’s Night of Cake and Puppets novella is also set in Prague.

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Have you ever been to Prague before; what was your favourite part of the city to see and explore? Also what are some of the amazing books you’ve read set in Prague, or the Czech Republic, that you’d recommend?

Let me know in the comments.