If you've ever seen Reading Rainbow, you've heard their message—a book can take you places (cue the cheesy music now). If you have a vivid imagination like us, you've filled in the aesthetic blanks to your favorite novel's landscapes—your Alice In Wonderland may have resembled something quite different than Tim Burton's. But, thanks to the crafty folks at The New York Times, you can see the actual spots that inspired the authors in this "Literary Map of Manhattan". From the famous scene on Bethune Street in Richard Yates' Revolutionary Road to Hotel Gloriana in Saul Bellow's Seize the Day, you can actually take a walk in the shoes of some of NY's most noteworthy scribes and put yourself right smack-dab in the action. This nifty new page on the NYT's Book Review is the perfect alternative to, say, a Circle Line cruise—instead of jostling with the tourists, do some solitary exploring of the spots that were memorable enough to get mentions in some of the most famous books based in our fair city. Who knows who you'll encounter once you get there? Let's just hope it's nothing like the commotion that happened on Lenox Avenue in Invisible Man—though Ralph Ellison might be amused. (New York Times)