New York! New York!...Not again.

[Dan Coleman]

Okay, here's where I get crucified. Bring it on.

I hate New York. Well, not really hate it. I know it's a wonderful place, a cultural mecca, etc. But it's also a human sewer. It's over done, not for me. At any given time, half the state is on I-95 South, anyway, heading for Myrtle Beach or Florida, so there are New Yorkers who also feel that way.

My only experience with the Big Apple is changing planes once at LaGuardia and getting stuck in a 5-hour traffic jam in the Bronx the same day, driving down from Boston. But I would never go there, except to pick up money. Somebody has to go to the other places.

I have long stopped reading any novel or viewing any t.v. or movie that is set in New York City, either in whole or in part. I won't even go back to great novels I've missed and read them if set there.(I think I'm probably an idiot for that one). I refuse to patronize Manhattan.

It might be more my aversion to the cold influencing me here, because I love L.A.-set stories, Florida-set ones, anything in the warmer climes. Well, you can have Phoenix, though hot as hell in summer, the way I like it. And I would never read a book set in Wyoming, another cold place in winter. Mostly because Wyoming doesn't really exist. It's an old Indian word meaning "The Place Doesn't Exist." And I don't think this would bother the Wyoming crowd, either, a people who live on rock farms with their horses.

Anybody have any pros or cons on this New York thing?

[Jon Loomis]

No crucifixion here, Dan. People have all kinds of reasons for liking or not liking whole classes of books. I'm not crazy about the whole supernatural thing, and I've always considered romances to be porn that's too boring to be porn. Setting isn't a big issue for me, although in mysteries I'm often drawn to "exotic" settings, whether it's Ft. Lauderdale or Amsterdam or (God help us) NYC; unironic, non-surreal depictions of the upper midwest don't interest me as much because I live here and I know what it's like: Fargo had it about right. And, for the record, give me $10,000 and tell me I have a weekend to spend it on nothing but a good time, I'd be booked at the Four Seasons on 57th Street so fast it'd make your head spin.

[Dan Coleman]

You have the right attitude. And a good agent, too. What more can a writer ask for?

[I. J. Parker]

I adore New York. As far as setting is concerned, though, I prefer more exotic places. The only place in the U.S. that qualifies is Indian country. I got hooked by Hillerman, though not McGarrity. One is far more other-culture than the other.

I can sort of see myself liking a book set in San Francisco, but nothing in the south.

[minervaK]

Dan, you're in danger of being nominated for official Crimespace grouch. Me, I love curmudgeons, and am in training to be one myself, but take my advice: you have to give a little contrast to make it work.

In answer to your question, I don't think I could live in New York, but I like to read books set there (or, more precisely, I don't refuse to read them) because then I can 'experience' New York without having to physically go there. It's the same reason I read all books -- so that I can have an experience that's unavailable to me in my everyday life. Like going to 11th century Japan, or joining a gang, or being a private detective. Or a serial killer. You get the picture.

[Jack Getze]

Growing up in Los Angeles, moving to New Jersey was bad enough. I try to avoid NYC if at all possible. I used to drive into the city, but I kept slamming fenders with cabbies. I took my old truck and refused to back down. Something about the Jersey plates. They see me and assume I will surrender the space immediately ahead. After three or four such minor bang-ups (not once did either party stop), I now take the ferry from the Jersey Highlands. A 45-minute barge ride as opposed to the harrowing streets of Manhattan.

The food, the theaters, the clubs, friends, and shops are fantastic. Almost worth it, but not quite. I feel paranoid in Manhattan, like I can never take my eyes off the people around me.

[John McFetridge]

http://www.overheardinnewyork.com/

[I. J. Parker]

Funny. But no, none of that happened to me. I'm sticking to Manhattan and cabs. It's pricey but you live only once.

[Naomi Johnson]

Ah, if you're not reading Craig Johnson's series set in Wyoming, you are so cheating yourself. But hey, as Richard Bach once wrote: Argue for your limitations and you get to keep them.

[D.R. MacMaster]

Never been to New York, though I do enjoy living in cities, so I'll probably want to try the New York experience for a spell. After I go back to Italy for a spell.

As for traffic problems, I don't drive, so it's not really an issue with me.

[Robin Richmond]

Don

I agree New York is not my favourite city. i prefer Boston and Philadelphia. bit I must admit I have not been over the pond since 2000. My late wife was too ill to fly. I plan to go over next year to buy mystery books. Not sdure where I am going or when.

[Karen Dionne]

I love New York - there's just so much going on there. New York is the center of the fashion industry, the theater, finance, the book industry. There's an energy in the city that's contagious. Whenever I walk down the streets, I can't help thinking, "I'm really here - in New York!" - even though over the past 5 years, I travel to the city between 3 and 4 times a year for writers conferences and other book-related stuff. I just never get tired of it.

I'd move there in a heartbeat if the family would ever stand for it. I once heard Lee Child say how when he was a boy in England, he read a book about a little boy who lived in an apartment overlooking Central Park, and vowed that one day, he'd live there too. He now owns two apartments in the city in the same building, one to live in, and one to work in.

As for where a book is set - doesn't matter a bit to me, as long as the story's engaging!

[I. J. Parker]

Wow! Lee Child has two apartments overlooking Central Park? Boy, there really is some money to be made in the business.