Do you ever pick a book or stay away from a book because of its setting?

This is a really interesting topic. 

I love books set in places I know and quite often seek them out--maybe this is because the details are rarely that incorrect, since only people who actually live in Canada would likely write about Canada, whereas authors will often write about more romantic locales (Paris, Rome, etc.) without having lived there.  I love books set in Toronto or Ottawa or especially Ontario cottage country.

Also, I enjoy idioms when I'm in the mood and really like reading books by British authors...the slang is fun!  I remember as a kid reading a Tanith Lee book and being so confused by the talk of biros (pens) and one woman "hoovering" in the living room (I thought "hover" was misspelled and she was flying!  But it actually means vacuuming.)  

So it's funny that I have the opposite reactions to Ann's friend and Jodie!

Other book settings I seek out are those set near lakes, in the woods, or somewhere up north with lots of snow...those are much more romantic locales to me than big metropolitan cities.  

I avoid a few settings simply because I'm sick of them.  New York, for example--everything just tends to get a bit too "wow the city is wonderful rah rah go New York!" for me, and New Orleans is similar.  Sometimes I also get sick of European locales that get written about too frequently...Paris and anywhere in Italy, for example.  

If it's an author I like or the book sounds interesting, I'll still read it, but the setting does weight into my decision a bit.   

i dont really dont care about location.   I like books set in other places so I can see how people live and talk in other places.  Weather it is another state, or another country.

But I wonder sometimes if the author has been to the location she is writing about.

When I see movies  or read books that are set in Los Angeles, sometimes I wonder if the person has ever been here.   Characters and setting sometimes seem so stereotyped.

Most movies set in LA are about "Boys in the Hood" (drugs, gansters, violence), or we are all blonde and beautiful "Bay Watch Babes".

Or if I watch a movie that referrs to LA, it has to do to those things.  Watching the movie "In Bruges",  Ralph Finnes character is buying an illegal gun, and is offerd an Uzzi.  and he says something like "an Uzzi?  I am not in South Central freaking Los Angeles".  And this guy is 6,000 miles away from  :"freakin Los Angeles" which he pronounces "Los Angeleeze".

On the series Numb3rs, they call locations I recognize, by different names.  But last nights episode actually did go to MacArthur Park.

Anyway, I think befor an author writes about a particular place-especially when the location is a character in the movie, book, whever- they should actually spend some time there. Hopefully staying with alocal so they can see how the people actually live, how they walk, talk, etc.

I'm all for an interesting setting. I love Australia, so I'm happy about all the books set there. I wish there were more European settings and why aren't there any set in Asia and South America? With a vivid setting you get to travel for the price of a book. It is perfect!

Hmmm, good questions. I do tend to get on reading kicks around a locale if I discover something new about it through a book. Right now, I'm into the mediterranean region.

I don't stay away from books that are written in a locale that I know, though. I figure that everyone's experience colours how they define the place and that sometimes gives me a new way to see an area that I thought of in just one way. 

I love reading books set in places I know or places where I have lived.  Sometimes I actually buy a book because of the setting.