How to Use a Novel as a Guidebook

I like bookstores that shelve fiction, nonfiction and travel guides together by destination. But can you use a novel as a guidebook? Certainly tourists flock to fictional locations like platform 9¾ in King’s Cross Station. But what can you learn from following the footsteps of a fictional character? To see, I followed the route of Oliver Twist as he entered London for the first time.