When I die, I want to go to Mark Twain’s library. Don’t give me golden paved streets and a city in the clouds. Let me rest among cushiony chairs, surrounded by hundreds of books in dark-wood, hand-carved shelves. Give me light from an arboretum and alcove windows, and an occasional chilly day, so I can build roaring fires in an ornately carved fireplace.

Mark Twain’s home rests in the lush woods of Hartford, Connecticut. In my tours around the country, I’ve seen some incredible mansions. I’ve been to the palatial homes of men like Henry Ford and Thomas Edison; I’ve experienced Hearst’s Castle–a complex of amazing buildings nestled in the mountains of California. But there is a beauty and a warmth to Twain’s home that is unmatched by any of the places I’ve seen in all of my travels.

Architecturally unique, this umber colored home, with its wrap around porch, octagonal balconies, walkway balconies, spires, and inlaid brick designs is an intellectual’s Disneyland–a thinking man’s castle. Among its design wonders is a fireplace with a hidden side-chimney, so that over the mantel he could have a large, plate glass window. Twain could sit there on snowy days and have the illusion that the beautiful white flakes were drifting down into the fireplace and melting in the fire.

The rooms are warm and inviting; they draw you in and make you feel at home and welcome. Filled with soft textures and stimulating angles, decorated with unique furniture and unusual paraphernalia large and small. Twain said his house had a soul, and a heart; and standing there in the living areas, the bedrooms, the dining room, the billiard room, I could well believe it.

As I drove away from Twain’s home on that beautiful Autumn day, I was headed up to Concord to visit Emerson’s grave and watch the sunset over Walden Pond. Slowly, quietly, I was learning a way to live. And it doesn’t require money so much as style; your own unique style, seeking out the things you find beautiful, surrounding yourself with the things you love, and listening to the things that resonate with your soul.