Airport Shopping, Country House Libraries, Mini-Books & More: Endnotes 01 November

Every Friday, we celebrate the weekend — and all the reading and relaxing and daydreaming time ahead — with Melissa's favorite book- and travel-related links of the week. Why work when you can read fun stuff?!

This post is part of our Endnotes series.

That icy-looking body of water above is Moraine Lake, a glacier-fed lake found in the romantically named Valley of the Ten Peaks in Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada. During the summer, the water is a striking shade of turquoise blue as the sunlight is refracted off rock flour suspended in the lake. But we love this placid and chilly image that seems to say ‘winter is coming.’

• We almost always buy Pringles. What does your Hudson News haul say about you?

• Need fresh inspiration to track your reading? Modern Mrs. Darcy has you covered with a new printable reading journal.

• As we close out Manor House week on our site, feast your eyes on these photos of country house libraries, and learn how Victorian mansions became the default for haunted houses.

• National Novel Writing Month, a.k.a., NaNoWriMo begins today! Here are eight novels — with a strong sense of place — that were written during NaNoWrimo.

• Negative Space began as a 150-word poem by Ron Koertge that describes a father-and-son relationship through the art of packing a suitcase. Now it’s also a lovely and bittersweet 5-minute animated film.

• This is relevant as the Brontë Parsonage prepares for an auction of a tiny book by Charlotte Brontë: The Guardian explains why we are fascinated by miniature books.

• When is the best time to buy your airline tickets?!

• Sure, I guess you could call your pixie a French guillotine haircut.

• Keeping Up With The Penguins is a delightfully funny (and smart) blog whose author is devoted to reading the books she’s never read even though she ‘really should have.’ The entire archive is worth a visit, and this post on how to remember what you read is gold.

• Bookish podcast of the week: The BBC Bookclub podcast is a treasure trove of entertaining and insightful conversations. Host James Naughtie talks to accomplished authors about their best-known novels. In this installment, Kazuo Ishiguro talks about The Remains of the Day, a book we featured in a post this week.

• Travel podcast of the week: The Zero To Travel Podcast delivers fascinating stories and advice for travel newbies and experts. In this episode, the host Jason speaks to Oslo expat Maria Amelie. They talk about the challenges of the immigrant experience and how her illegal stay in Norway led to the creation of a new law.

Wishing you a weekend with plenty of time to daydream.

Top image courtesy of Banter Snaps.