Cave Castle, Reading Treehouse, Iceland Writers Retreat, Book Hangovers & More: Endnotes 02 October

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.

This Renaissance palace, emerging from the mouth of a limestone cave, is Predjama Castle in Slovenia. It’s been a place of refuge and fortification for more than 800 years, and the caves behind and under the castle hold centuries of secrets. According to legend, the knight Erazem of Predjama — known as the Slovenian Robin Hood — used the caves as a home base for his adventures. Today, the Postojna Cave Park is home to a colony of bats. {read more; 3D virtual visit}

• Bilbo Baggins is the ultimate icon of self-care. #teamelevensies

• What a treat! Read Elizabeth McCracken’s new short (funny, romantic) story ‘Two Sad Clowns’ — from her upcoming collection The Souvenir Museum, out 21 April 2021.

• Norway’s friluftsliv is the new ‘hygge,’ and might be just the thing to help us all get through winter with the best possible attitude. (On a personal note: David and I are 100% prepared to bundle up to sit at outdoor cafés this winter. Picnic in a snow shower? You bet!)

• Finally! The New York Times demystifies how its best-seller list is put together. Spoiler: The top-ranking books are not always the best books.

• This Bedoin Tree Shed (and winner of the ‘Shed of the Year’ competition) looks like an excellent place to get lost in a book. _ ‘The floor is oak plank scribed around the root structure of the majestic ash tree it encases, main roots giving direction of the way the floor is designed at differing levels, every now and again popping above the floorboards to remind you this living tree is worthy of adoration.’_

• I devoured Ruth Ware’s new thriller One by One (a knock-‘em-all-off murder mystery set in a snowed-in chalet) in one day. It was fun to read what she has to say about writing her latest book.

• Season 4 of The Crown is coming! Here’s a teaser trailer and behind-the-scenes scoop on what to expect, and History Extra from the BBC gives us side-by-side photos of the real people and the actors portraying them.

• LitHub asks: Would you find this bookstore beautiful or terrifying? Or both. (This is a more light-infused version of how I envision the Cemetery of Forgotten Books.)

• I would pretty much do whatever it takes to visit a reading spot like this one! Alas, it’s not a real library, but an outdoor stage at the Minack Theatre in Cornwall, circa, for a performance of Educating Rita. More photos and info here.

• We can all relate: the agony of a book hangover.

• Fans of Jane and Jane — Jane Eyre and Jane Austen that is: There is a lot of really cute Jane Eyre merch here for you. And The New Yorker digs into what people get wrong when they read Austen. (And let’s all pledge that we will continue to gently right the wrongs when well-intentioned people confuse the two Janes.)

• I’m not sure how to describe this art installation In the Pines by Christina Pettersson, except to say that I’m moved by it, and I wish I could have experienced it in person. It’s appropriately eerie for this time of year and this time of life. More photos and story here and here.

• Cool event alert: The Iceland Writers Retreats is offering two FREE online events in October: an Introduction to Icelandic Writers (Wednesday 14 October; 12 noon ET/9 a.m. PT/5 p.m. GMT) and Mini Workshop and author Q&A with Ruth Reichl (memoirist, editor, and bestselling food writer) and Neel Mukherjee (Man Booker Prize nominee) (Thursday 15 October; 12 noon ET/9 a.m. PT/5 p.m. GMT).

• Sort of related: Atlas Obscura is offering some really interesting (but not free) multi-session online courses… like ‘How to Make a Murder: Writing Your Own Murder Mystery Party’ and ‘Cartooning Folklore & Family History.’ I’m also oddly interested in this one.

• Bookish podcast of the week: In this audio essay novelist and nature writer Melissa Harrison talks about the joy of ‘sleeping with books’ at Gladstone’s Library in north Wales. Gladstone’s is the only residential library in the UK. I was won over by her use of the phrase ‘castle-y bits.’ (Take a peek at pics of Gladstone’s, and here’s more about the library.

• Travel podcast of the week: Let’s Go Together is an excellent podcast from Travel + Leisure. In this episode, host Kellee Edwards (herself a pilot and adventurer) talks to two cultural ambassadors for the US states of Hawaii and Alaska — Kumu Micah Kamohoali’i from the Waimea on Hawaii’s Big Island, and Alyssa London, a TV producer and author who is a member of the Tlingit Tribe from Angoon, Alaska.

Who’s ready for hot tea, cozy sweaters, and great books?!

Top image courtesy of Omar Sotillo Franco/Unsplash.