Burano Italy, Sea Shanties, Reading Pod, Austen's England & More: Endnotes 08 January

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.

Ah, Burano! It’s a gorgeous 45-minute boat ride across the Venice lagoon from St. Mark’s Square. The brightly-colored town on its own island is known for beautiful, intricate lace and some of the best food to be found in Venice. {more}

• History Extra asks, Is Jane Austen’s fiction an accurate portrayal of Georgian, England?

• We are missing our café time so much during this lockdown, stay-home time. This quiz about cafés around the world is informative and daydream fuel.

• TBH, the sea shanties were one of our favorite parts of our podcast show about The Sea. We’ve watched this video a ridiculous number of times. It is perfection.

• Aw. Paris just would not be the same without its booksellers along the Seine. Jérôme Callais is president of the Association Culturelle des Bouquinistes de Paris and has had a bookstall by the Pont Neuf for more than 30 years. ‘It’s not a job, it’s a philosophy of life,’ he said. ‘You don’t earn much, not much at all. You do it for the fresh air, the freedom, the relationships with your regular customers, the contacts with total strangers… it’s a very human profession. But right now, it’s suffering. I hope this pandemic won’t prove the coup de grace.’ Hang on, bouqinistes!

• So many of you enjoyed the poems that went along with our Iran podcast episode. Here’s more on the poetry tradition in Iran.

• Perhaps of interest for your period drama needs: Miss Scarlet and the Duke, coming to PBS on 17 January.

• Well, this is lovely. The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse is a poignant story about ‘a curious boy and his journey with a cake-obsessed mole, a world-weary fox, and a wise horse.’ Read more about the book and its author at Country Life.

• The Guardian shares a 31-day literary diet for January, including a poem from Maya Angelou, short stories, musical moments, and more.

• What goes into designing a wine label?

• Love this! The United States just got a new national park. Say hello to New River Gorge in West Virginia.

• Best. Reading. Pod. Ever.

• Bookish podcast of the week: The Selected Shorts podcast invites stage and screen actors to perform stories by well-known and emerging writers. In this episode, Kirsten Vangsness (Penelope from Criminal Minds!) presents four works about fame, celebrity, show biz, and what it takes to survive them — with readings from Bebe Neuwirth and Zadie Smith.

• Travel podcast of the week: In this episode of the Let’s Go Together podcast, you’ll hear the brilliant story of Jesse Billauer, a young man who climbed Machu Picchu in a wheelchair.

Charging into 2021 with stacks of books and snacks.

Top image courtesy of Salmen Bejaoui/Unsplash.