Palermo, Sicily, Ode to Bookstores, Galatea, Travel Gifts & More: Endnotes 18 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.

The cheerful doors above can be found in Palermo, Sicily. The city is located in the northwest of the island, on the Gulf of Palermo in the Tyrrhenian Sea, and — no biggie — it’s been around for 2,700 old. You can explore its narrow lanes to admire its architecture: Sicilian Baroque (balconies, marble, grotesque masks), Arab-Norman (square towers, pointed arches), and Neo-Classic (lots of columns) — and on the neighborhood homes, weathered doors in a rainbow of colors. After a stroll, you can dig into Sicilian cuisine and sip local wine. Then you’ll be ready to conquer the top 10 activities recommended by locals.

• This is a beautiful love letter to bookstores. ‘There was something steadying, though, about standing in an actual, cavernous bookstore and taking it all in. Your fellow customers shared a room and a set of options. The scale was human, and the stock was present. Some of it disappeared from day to day as people purchased books. But you had to walk past the stuff you thought you didn’t want to reach the stuff you thought you did. Thus, you could stumble on something you hadn’t set out for.’

• ‘If you don’t have the luxury of booking a flight, but find yourself in need of a momentary respite, here are some podcasts that have the ability to transport listeners elsewhere through the simple magic of audio.’ Delighted to see Strong Sense of Place on this list of podcasts compiled by Evan Stern, the host of the show Vanishing Postcards.

• Get in the holiday spirit with an ‘unusual and amusing mystery.’ Martin Edwards, the consultant for the British Library’s Crime Classics series, recommends the golden age classic Murder After Christmas.

• So many fantastic ideas here: What to Gift Your Favorite Traveler, Based on the Destination They Love Most.

• Related: Saveur’s Guide to Holiday Gifting 2022.

• This is amazing:

• From the bedroom in Goodnight Moon to Toad Hall from The Wind in the Willows, here are the most memorable interiors and gardens from children’s books.

• Vote in the Goodreads Choice Awards 2022.

• Every year, the Edward Gorey House invites artists to submit envelopes decorated with Gorey-inspired illustrations. Here are some of this year’s outstanding entries.

• I was so happy to contribute my essay ‘Beyond the Village: Traveling with Inspector Gamache’ to the Notes from Three Pines newsletter. ‘I have a confession to make: My favorite Gamache adventures are the ones in which he goes traipsing about in other places, turning his eye on new landscapes, architecture, and climes.’

• Take a virtual trip to Scotland via the immersive travel stories from the podcast Wild for Scotland.

• Whoa! Scientists translated the oldest sentence written in the first alphabet: ‘Inscribed on a Canaanite comb, the words reveal a struggle with head lice.’ It can’t all be poetry, right?

• I’m a long-time fan of the artist Mark Ryden and his recent collaboration with Barbie is a delight:

New Episode of The Library of Lost Time

In each mini-podcast episode, we discuss two books at the top of our TBR, then share a fun book- or travel-related distraction. Get all the episodes and books galore here.

In this episode, we get excited about two new books: Galatea by Madeline Miller and Novelist as a Vocation by Haruki Murakami. Then Dave recommends three fun boardgames for the holiday season — or anytime. [transcript]

Links

• Follow Madeline Miller on Instagram and Twitter.

• Galatea by Madeline Miller

• xo Orpheus: Fifty New Myths by Kate Bernheimer

• Circe by Madeline Miller

• Novelist as a Vocation by Haruki Murakami (Philip Gabriel & Ted Goossen, translators)

• Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami

• Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami

• Watch a short animated video about the myth of Pygmalion and Galatea.

• Super Mega Lucky Box: Watch a video review — buy a copy.

• So Clover: Watch a video review — buy a copy.

• The Crew: Mission Deep Sea: Watch a video review — buy a copy.

Hope you’re cozy and have something excellent to read.

Top image courtesy of Cristina Gottardi/Unsplash.