Tips to Read More, Ice Rinks, Book Towns, Goth Tea & More: Endnotes 06 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.

Happy 2023, friends! Figuratively, we’ve got our feet up, in cozy socks, gazing at a beautiful view, like the Alps peeking through the window in the photo above. But, in reality, we’re back to reading with intention, making time for walks and workouts, and gearing up for Season Five of the Strong Sense of Place podcast. We’re very excited to bring you new locales and great reads. Watch for an announcement in two weeks about our new schedule and the destinations we’ll explore together.

• These tips for how to read more in 2023 are super helpful.

• You’ve probably got Wigtown, Scotland, on your radar. But here are 9 more book towns around the world. (Fjærland in Norway looks so good to me!)

• This is kind of bananas but also feels right somehow: Ranking the Letters of the Alphabet, From Lamest to Coolest.

• Beware Italy’s Witches of the Sea!

• Wouldn’t it be fun to visit all of these beautiful outdoor ice skating rinks across Europe?

• Sort related: It snowed in Prague a few weeks ago, and thanks to modern magic, you can take a walk through our snowy streets:

• 8 Great Mystery Series Featuring Librarians as Amateur Detectives.

• Haskell Free Library and Opera House: A library where you can read in two countries at once! (Thank you to friend-of-SSoP Lilisa H. for sharing this with us!)

• How about some Sicilian sunshine? Tales from Taormina and the set of White Lotus. The details about how the series was made are really interesting.

• Smile-inducing. (Click through to see all of them.):

• Fun fact: The glass sculptures in Glass Onion were made by a Czech glassmaker.

• Treat yourself to the enchanting illustrations by Ukrainian artist Oksana Bula. Find more on Instagram.

• In the Italy episode of our podcast, Dave recommended by book Trieste and the Meaning of Nowhere by Jan Morris. In this LitHub interview, the author talks about her favorite childhood books, why guidebooks are so fascinating, and other bookish delights.

• A fascinating long read: A day in the life of (almost) every vending machine in the world.

• You might have missed this somewhat wild story that hit the news just before Christmas: Why Emily St. John Mandel asked for help getting divorced on Wikipedia.

• I need this teaset — explore more unusual options from Angioletti Designs here.

• Sort of related: This ode to gothic appetites is a fun read and includes a luscious recipe for Matilda’s Red Velvet Mystery Cake.

• Feeling creative? Here’s a list of some of the books that entered the public domain this year. Let the mashups, graphic novels, and retellings begin!

• Ooh la la, cannot wait to visit this new reading room in Paris.

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 books: The Bandit Queens by Parini Shroff and Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. Then Dave explains why The Extraordinary Attorney Woo is must-see TV. [transcript]

Links

• The Bandit Queens by Parini Shroff

• Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

• The Martian by Andy Weir

• Book trailer for The Bandit Queens

• Book Club Kit for The Bandit Queens with discussion questions, character summaries, a recipe, and more.

• Mel’s review of The Tiger’s Wife by Téa Obreht

• Extraordinary Attorney Woo trailer

• Extraordinary Attorney Woo on Netflix

• From the AV Club: Extraordinary Attorney Woo has rightfully become the global show of the summer

May your optimism be loud and wear heavy boots. (ht Henry Rollins)

Top image courtesy of AlexMaster/Shutterstock.