Llandwyn Island, Darwin's Library, Sriracha Wars, Literary Fashion & More: Endnotes 16 February

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 beautiful Tŵr Mawr Lighthouse above is on Llanddwyn, a tidal island just off the coast of North Wales (near Anglesey). Its name means ‘great tower,’ and it’s visible from seven miles (11km) away. Get your timing right, and you can walk from the mainland to the island on a causeway revealed when the tide goes out. Here are tips for how to visit Tŵr Mawr Lighthouse and Llanddwyn Island — and there’s a lovely 4-mile trail walk to the lighthouse along the along the sandy beach of Llanddwyn Bay. This very soothing video of the walk includes cute dogs, and here’s a drone’s view of the lighthouse, in case you need more convincing.

• Apparently, Charles Darwin had an ‘insanely eclectic’ library. Take a look inside. ‘The majority of the collection is written in English, but nearly half is not — German, French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch and Danish works also appear. And remarkable imagery adorns hundreds of pages, including the first known photograph of bacteria, a sketch of the extinct giant sloth’s skeleton, and illustrations of sponges from 1870.’

• Fall fashion 2024 is going literary, and I’m into it. The latest collection from Anna Sui was inspired by Agatha Christie: Here’s a brief LitHub writeup and the dreamy collection. And Thom Browne closed New York Fashion Week with a reading of Edgar Alan Poe’s ‘The Raven.’ I would like all of this in my closet, please, and thank you.

• Do you have a crush on the book you’re reading?

• Must-click headline: The Best Places for Chocolate Lovers to Travel.

• These photos of Soviet country cottages are straight out of a fairy tale.

• Yes, I do want to see a slideshow of buildings carved out of rock.

• Weekend breakfast idea: Rosa Parks’ peanut butter pancakes:

• Who knew the world of sriracha was so dramatic! ‘What really caused the sriracha shortage? Two friends and the epic breakup that left millions without their favorite hot sauce.’

• This comic about gleefully terrifying little girls by Hyperbole and a Half is the cutest horror story I’ve ever read.

• Huh. J.M. Barrie, the author of Peter Pan, wrote an anti-smoking book in 1890 called My Lady Nicotine: A Study in Smoke. The Public Domain Review says, ‘While it might seem quite at odds with Neverland, My Lady Nicotine, like Peter Pan and Wendy (1904), is concerned with fleeting youth, a stage of bachelor life that has the trappings of childhood in a way: simple pleasures, imaginative adventures with companions, idleness, tranquility, and a sense that these days might go on forever, until they don’t.’

• Northern lights. Glass igloo. Hot tub. This is the story of a luxurious adventure on a National Geographic expedition vessel in Greenland.

• How to Fire Frank Lloyd Wright. ‘The untold story of a world-renowned architect, an obsessive librarian, and a $5,500 house that never was.’

• The fancy book covers in the new exhibit ‘Judging a Book by its Cover’ at Manhattan’s Grolier Club are delightfully bedazzled and bejeweled.

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: Strawberry Fields by Patrick D. Joyce and The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden. Dave shares the events worth traveling to in 2024. [transcript]

This episode is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/StrongSense and get on your way to being your best self.

Links

• Strawberry Fields by Patrick D. Joyce

• Back in the USSR by Patrick D. Joyce

• Patrick Joyce’s website

• The Wall by Peter Sís

• Prague Spring by Simon Mawer

• Podcast: Prague: Castles and Cobblestones

• The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden

• The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden

• Podcast: The Forest: Meet a Witch, Climb a Tree

• The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab

Distraction of the Week: Unmissable Events of 2024

• National Geographic: 10 unmissable events worth travelling for in 2024

• Bosphorus Cross-Continental Swim in Istanbul

• Ride Africa: 5 days, 500km, unprecedented access, awesome wildlife in Kenya

• Child.org: working to change neonatal mortality rates

May your favorite song be served up by your random playlist.

Top image courtesy of Jim Cooke/Unsplash.