Positano, Bookstore Chairs, Ahab's Peg Leg, Chicago's Ramen Lord & More: Endnotes 23 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 soothing setup above is in Positano, a pretty little town clinging to the cliffs on Italy’s dreamy Amalfi Coast. Think pastel-colored houses, striped sun umbrellas, comfy lounge chairs in even rows, and perfectly chilled limoncello liqueur. When you’re ready for a break from lounging on the beach, there is a Roman villa to explore, scooters to ride on twisty roads, and the Path of the Gods to be hiked. Thinking of visiting? Here are helpful tips from Wolters World.

• This ode to a big, comfortable bookstore chair is lovely and also sharp: ‘Most of the readers also like recommendations positioned next to books turn out to be like someone recommending that I go to Olive Garden because I said I loved going to Italy. The internet has tried, and it only fails. Not only is the entire recommendation and ratings system useless, it just underlines the fact that the only thing that really works for finding books I will actually read, is the bookstore chair.’

• 12 books to read if you can’t move on from Night Country’s dark, icy spell.

• Nerd out with this investigation into which leg Captain Ahab from Moby Dick lost to the whale. ‘… it’s so maddening, so confounding, that although Melville provides the minutest details about every last person, animal, and object in Moby-Dick, he fails to tell us which leg Ahab is missing.’

• Shall we all chip in to buy this glorious manor house, with secret passages and rotating bookcase for sale on the Isle of Wight?

• Just… don’t do this? Museum Selfie-Takers Are Causing Damage by Backing Into Artworks.

• The title Ramen Lord of Chicago is pretty good! Chef Mike Satinover is obsessed with making the perfect bowl of Japanese noodles.

• The World’s 12 Most Unique Airbnbs You Need to Visit. A hilltop castle, a sort-of arboretum in Brazil, a treehouse, an adobe dome straight out of Star Wars, and more.

• The books in the Lizard Tree Library in Slab City provide valuable footholds out in the desert on the edge of society. ‘Under the unforgiving sun of southern California’s Colorado Desert lies Slab City, a community of squatters, artists, snowbirds, migrants, survivalists, and homeless people.’

• This artistic exploration of hummus charmed me.

• Manet’s ‘A Bar at the Folies-Bergère’ reveals more details and more secrets the longer you look at it.

• This is excellent news for comics lovers: EC Comics are coming back. ‘The often edgy comics publisher, best known for its Tales from the Crypt series… focused on crime fiction, dark fantasy, horror military fiction, satire, and science fiction.’

• Tiny, adorable house plants made from paper.

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 Kamogawa Food Detectives by Hisashi Kashiwai, translated by Jesse Kirkwood, and Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange. Then Mel talks about cooking chicken soup from around the world. [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

• The Kamogawa Food Detectives by Hisashi Kashiwai & Jesse Kirkwood (translator)

• Wandering Stars by by Tommy Orange

• There, There by by Tommy Orange

Distraction of the Week: Chicken Soup Project

• The Chicken Soup Manifesto: Recipes From Around the World by Jenn Louis

• Jenn Louis’ website

• Smithsonian Magazine: A Journey Around the World, as Told Through Chicken Soup

• Four recipes from The Chicken Soup Manifesto

• Ye Ocholoni Ina Doro Shorba (Ethiopian peanut soup)

• Video: Jenn Louis at Powell’s Books

• Follow along with our chicken soup project on our Patreon community of ridiculously awesome readers

Treat yourself to a bowl of something cozy.

Top image courtesy of Edgar Chaparro/Unsplash.