La Scarzuola, P&T Knitwear, Ditching Books, Naturalist Notebooks & More: Endnotes 26 April

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 combination of garden and art installation above is found in Montegabbione, Italy. It’s La Scarzuola — the Ideal City — designed by Italian architect and designer Tommaso Buzzi. This ‘autobiography in stone’ is a mashup of surrealist, Classical, Medieval, and Renaissance architecture — including grottos, reflecting pools, stairways, and replicas of famous landmarks like the Parthenon, the Arc de Triomphe, and the Temple of Vesta. The original Franciscan monastery was purchased by Buzzi in 1956; he took up residence and built his ‘elusive, surreal, fairytale vision’ between 1958 and 1978. La Scarzuola is a private home, but it is possible to book a tour. Here’s an excellent essay with beautiful photos; there are fantastic pics on Instagram, too — and a video tour. An ad for the fragrance Gucci Bloom was also shot in this ‘garden of dreams.’

• This interview with the founder of the P&T Knitwear bookshop made me feel good humans. ‘I was born in this country, safe, to a stable family that cared about education, all of the kind of typical Jewish story. Whatever I’ve done is nothing compared to the stories … about my grandfather surviving POW camps and things like that. And so I wanted to kind of honor that legacy. This felt kind of like a cool way to do it.’

• News you can use: Where to Start With Patricia Highsmith. ‘You can’t go wrong by starting at the beginning. The setup to Highsmith’s first published novel, Strangers on a Train, is well known but irresistible…’

• I cannot bring myself to throw a book in recycling or a trash bin, even though The Walrus tries to make the case that it’s OK to throw away a book. ‘At the end of the day, a book is just paper and ink and glue. Its soul is something else entirely, less tangible but more enduring than an object on a shelf.’

• Desperate Literature in Madrid is a special little bookshop.

• The World’s 14 Coolest Underwater Hotels. Maldives, China, Sweden, Tanzania, Berlin (!), and more.

• I do like to pretend I’m living in my own personal music video when I walk around Prague with my earbuds, so I enjoyed this roundup of the best music videos shot in Prague.

• This recap of an evening one of those crazy beer bikes is pretty funny. ‘The seat’s uncomfortable. Your arms get tired from gripping onto the countertop; your legs ache for days afterward from working really, really hard to go almost nowhere… And still, by some strange alchemy, it’s one of the best things I’ve done all year.’

• Enjoy this mashup of library and retro time-travel: the story of the legendary Chicago nightclub Mister Kelly’s.

• This is a fun collection of 5 best paranormal fantasy books. Or maybe the 30 greatest romance novels to read in your lifetime is more your speed.

• Must-click headline: There’s a Lot More Hair Than You Think Stored at the Library of Congress.

• Fancy a slumber party at Agatha Christie’s house? Here’s an excellent list of author’s homes where you can spend the night.

• Which Jane Austen Protagonists Would Make the Best Detectives?

• This essay about how to keep a naturalist’s notebook is filled with fun ideas that are easy to implement. I’m thinking about swapping my camera for a journal on my walks once in a while.

• This made me laugh very hard:

• Explore treasures of the world, animals, outdoor adventures, and more with the best travel TV series to watch right now.

• A 10-day meditation in New York’s Washington Square Park! Groovy and very cool. ‘Jemila MacEwan silently nurtures a seed in the palm of their hand amidst the hustle and bustle of the iconic public park.’

• An explainer for how the English language took over the world. ‘It is an official language of the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, the International Criminal Court, and NATO. Yet just as in Europe, English divides the world population in complex ways and creates cultural strains across the globe.’

• I recently saw a postcard illustrated by artist Sandra Rummler in Berlin, and I can’t stop thinking about her charming cityscapes.

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: Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent by Judi Dench & Brendan O’Hea and The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War by Erik Larson. Then Dave recommends a website to find new-to-you music. [transcript]

Links

• Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent by Judi Dench & Brendan O’Hea

• The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War by Erik Larson

• The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson

• The Splendid and the Vile by Erik Larson

• Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson

• Similar Songs Finder website

I have unclasp’d to thee the book even of my secret soul. — Twelfth Night, William Shakespeare

Top image courtesy of DinoPh/Shutterstock.