Burns Night, Reading Ambience, Horror Bookshops, Europe's Ghost Cat & More: Endnotes 23 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.

January 25th is the birthday of Scotland’s national poet Robert Burns (1759-1796). You might know him as the author of the semi-undecipherable but undeniably beautiful ‘Auld Lang Syne.’ He’s honored in Edinburgh with a monument, and all over the world, Burns’ fans mark the occasion of his birth with Burns Night, a celebration of food — specifically, haggis, neeps (turnips) and tatties (potatoes) — poetry, music, and a wee dram of whisky. If you’d like to don your favorite tartan outfit and pay tribute to ‘Rabbie’, House & Garden offers a step-by-step guide for Burns Night with a complete order of events. (Or maybe you’d just like a posh peek at how the other half lives at the Harper’s Bazaar Privé club Burns Night supper). If you’re ready to cook, BBC Food serves up easy Burns Night recipes, including Rumbledethumps (buttery mash and cabbage made crispy), Scottish tablet (tender, chewy caramel confection), and a haggis toastie (cheese+haggis nestled in sourdough). The centerpiece of the feast is haggis and its accompanying poem ‘Address to Haggis’ (treat yourself to this gorgeous rendition). To feed your mind as well as your body, here are 15 of the best quotes from Burns’ poetry, and his best quotes about whisky.

• The Paris Review shared some creative writing prompts if you want to play around with words, maybe to spice up your everyday journaling. I like this one: ‘Write a detailed description of the process of drinking a glass of water, eating an apple, or the act of ingesting some other small meal.’

• Have you ever popped on a video to set the mood while reading? I’ve been using this Wuthering Heights ambience video while reading, and it’s great. Who knew this is a reading trend?

• Sorta related: I’m very tempted by the Wuthering Heights sleep mask in this fashion collection that celebrates the upcoming movie release. (Take a peek at my annotated copy of Wuthering Heights.)

• 11 Coolest Horror Bookstores for Fans of Fear. Philadelphia! Mystic, CT! Louisville, KY! And more…

• Where are my Gen X friends? You might like this! Rock Me Amadeus: A Falco Pilgrimage in Vienna. As a kid from rural PA, I relate to this so much, ‘For me, a kid in Ohio, this was a revelation. Sure, my favorite pop stars (Madonna, Prince, Michael Jackson) were theatrical, but Falco was something else.’ [See also, Der Kommissar.)

• Look at this cute wild kitty that’s been re-discovered in the Czech Republic!

• If you love street food the way Dave and I love street food, you might want to bookmark this: The CN Traveler list of Michelin-starred street food spots around the world.

• These handwritten slides of invertebrates at the Harvard Museum of Natural History are so beautiful. Visitors to the exhibit can peek through a microscope to view eight delicate specimens from the collection. There’s also a ‘wall of oversized images highlights the beauty and diversity of the slide-mounted specimens found at the microscope.’ While there, you can also pay a visit to the famous Rockefeller Beetles.

• Irresistible headline of the week: 5 Literary Conspiracy Theories — Debunked. ‘The literary world is no safe haven from wild conspiracy theories. It has its own supposed cover-ups, extraterrestrials, and cryptids lurking in the bookish backwoods.’

• The Library of Congress continues to do the best work. In honor of America’s 250th birthday, they’re creating a video series that ‘explores the vibrant literary heritage of the United States.’ Each installment focuses on a different US state to showcase local storytellers and their regions. Find all the American Stories: A Reading Road Trip videos at that link; it’s updated as new ones are produced.

• This is always a great list for building a TBR! The finalists for the 2026 Gotham Book Prize have been announced. The Gotham Book Prize is awarded annually to the best book, fiction or nonfiction, that features New York City.

• Are you watching the new adaptation of Agatha Christie’s Seven Dials? Here are all the country homes and historic towns featured in the show.

• Dreamy! These Historic Railcars Take You to Any Amtrak Destination in America.

• Recommended Persuasion Readalikes. It’s nice to provide a novel with a few friends!

Liberty’s in every blow! Let us do or die! — from Scots Wha Hae by Robert Burns

Top image courtesy of Jonathan Francisca/Unsplash.