Library Lover's Day, Ron Charles, 1930s Berlin, Flower Collage & More: Endnotes 13 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.

How sweet! Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day, and/but more importantly, it’s International Library Lover’s Day! A holiday that honors libraries, librarians, and the love of reading. It was started by the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) to encourage library visits, promote library services, and celebrate the crucial role libraries play in fostering literacy, connecting communities, and supporting lifelong learning. Why not take yourself or your favorite person on a date to the library this weekend? You can enjoy a blind date with a book, thank a librarian in person, or simply wander the stacks, soaking up all those good library vibes. To get in the mood, you could re-listen to our podcast The Library: Endless Books, Reading Nooks, and Lots of Possibility. In this episode, we discuss some of the highlights and larger-than-life personalities of library history, then recommend two wonderfully nerdy nonfiction books that explore bookshelves and archives, a sweeping literary cycle centered around a magical library, a historical novel with dueling timelines, and an exuberant story about a secret library. For more library love, visit our Library Destination Page for more books featuring libraries, virtual visits to beautiful libraries around the world, the story of Mary Kingsbury, the first school librarian, and a must-read poem about the magic of falling into a book. As actress Lauren Wood said, ‘Libraries always remind me that there are good things in this world.’ (Treat yourself to more lovely library quotes.)

• Ron Charles, the former book critic for The Washington Post, is my favorite writer and recommender of books. He was laid off last week during the murder of WaPo, and I am not here for that. Happily, he’s started a Substack and plans to keep sharing reviews, interviews, and his opinions. Ron shared an interview with NPR’s Scott Simons a few days ago; you can watch it here. This essay on LitHub is a really nice piece of writing and outlines the history of WaPo’s excellent Book World. ‘To put it bluntly, you read the Times Book Review because you had to, but you read Book World because you wanted to.’

• Collider has a pretty great list of 9 legendary Gothic books that became movie masterpieces. I gotta say: This would make for a spectacular film festival.

• Related: Remember when I gushed about the Gothic audio story collection Haunted Voices in our podcast episode Scotland: Wraiths, Rebels, and Royalty? Sadly, Haunt Publishing, the company that produced it, is being shuttered. One bright spot for readers: Their carefully curated Gothic works are 50% off on their website. Use the code HAUNT50 at checkout. Pro tip: The Gingerbread Men is great!

• Christie’s auction house shared their picks for the best new art books of 2026.

• The usually hateful algorithm served me this poem — ‘Everything Is Going To Be Alright’ by Derek Mahon — just when I needed it:

• Ooh, there’s a new travel-and-library related letter subscription service. With The Wandering Librarian you follow Sophie, a rogue librarian travelling the globe to meet people dedicated to spreading the joy of reading.’ The letters are illustrated and filled with stories of her adventures around the globe. (Thanks to friend-of-SSoP Michelle A. for sharing this with us.)

• I’m experiencing a severe case of Brontëmania right now. I just finished a re-read of Wuthering Heights — and I’m seeing the much-maligned film adaptation today (!). In 2026, my plan is to do a close read of five other Brontë titles in their publication order: Agnes Grey (Anne), Jane Eyre (Charlotte), The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (Anne), and Villette (Charlotte). All of that to say that I thoroughly enjoyed this post about the Brontë siblings’ tiny books and the way they scribbled in the margins of all their books.

• Related: 10 Acclaimed Books Set in Yorkshire.

• And while we’re at it: CN Traveler visits the beautiful North Yorkshire moors where the new Wuthering Heights was filmed.

• If WH isn’t for you, maybe you’d prefer one of these 20 movies with dreadful weather.

• Well, this is charming! Fiona Veitch Smith — author of the Miss Clara Vale mysteries and the Poppy Denby Investigates series — used a 1930 Baedeker guidebook to (sort of) time travel back to Weimar Berlin. ‘On Herr Baedeker’s advice, I caught the ferry from Newcastle to Amsterdam. In Clara’s day, it was known as the steamer, run by the United Steamship Company, but is now known as DFDS Seaways. Clara, of course, was in a first-class cabin; I managed to fork out for one that at least had a porthole.’

• This is a very funny and rather excellent explanation of Darcy’s proposal in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice:

• If you love a behind-the-scenes peek at how creative people do their work, you’ll enjoy this inside looks at the stage design of Bad Bunny’s halftime show.

• I’m slowly working my way through the (wonderful) nonfiction book The Dress Diary: Secrets from a Victorian Woman’s Wardrobe by Kate Strasdin in which I learned about the artist Mary Delany and her incredible flower collages. Read more about her here.

Get in loser, we’re going to the library.

Top image courtesy of Marcel Strauss/Unsplash.