Galway, Christie Merch, Daily Dog, Summer Horror Reads, Georgia O'Keeffe & More: Endnotes 26 June

Galway, Christie Merch, Daily Dog, Summer Horror Reads, Georgia O'Keeffe & More: Endnotes 26 June

Friday, 26 June, 2026

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.

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The seagull above is hanging out in Galway, a port city on the west coast of Ireland (about two hours by train from Dublin). It combines the rough-and-tumble of an Atlantic Ocean harbor town and medieval architecture with great music, art, and food. To get started on the best things to see and do, here’s the Lonely Planet guide to Galway, Rick Steves’ recommendations, and — for people like us who enjoy the offbeat — Atlas Obscura’s 13 ‘cool, hidden, and unusual things to do. In recent years, Galway has become a foodie destination. Food and Travel serves up a gourmet guide to Galway, and Food & Wine has a nice piece on local seafood. The Guardian shares a local’s best tips, and Saveur has a chef’s guide to the city’s best eats. Treat yourself to a video walk around town and the gorgeous view from a drone.

 
  • The first edition of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, published in 1847, was riddled with errors: incorrect page numbers, missing punctuation, and three misspellings of the word heights. Now one of those rare, beloved first editions is going up for auction. Smithsonian has the story about the book and how it could fetch up to $800,000.

  • Fun! The official Agatha Christie people opened a new Dame Agatha shop. I’m quite taken with the mug that reads, ‘Tea and Scandal at Four-Thirty, a line from her first Miss Marple novel A Murder at the Vicarage from 1930.

  • I felt this deeply: Sorry, Chicago Manual of Style: I’m Not Going to Stop Capitalizing the Word Earth. ‘That one big letter makes all the difference. It reminds us, at a sentence level, that we are inhabitants of a Place, a capital-P Planet.’ A good-natured rant about proper capitalization, plus book recommendations!

  • Kind of related:

  • We’re big fans of Andrew Sean Greer around here; his book Less is on my short list of beloved novels that made me ugly cry (in the best way). His latest Villa Coco is getting mostly rave reviews, and I can’t wait to read it. In this interview with Electric Lit, he answers 20 quick questions. (Spoiler: His book everyone should read? I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith. Such a good choice)
 

May seagulls never steal your french fries.

Top image courtesy of Alex Houque/Unsplash.

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Every Friday, we share our favorite book- and travel-related links. This week, we've got creative summer reading challenges, Las Vegas' kitschy decor, a literary card game, jet lag relief, animal sleuths, and more.
Every Friday, we share our favorite book- and travel-related links. This week, we've got sleepover coffee plantations, a love letter to Milan, 10 new crime novels, Danish library perks, glorious giraffes, and more.
Every Friday, we share our favorite book- and travel-related links. This week, we've got a book-centric art piece, a Pullman-car-turned-restaurant, a visual guide to chilis, Katherine Mansfield's stories, and more.

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