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

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 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. This video celebrates Galway’s reign as the 2020 European Capital of Culture. Or 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:

• The Casa Bonita restaurant in Lakewood, Colorado, is bananas and also intriguing. Atlas Obscura gets into the details — and here’s the official website in case you need to go. (If you do, please report back.)

• If you’ve ever considered moving abroad, the details in Where Americans Actually Thrive in Europe (and Where They Don’t) are very interesting.

• My recommendation for a daily dose of happiness: The eternally cheerful website and nonprofit We Rate Dogs has a free daily newsletter that features one great dog per day. Sign up for the free newsletter right here.

• Last week, I shared a bunch of resources about the TV series Widow’s Bay. More excellent recommendations for read-alike novels have popped up! Sadie Hartmann — aka, Mother Horror — has fantastic taste in all things spooky. Here’s her list: What to Read While We Wait for Widow’s Bay S2. There are good ones here, too:

• Kind of related: 10 Locations from Horror Films of the 1970s and ’80s.

• I would have liked this list anyway, but I was tickled to see Strong Sense of Place included in 7 Newsletters I Can’t Stop Recommending.

• Ooooh, Apple has a new documentary about American artist Georgia O’Keeffe, and actress Claire Danes narrates as the voice of the artist. (In this video, the filmmakers Paul and Ellen Wagner talk about the project.)

• 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.