Atlas Obscura by Joshua Foer, Dylan Thuras, & Ella Morton (2016, Workman Publishing Company; 480 pages) According to Lena Dunham, creator of the HBO series Girls and author of Not That Kind of Girl, this book may be the only thing that can still inspire her to leave her apartment. The book can be read as a travel guide, as an encyclopedia of curiosities and marvels, or as one of the most wonderful and stranger books published lately. The reader can choose. Filmmaker Guillermo del Toro found haunted hotels and the mouth of hell to travel to. High-wire artist Philippe Petit found that, since life is short and the planet is filled with curiosities, this book is a must-have as a guide. Neil Gaiman, author of Sandman, declared after reading it that this is the kind of book that you want to pack in your workaday life and head out to places you'd never have dreamed of going, to see things you could not even have imagined. What I found after reading it is that it is impossible to absorb all the information if you read it only once. This is a book to read over and over again, one to keep on your nightstand. I also learned information about my country of origin that I wasn't aware of. I learned about Don Justo's Self-Built Cathedral in Mejorada del Campo, Madrid. Don Justo is a former monk with no experience in architecture, construction, or engineering, who has been building a cathedral out of recycled and donated materials since 1961! The goal of the book was to create a catalog of all the places, people, and things that inspire our sense of wonder. It is really a cabinet of curiosities that, for the authors, is meant to inspire wonderlust as much as wanderlust. I think they've succeeded. The reader can explore all the continents, and there are special chapters for Canada and the USA. Alaska has a place too. The reader will learn about spirit houses, the mukluk land, the Lady of the Lake, the Aurora Ice Museum, and the Adak National Forest, among other wonders. I would recommend this book to any curious soul out there, to travelers, and to encyclopedia lovers. A must. Find this title in our catalog: Atlas Obscura Recommended by: Maite
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