Tuesday, March 01, 2022

Atlas Obscura

I came across this book in an all-night gas station convenience store, of all places. With coffee in hand, a few minutes to spare, and the purchase of a birthday present on my to-do list, I read a few pages and was entranced. I picked up one for the birthday girl (our adult daughter), then ordered an extra copy for me.

For anyone who's adventurous and likes travel, Atlas Obscura is a great read, an awesome reference book, and a truly unique trip planning guide. The book lives up to its name, directing adventurers to obscure, fascinating, odd-ball destinations at home and abroad.

From amazon's description of the first edition:

"It's time to get off the beaten path. Inspiring equal parts wonder and wanderlust, Atlas Obscura celebrates over 700 of the strangest and most curious places in the world.

"... the dazzling glowworm caves in New Zealand, or a baobob tree in South Africa that's so large it has a pub inside where 15 people can drink comfortably. Architectural marvels, including the M.C. Escher-like stepwells in India. Mind-boggling events, like the Baby Jumping Festival in Spain, where men dressed as devils literally vault over rows of squirming infants. Not to mention the Great Stalacpipe Organ in Virginia, Turkmenistan's 40-year hole of fire called the Gates of Hell, a graveyard for decommissioned ships on the coast of Bangladesh, eccentric bone museums in Italy, or a weather-forecasting invention that was powered by leeches, still on display in Devon, England.

"Created by Joshua Foer, Dylan Thuras and Ella Morton, ATLAS OBSCURA revels in the weird, the unexpected, the overlooked, the hidden and the mysterious. Every page expands our sense of how strange and marvelous the world really is. And with its compelling descriptions, hundreds of photographs, surprising charts, maps for every region of the world, it is a book to enter anywhere, and will be as appealing to the armchair traveler as the die-hard adventurer.

"Anyone can be a tourist. ATLAS OBSCURA is for the explorer."

Buy the second edition here (100 more destinations, and more).

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