Endnotes 29 May: Greatest Swimming 2026, Summer Reads, Tiny Books, Rivals Picnic, Similes & Extra

Hello, hi there!

It bought significantly heat right here in Prague this week, which bought me interested by 1) attempting to squeeze a seashore getaway in to our summer season and a pair of) lastly attempting out the swimming pool on the Podolí Swimming Center, which is an affordable (and really fairly stroll) alongside the river from our flat.

If heat climate additionally has you daydreaming about splashing about in cool water (or, buddies within the southern hemisphere, wintery climate has you craving hotter climes), we’ve bought you lined with daydreamy seashores and swimming pools to maintain you cool IRL or your creativeness.

First up: The list of 50 best beaches in the world for 2026. It was decided by nominations, which have been then rated on particulars like uniqueness, wildlife, pure surroundings, tranquility, water high quality, and extra. (I might personally embody accessibility to nice snacks.) This journey website picked its top five from the list, and it’s onerous to argue with pink sand, penguins, and cliff-lined coves. (And right here’s the TimeOut list of top 30).

If a pool is extra your factor, Town & Country posits that the world’s greatest pools are about more than just swimming (‘A great hotel pool has almost nothing to do with exercise. It is theater. A place to see and be seen…’) But then, Triathlete journal solutions again with the world’s 12 most beautiful swimming pools that make you want to swim.

You may also get pleasure from 11 lazy river resorts around the world, the 19 most spectacular hotel pools in Europe, and the prettiest hotel pools in the United States. For one thing extra exhilarating, right here’s a information for where to wild swim this summer.

Or for one thing fully totally different, maybe you simply wish to stare upon fairly swimming pools while preserving your self (and your ebook) out of the splash zone. To that finish, listed below are photos of Wes Anderson-esque swimming pools and pics of serene, symmetrical pools by artist Soo Burnell.

P.S.
The picture on the high of this put up is a part of a group of photographs from the County Archives in Vestland (Norway). They work to ‘preserve & disseminate cultural heritage material & historical documents from & about Vestland.’ You can see more of their historical photo collection here on Unsplash.

The picture above is captioned…

Mathilde as a younger woman, swimming together with her sisters. Childhood picture of three Pettersen sisters on vacation. They have been daughters of a stone mason and lived in central Bergen. Mathilde on the proper.

… which requested so many extra questions than it answered. Who have been the Pettersen’s? Am I presupposed to know who Mathilde was? Why is she known as out among the many sisters? Where are they swimming?

So, as you might need already guessed: I went a-Googling. I began with ‘stone mason bergen pettersen vestland,’ and was a bit shocked once I bought two attention-grabbing outcomes.

Murmester Petter Pettersen AS is a long-standing masonry and stonework contractor situated in Søreidgrend, simply south of central Bergen, Vestland. Operating since 1946, they focus on each conventional masonry, plastering, and slate and pure stone installations.

Could that firm have been based by Mathilde’s father? Grandfather? The timing might be proper: The picture above might be mid-Twentieth-century.

Then there was a hyperlink to the picture on Flickr, and this:

This assortment of pictures originate within the archive of Elen Loftesnes (1905-1979), native photographer in Sogndal from 1930-1960. She by no means married, and never a lot is understood about her private life. But from her pictures a girl seems, who was clearly crucial to Elen. After additional analysis we discovered this to be Mathilde Pettersen, lifelong companion and sometimes mannequin of the photographer.

Read more about Elen and Mathilde — and enjoy their sweet photographs.

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Some well-curated lists to construct your summer season TBR: The Hay Festival requested 1000’s of readers to share their favourite books to create the pleasure list, a group of 39 nice books. LitHub presents 10 novels you need to read this summer. If that’s too many choices and resolution fatigue will get you down, listed below are five must-read books of the summerfrom the editor of the Five Books website.

YES! The new summer reading bingo from What To Read If has landed. Elizabeth’s classes are at all times a lot enjoyable: seashore setting, commerce books with a buddy, graphic novel, ebook that made you snicker, and extra. (LitHub additionally has a fresh take on a summer reading challenge.)

I clicked so shortly: The Top 10 Animal Sleuths. ‘…after several pots of tea and more than one good scolding from my own feline colleague, Hylia, here are my favorite animal sleuths of all time.’

Respect; this stage of dedication and nerdiness is to be admired. Let us elevate a glass to the archivists who make the trivialities magical. This Archivist Has Saved 175,000 Articles from 30 Years of Writing about Magic: The Gathering. ‘Named after a Magic card, the Library of Leng is a new searchable database of writing about the card game. It pulled old Usenet articles, hobbyist posts from old websites saved in the Internet Archive, and updates from publisher Wizards of the Coast that are routinely scrubbed from existence.’

Some of the smallest books on the world’s largest library…

Jet lag generally is a actual drag. According to this WaPo journey author, there is an app that really does seem to help. (reward hyperlink)

‘If you want to participate in Pat Perry’s new picture undertaking, you’ll should get comfy heading exterior, grabbing just a few buddies, and making ready to hunt high and low for obscure spots in your neighborhood. The Detroit-based artist just lately launched Liminal Bingo, a communal picture hunt designed particularly for individuals ages 5 to 105 dwelling in boring locations or thrilling locations.’ Colossal magazine has all the details and the sweet art so you’ll be able to play in your neighborhood.

I beloved S1 of the sequence Rivals primarily based on the ebook by Jilly Cooper (and, as I explained in this podcast episode, the audiobook is implausible enjoyable). We’re doing a rewatch earlier than we dive into S2, and I’d be mendacity if I stated I wasn’t fully smitten with these tips to throw a picnic Dame Jilly Cooper would be proud of. ‘Eating outside does something to appetite and to mood that’s onerous to clarify rationally – meals tastes higher, dialog flows extra simply, time strikes otherwise. The French have their grand traditions round it, the Italians their equal, however the British model – blustery, cheerfully impractical, aggressively decided to get pleasure from itself regardless of the climate – has a specific attraction that’s all its personal.’

Related: Meet the three real-life rakes who inspired Jilly Cooper’s most irresistible rogue Rupert Campbell-Black. ‘Described as the most handsome man in England, Rupert Campbell-Black seduces his way through a portfolio of women across the various books in the series, captivating readers and viewers alike with both his disarming charm and outrageous cruelty…’ and in a 2024 interview, Cooper revealed the actual males behind her fictitious hero.

A Look at the Martha’s Vineyard Locations That Made Jaws the Ultimate Summer Movie. #bestsummermovie

I’ve been a Barry Manilow fan since 1978, once I discovered how you can play ‘Even Now’ on the piano. This interview is so good, I discovered issues concerning the singer-songwriter I didn’t know. (It’s value clicking only for the pictures.)

Tangentially associated: Inside the Homes of Vintage-Obsessed Modern Showgirls Keeping Las Vegas Kitsch Alive. ‘A new wave of financially independent female entertainers — the very women who might have once taken orders from the men in charge — are now snapping up those time-capsule residences and reimagining them with flamboyant decor that keeps the kitschy ethos of the city alive, one velvet wall, mirrored ceiling, and lava-rock lounge at a time. In Vegas today, the showgirls are holding the cards.’ Again, the pictures!

Word-nerd enjoyable! Here’s an analysis of the similes in 200,000 novels.

The play Jane Eyre Convention sounds actually nice! ‘The show is set at the world’s first ever Jane Eyre Convention, the place we discover a group of barely neurotic Brontë-aficionados gathered to reenact scenes from their favourite novel.’

When tabletop video games and literature collide: Prose & Cons. It’s described as ‘Cards Against Humanity’ with an English diploma, however ‘one that the whole table can play without anyone needing a content warning.’

I like that we reside in a world with a poet-in-residence at the Guggenheim. ‘I want to think about the way language, story, and song circulate through time and space.’

‘The haunting at the heart of the Gothic is the unbearable truth at the heart of empires: they rest on slavery and genocides, land theft and resource extraction. The lords and ladies in English manors and Southern plantations would prefer not to think too deeply upon this. But the violent truth insists. Repressed, submerged, it bubbles up in Gothic form.’ Author Kyle McCarthy on how the gothic is a gateway to literature’s most enduring themes.

And we finish with a foolish quiz: Which classic should you read this summer? I bought Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland which I gotta say: Not a foul thought.

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