Hello, Mel and I are on our summer holiday, so we are rerunning a popular episode of the Library of Lost Time.

It's the one about the really cool postcards and two fascinating nonfiction books that would make great summer reads.

Our new episode of Strong Sense of Place about Norway is going to drop next week. We hope you're having a fun summer. Here's the show.

Coming up, a travel guide to unique places of myth, legend, and literature. A Manhattan

death investigator writes about what that's like. Plus, our distraction of the week. I'm Mel.

I'm Dave. This is the Library of Lost Time. When Ken Jennings was on his Jeopardy

winning streak in 2004, I saw every show and became a super fan. Yeah. I was so delighted when he

quit his job as a software engineer to become a writer. That just seemed like such a magical

career arc to me. Yeah. Engineer, go on a game show, win a bunch of money become a writer. Fantastic.

His book Maphead is a love letter to the world of weird maps, and Brainiac dives deep into the

world of trivia competitions, and I loved both of them. His writing style is

conversational and funny, and it never feels like you're seeing his research on the page. It's clear

that he's done a lot of research, and then he lived with the information long enough that he can

turn it into a story. He has a new book out called 100 Places to See After You Die. It's a guidebook to the

afterlife that explores destinations from literature, mythology, and pop culture. It's written in the

style of a travel guide with tips for getting the most out of your time in places like Valhalla and

Hades. It has suggestions for what you might wear in the palace of the Hindu Lord Vishnu.

It tells you how to avoid the flesh-eating serpents in the afterlife of the Star Trek

Klingons.

Yikes!

Jennings also visits the Hieronymus Bosch painting, The Garden of Earthly Delights,

Disneyland rides, and the TV shows Twin Peaks, and its spiritual opposite, The Good Place.

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