Terra Incognita

Reading non-fiction books is a great way to find story ideas, and Atlas Obscura by Joshua Foer, Dylan Thuras, and Ella Morton is a treasure trove of fascinating facts and places. Although you can visit many of the sites listed, this isn't a guidebook, not really; it's more like a collection of curiosities. Many of the descriptions are quite short, so if you get inspired you'll probably need to do more research, but on the other hand longer descriptions might tire you out while reading the book. 

Here are a few pages from the book. Some of my favourites included learning about a device that uses leeches to predict the weather, strange delicacies like the eggs boiled in the urine of young boys, and monks who try to embalm themselves. 

I also picked up these. You can never have too many atlases, right?