I have always been an avid reader. As far ago as I can remember my bedtime routine was listening to my transistor radio baseball broadcast of a NY Yankee game or with my blanket pulled over my head, reading a book by flashlight.

Years later as I began to a career as a writer, I would spend hours at the many bookstores in Manhattan finding bound volumes that sparked my curiosity. At one time, every wall of my small apartment a block north of Washington Square Park was lined with floor to ceiling bookshelves. When I eventually moved, boxes of books came along for the ride.

I mention my exploration of book collecting because rarely did I come across a specific tome that opened my eyes to unique sights around the world. Recently, I came across a book that, as it said on the cover is “an explorer’s guide to the World’s hidden Wonders.”

Called “Atlas Obscura” it details hundreds upon hundreds of quirky destinations around the world. The destinations in the book, arranged by continents and countries goes far beyond your typical travel guide. Instead, the authors collect and present sites that they hope inspire wanderlust.

To give my readers a taste of its content, I’ll provide you with one such site that, although not in their Atlas, I have used to bring that sense of wanderlust to my friends who make their first visit to Sullivan County. I drive on 17B from Monticello. I make it a point not to mention my intended destination of Bethel Woods. To prevent any clue that might spoil the surprise, I make a right at Happy Lane. I ignore their repeated questions asking about “where are you taking us?”

Minutes later I pull into a small parking lot. Asking my friends to trust me I tell them to shut their eyes, hold hands as I lead them through the opening of the hedges.

I announce that it was time to reveal my gift to them as I tell them to open their eyes. My cell phone camera takes a video as I watch their faces when they realize that they are standing at the monument on the hill overlooking the site of the 1969 Woodstock concert.

It is that sense of finding memorable unique sites that fill the “Atlas Obscura.” I will tease you and hopefully encourage you to seek out your own obscure destination.

Turning to the sites the authors have collected found in the United States, here are some eye-opening samples.

In Dearborn Michigan at the Henry Ford Museum there is a sealed tube that is labeled “Edison’s Last Breath.” Of course, Thomas Edison didn’t exhale his last breath into the test tube. It is meant to celebrate the friendship of America’s two prolific inventors. Ford was working at the Edison Illuminating Company. Ford considered Edison as a personal hero. In 1896, Ford built his first vehicle, a four-wheeled, gas-powered quadricycle.

Edison had been trying to make a vehicle that would run on electricity. They became lifelong friends. When Edison died in 1931 in New Jersey, his son, Charles, in appreciation of his dad’s friendship with Ford did something unique. Next to his father’s death bed were a rack of test tubes. Charles took one, sealed the top with wax and sent it to Ford as a way to remember the friendship that existed between the two inventors.

To show that nature can provide rewards for a person’s wanderlust, the book details the synchronized mating rituals of fireflies in Tennessee Great Smoky Mountains. Emerging from the larval stage, male fireflies only have three weeks to live. To enhance their chances of finding a mate, the males form huge packs and flash in an organized mass so the females can find them. If you visit the natural park at night during those 3 weeks in mid-May you will witness an extraordinary natural light show.

So, my readers, if you uncover any obscure places of unique happenings, feel free to email me and perhaps I will share them in a future column.

Hudson Cooper is a resident of Sullivan County, a writer, comedian and actor.