Find inspiration for your next trip at Idlewild Books, a unique travel bookstore hidden away in New York’s Flatiron district. In an inventory of 6,000-plus titles, less than half are standard travel guides. The rest are novels, map books, books on politics and culture, even the occasional cookbook or humor book — all arranged by country, not genre. So Lonely Planet France may be flanked by a biography of Julia Child on one side and Diane Johnson’s Le Divorce on the other, which makes for fun and serendipitous browsing. Contemporary novels and maps in several European languages are being added this winter.

Named after the former moniker for JFK Airport, Idlewild is owned by David Del Vecchio, a former U.N. press officer. His job required a hefty amount of travel, mostly to “conflict places,” such as Africa, Colombia, and Nepal. He has also lived in Rome, Barcelona, Prague, and Johannesburg and has visited more than 50 countries.

“Every time I prepared for a trip, I wanted to read about where I was going — contemporary literature, politics, and culture,” Del Vecchio recalls. “And every time I thought, why is this so hard to find?”

Set above the city streets in a second-floor atelier, the store heralds browsers with an illuminated globe set amid a wall of windows. The spacious shop is a fitting venue for guest authors and book-launch events, including selected speakers from Del Vecchio’s roster of former U.N. colleagues.

Find Idlewild Books at 12 W. 19th St. For more info, call 212.414.8888 or visit idlewildbooks.com.

In its first major road gig, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Museum opens an annex this month in the heart of SoHo. Like its parent museum in Cleveland, the annex spins stories of rock music and culture using films, memorabilia, and lots of audio. Visitors wear high-quality stereo headphones connected to a wireless sound system that plays the music appropriate to their location, whether it’s James Brown and 50 Cent in the Roots & Influences gallery or the Grateful Dead in the Moments to Movements section. Manhattan’s music scene gets its due in the New York Rocks exhibit, where an interactive map highlights musical hot spots like Studio 54 and The Hotel Chelsea. Rare artifacts on display include a white Vox electric guitar from The Beatles, a notebook containing Billy Joel’s handwritten lyrics for The Stranger, and the graffiti-plastered phone booth from legendary New York rock club CBGB. To learn more, visit rockannex.com.

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