Welcome to Twin Peaks: An Access Guide to the Town

by David Lynch, Mark Frost, Richard Saul Wurman

An unforgettable, in-depth tour of the town that captured America's imagination. This one-of-a-kind guide includes everything from Norma Jenning's cherry pie recipe to the type of tree the Log Lady's log is from to the Double R. Diner's Specials for the Week. Fully illustrated with photographs, line drawings, and color maps.

Genres: Fiction, Film, Tv, Travel, Pop Culture, Media Tie In, American

112 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

David Keith Lynch was an American filmmaker, visual artist, musician, and actor. He received acclaim for his films, which are often distinguished by their surrealist, dreamlike qualities. In a career spanning more than fifty years, he was awarded numerous accolades, including the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the Venice Film Festival in 2006 and an Honorary Academy Award in 2019. Described as a "visionary", Lynch was considered one of the most important filmmakers of his era.
Lynch studied painting before he began making short films in the late 1960s. His first feature-length film was the independent surrealist film Eraserhead (1977), which saw success as a midnight movie. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director for the biographical drama The Elephant Man (1980), the neo-noir thriller Blue Velvet (1986), and the surrealist mystery Mulholland Drive (2001). His romantic crime drama Wild at Heart (1990) won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. He also directed the space opera adaptation Dune (1984), the surrealist neo-noir Lost Highway (1997), the biographical drama The Straight Story (1999), and the experimental film Inland Empire (2006).
Lynch and Mark Frost created the ABC series Twin Peaks (1990–91), for which he was nominated for five Primetime Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series and Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series. Lynch co-wrote and directed its film prequel, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992), and a third season in 2017. He also portrayed FBI agent Gordon Cole in Twin Peaks and John Ford in Steven Spielberg's The Fabelmans (2022), and guest-starred in shows such as The Cleveland Show (2010–13) and Louie (2012).
Lynch also worked as a musician, recording the albums BlueBOB (2001), Crazy Clown Time (2011), and The Big Dream (2013), as well as painting and photography. He wrote the books Images (1994), Catching the Big Fish (2006), and Room to Dream (2018). He directed several music videos, for artists such as X Japan, Moby, Interpol, Nine Inch Nails, and Donovan, and commercials for Dior, YSL, Gucci, and the NYC Department of Sanitation. A practitioner of Transcendental Meditation (TM), he founded the David Lynch Foundation to fund meditation lessons for students, veterans, and other "at-risk" populations. Lynch died on January 15, 2025, after being evacuated from his home due to the wildfires that started in Southern California earlier that month.

Reviews

[Jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

Following Dale Cooper's advice, I decided to give myself a present every day, once a day. I didn't plan it, I didn't wait for it. I just let it happen, and read this.

[Garrett Zecker · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really fun fourth-wall breaking tourist guide to the TP universe, the Twin Peaks Guide takes you on a tour of the city’s sights and sounds as if you picked up the book at the airport and planned on making the journey to the little hamlet. Chock full of insights into the universe, the characters, the restaurants, sights, foliage, wildlife, history, and industry of the area, this guidebook presents everything that the show doesn’t cover and almost works as a bible to the universe if one were planning on writing some more episodes or a fan fic of the area.

I picked this up again as I am prepping myself for the new season. I read The Secret Diary, The Autobiography of Dale Cooper (both of these for the third or fourth time at least), and The Secret History of Twin Peaks (for the first time) already, and I am planning on listening to my Dale Cooper tapes audiobook again…once I find my tape player here somewhere. What was really interesting was noticing the overlaps between The Secret History of Twin Peaks and this guidebook, actually – honestly a lot of what is contained in here, albeit in a manner which is hidden without context, is the same material that is explained in the Secret History book believe it or not. Once could read the Secret History and find much of the same stuff, but contextualized WAY more, but this has some clues scattered about in neat, hidden ways. It was cool reading this again after the new book.

It is a lot of fun, and perhaps the real magic is in the fact that it is almost like reaching into the television screen to pull out the guidebook and use it as if you were a character stepping through that fourth wall of the screen and examining what is happening in town. My ONLY complaint about the book really is that the pictures of the actors are definitely Hollywood-produced headshots/press pack shots rather than something that looks a little more like it belongs in a book like this… The illustrations, however, were great, and I really like the minutiae like the phone book section and advertisements.

[Jess ❈Harbinger of Blood-Soaked Rainbows❈]

MY BIRTHDAY IS IN NOVEMBER!!! HINT HINT....


Words cannot describe how much I WANT THIS BOOK NOW!

[Julia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh this was FUN ! If you're a Twin Peaks (super) fan this is definitely the book for you. Besides its many details on the city and on the people that inhabit it, it has excelent humour!

[Jerome Berglund · Rating 5 out of 5]

Chock full of interesting canonical knowledge and revelations. Surprisingly informative, and lays all the foundations for "The Secret History of Twin Peaks". If you enjoy that you should definitely read this and if you haven't read that read this first! <3

[M.liss · Rating 4 out of 5]

So fun!

[Adrian Santiago · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't feel I lost my time reading this (or spending a LOT of money for it since I live in Mexico City).

But I don't feel like reading the whole thing was that worty. I mean, the first 20 pages where very good and had a lot of info (which I guess Frost later used for The Secret History of), I like the notes on the native tribes being cannibalistic and having rituals and legends about the land.

At the end we get info about the prison to be constructed on the Mill place, which makes a big plot on Audrey and the last things we know about her in season 2. That kind of things are cool, just like the Passion Play, but still... there's no big deal on the guide or I wasn't good enough to get the riddles and that so much stuff we usually get from Mark and David.

[Austin]

For the Twin Peaks obsessive, An Access Guide to the Town is kind of cute—there are quippy one-liners and neat references to background history unexplored in the show. But honestly, there's not enough Twin Peaks, rather, there's 'generic' history that feels detractive from what would be stronger as a true companion to the series.

[Richard Bartholomew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like the other two Twin Peaks tie-in books that came out in the early 1990s (reviewed here and here), this is also supposedly a primary document from the world of the television series – although the authors don’t take their brief too seriously and the work frequently tips into pastiche. The eccentricities of the TV show did not go so far as to have a blind taxi-driver, here posing in his driver's seat with his white cane.

According to a notice printed at the start of book (following an introduction by Mayor Milford), Andrew Packard was a personal friend of Richard Saul Wurman, and funding for Wurman to produce the guide was included in Packard’s will. The text notes Packard’s death in 1987, but also the subsequent uncertainty about his demise.

The book is essentially a miscellany about the town of Twin Peaks, ranging from history and the natural environment to sports and dining (inevitably, a recipe for cherry pie is included). Particularly intriguing are references to a mysterious passion play, and to a secretive Circular Lodge associated with the Owl Cave.

There are also brief profiles of town’s residents scattered in the margins throughout – the last of these is Leland Palmer, which provides the book’s only reference to Laura. Although a business visitor rather than a resident, FBI Agent Dale Cooper is also included, and his middle name revealed.

[Nikolas Kalar · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had a hard time with this. Most of the time it reads like a genuine town guide (and maybe that was the point, and, if so, kudos) but it oftentimes doesn't feel very connected to the world of Twin Peaks, particularly in the early chapters, when it could be describing just about any town in the Pacific Northwest.

But, on the other hand, the writing is occasionally genuinely funny, and the tiny tidbits and additional insights into the characters (their birthdays, favorite foods) are fun, if not important additions to the canon. For Twin Peaks obsessives and completionists only.

[Jeffrey Bumiller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic! Everything you could want to know when preparing to visit Twin Peaks. It's all there from lodging at the Great Northern Hotel, to coffee & Pie at the Double R. A must read for any Twin Peaks fan!

[Justin Aldredge · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very fun read! The four stars are warranted since my enjoyment really just comes out of seeing more of the world and hearing these beloved characters talk about new stuff. I find it very interesting that Pete was the only character given so much dialogue aside of quotes from various characters pinned into different sections. Aside of these characters having fun interactions/moments, there is not any deeper substance to this that connects to the show and movie. It has references to some of the themes, but that's where it ends. Read it over the course of a few days and it is a great timekiller for those who love Twin Peaks, but expect no deeper answers than extra lore for the town/characters.

And on a smaller note, the writing doesn't feel entirely like to Lynch/Frost bite that I really appreciate. Reads closer to a very inspired fanfic headcanon post.

[Jemiah Jefferson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is very silly - but delightful nonetheless. Really only for the most hardcore of Peakies - indeed, I saw the book way back when the show was in its first run, and was disappointed that it mostly seemed very "real world" and a bit smirky at that - but as my fandom was whipped into a frenzy by the third season in the summer of 2017, I obtained a copy and got into it. VERY into it. It's really very sweet and weird and full of Pacific Northwest lore, most of which I simply wouldn't have understood at the time, before I moved to that part of the country. Now I'm really grateful to have things like diagrams of different bark patterns and cones of different pine trees, as well as a thorough directory of basically every business in the town.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maybe not as essential as the diary or dossier, this book will nonetheless be appreciated by true fans. There are just a handful of truly relevant points, but they are worth it. For the most part, the guide captures the quirky side of Twin Peaks rather than the gothic. It's got a bunch of crazy nonsense in it too (menus, list of trees, list of fishing lures), but there are also maps! #SummerOfPeaks

[Swati Shah · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you haven’t watched Twin Peaks seasons 1 and 2, this book will mean nothing. BUT if you have, it’s such a joy! There’s tidbits about the history of Twin Peaks, the culture and the people.

I loved how simple this book was, talking about the flora and fauna and football team. It was clever and insightful and a must have for any Twin Peaks fan.

[Hunter · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is what the secret history of twin peaks should’ve been, it’s cute supplemental material that adds a little bit to the world. I love this kind of stuff, and I love the way it is presented here.

- The varied thrush is not listed in the fauna section despite being in the intro to the show - bizarre choice
- The passion play is interesting
- Going to try the coffee recipe

[Lizzy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sadly, it’s sloppily written, often devolves into boring details or outright self-parody. You don’t get any of the real whimsy or creepiness you’d expect from a book about Twin peaks. Also, lots of the grammar mistakes, formatting errors, and just a cringey lack of editing.

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

This has the same strange and funny feel of the original. Having just watched The Return, it’s clear they didn’t know where they were headed but that’s okay. It’s an enjoyable dive into the backstory of the town, if not the deeper mythology which I’m sure gets covered in the more recent books.

[Kelly Lemieux · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first-of-its-kind fictional travel guide info. inside this book was a huge part of the cult appeal of the original pop phenomenon that was Twin Peaks in 1990--the food, the drink, the town, the diner. May be the kernel for The Secret History of Twin Peaks (2016) by Mark Frost.

[Ainslie Marksen · Rating 5 out of 5]

4-1/2 stars. Amusing, interesting, charming, retaining all the quirky appeal of the inimitable show. Loses a bit of steam by the end, but then I did read nearly all of it in about an hour-and-a-half. Best with coffee and doughnuts.

[John Lindstedt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Easily the worst twin peaks book. I only got it because I know it mentioned the flying frog seen in THE RETURN and maybe some other hints at mythology but generally very dry information about fauna and fishing

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Feels very much like an actual tour guide, complete with typos and local idiosyncrasies. Brilliant in its usage of weaponized pointlessness. Yet even though it initially feels extraneous, little bits of PEAKS mythology rise to the surface, as do pointed moments of bold surrealism.

[Jesse · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fluffy and entertaining. Definitely solid season 2 material.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

subversive and amazing!

[Chevee Dodd · Rating 3 out of 5]

Neat.

[Sam · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5

[Riley Pearson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun, quick read! I seriously need to re-visit the show again sometime. :)

[Peyton]

The Log Lady taught ballroom dancing….mkay! This book is mainly noteworthy cause the frog-moth from Episode 8 is….sort of in this (?????).

[Jacob Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Call Phil Collins because I am in too deep!

[Megan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice little book to browse in preparation for the newest season of Twin Peaks. :-)