Roof Beam Reader
Adam Burgess
Sunday Salon (1:4)
RBR Sunday Salon
Volume 1, Issue 4
Welcome to the fourth volume of Roof Beam Reader’s Sunday Salon!
This week, in addition to recapping my own posts and sharing what I’m currently reading, I’m sharing my favorite reads from my favorite bloggers, as well as a number of fascinating articles from across the web, including some on science, history, and politics.
I look forward to hearing about what you’ve read/written this week, or what you think about the links I’ve shared. Please feel free to comment below. Happy September!
Blog Posts I Loved
- Reading In Winter: “My Favourite Bookish Books.” ” I don’t know what it is but I love a book about books, or one that takes place in a bookstore, or about a librarian – they’re just so much fun to me!”
- What Cathy Read Next: “Back to School – Books Set in Schools/Colleges.” “In view of it being the start of the new school/college year soon, this week’s topic is Back to School/Learning Freebie. I’ve decided to pick ten books set in schools or colleges, not necessarily all models of educational excellence!”
- Books and Chocolate: “The Mystery of Edwin Drood: We Will Never Know Because Its Unfinished.” “Written just a few years after Our Mutual Friend, I’m sure this would have been among my favorite Dickens novels if it had been finished — I felt like the story was just starting to get really good when it was sadly over. “
Literary Miscellany
- Lifehacker: “You Shouldn’t Have to Read these Books in High School.” “My own high school stuck close to the classics, making conservative choices that I had to supplement on my own time. This is normal. But given little structure for finding the great books of my own era, or even the less musty ones of recent past, I flailed around, grabbing my mom’s copies of Grisham and Crichton, spending too much time on Palahniuk—all stuff I’d grow out of, and not regret but not particularly cherish.”
History & Politics
- CNN Politics: “READ: Sen. John McCain’s Farewell Statement.” “We are citizens of the world’s greatest republic, a nation of ideals, not blood and soil. [ . . . ] We weaken our greatness when we confuse our patriotism with tribal rivalries that have sown resentment and hatred and violence in all the corners of the globe. We weaken it when we hide behind walls, rather than tear them down, when we doubt the power of our ideals, rather than trust them to be the great force for change they have always been.”
Culture & Society
- Clarion Ledger: “Emmett Till Is No Less Powerful, 63 Years Later.” “In 1955, the image of a battered Emmett Till gave a face to all black men who were victims of violence, men who by the virtue of the color of their skin were presumed to be dangerous.”
- The Silent Film Quarterly: “No More Tears Over Lost Films.” “In the 21st century, it is easy to look back and lament how many films could have been saved. But the harsh reality is that movie studios were businesses, first and foremost, and there was zero monetary incentive to preserve early films. Once a movie was released and shown at theaters across the country, it was effectively finished. Storage of nitrate film reels was costly and dangerous. If these films had no commercial potential, what was the point of utilizing valuable resources to save them?”
Science, Tech., & Nature
- Mirror: “Scientists Discover a Genetic Link Between Cannabis Use and Schizophrenia.” “That is not a big surprise, because previous studies have often shown that cannabis use and schizophrenia are associated with each other. However, we also studied whether this association is causal.”
Teaching & Writing
- Medium: “Will Ludgwigsen’s Foul-Mouthed Writing Checklist.” I’m like the Lewis Black of professors, twitching and ranting until we all go home tired. I keep having a hard time with a rubric that really gets at what I think makes a good story, and after much thought, I think this is pretty much it.
Posts from Roof Beam Reader
Currently Reading
- Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
- So Big by Edna Ferber (for #CCSPIN)
Thank you for stopping by and taking part in another SUNDAY SALON. There was much to choose from this week, and I hope I have presented you with a decent selection. Some of these I found interesting and engaging, others troubling and bothersome. I would love to hear your thoughts on any of these or the other things you’ve read this week!
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