Marriage roles are hotly contested in our society. Wrapped up as they are not just in the deeply important work of the family but also in debates over conceptions of biological sex itself, these roles are difficult to define. Efforts […]
reading
What are you reading?
Billy Budd is one of Herman Melville’s most enigmatic writings. It involves an inexplicable animosity toward a handsome sailor, an accidental death, and a verdict of ambiguous justness. The captain of the ship on which the events take place is […]
What I am reading: binge-reading Vodolazkin on the fly
It has been an unusually excitement-packed couple of weeks for the Williams household. Last week, Dan traveled to Wheaton College to give a lecture on the fragmentation of American evangelicalism (and you can read his blog post about it). This […]
What I am reading: reflections on Vodolazkin and the joys of communal reading
Perhaps the first sensation you experience as you walk in is the smell. One way to describe it is musty, but that is not entirely it. It is not entirely unpleasant. The wooden walls of the old cabin have absorbed […]
What I am reading: Brian Scoles
How did I become a quirky reader? In large part, I blame it on the World Book Encyclopedia. I can only imagine how many hours I joyfully wasted on my guilty pleasure. This probably tells you something about the social […]
What I am reading: John Ferling
I am working on a book on America’s Revolutionary War, so most of my reading of late has focused on that conflict. But I am a voracious and omnivorous reader and I break away from the eighteenth century when possible, […]
What I Am Reading: Colleen Vasconcellos
I have loved books since I was old enough to read. Some of my most treasured memories are quiet afternoons that I spent with my mom at the public library, testing the seams of a ratty Book of the Month […]
On reading other people’s diaries
This weekend my daughter and her boyfriend came to visit for Thanksgiving. It was his first visit to our stately abode in south central Pennsylvania and during the course of his stay she decided to show him my basement office. […]
“A love of reading.” Now there’s a college general education outcome we can all get behind.
Here is community college dean Matt Reed at Insider Higher Education: Love of reading isn’t all puppies and unicorns, of course. We have a frightening number of books in the house, both on display and in boxes in the basement. […]
What are you reading this summer?
Check out Jennifer Harlan’s New York Times piece on the history of summer reading. Here is a taste: Something about these dog days, more than any other time of year, invites readers to bury themselves in a book — and […]