Weekend Links 6-5-20

We are back after an unexpected hiatus. Actually, I had taken some time off from the day job and consequently spent less time online than normal. As a result, this week's post is a little bit longer as I have been saving a few things that I had wanted to share. Hopefully this week's post will offer you will a needed diversion from the concerns of the week.

As I write this I am waiting for baseball to return. Tom Verducci from Sports Illustrated checked in with Vin Scully to see how he is recovering from his recent fall. Turns out he is missing baseball too. 

Meanwhile, MLB.com writers share their favorite baseball books. Lots of great titles on this list. 

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the Negro Baseball Leagues. Check out this article on why black baseball still matters after all this time. 

Recently at Arlington National Cemetery they opened a 105 year old time capsule. They discovered that the contents had hardly aged. 

Nostalgia alert: Necco Wafers will soon be available in stores again.

This is a fascinating story: a real life Lord of the Flies that turned out far differently from the novel. 

Ranking the 10 best Sherlock Holmes stories.

Why is classic crime fiction still so popular? You can't do any better than asking Martin Edwards. His book The Story of Classic Crime in 100 Books is an indispensable resource. 

More interesting history: How the Black Plague gave rise to the British pub culture.

Alan Jacobs' advice to journalists: stop saying "experts".

This brings back memories: the history of Pac-Man.

An appreciation of one of the best crime dramas of all time: The Rockford Files.

Finally, if there is one writer I can heartily recommend in these dark times it is P. G. Wodehouse. His sunny dispositon and endless optimism is the perfect antidote to these dark times. This New Yorker article explores what happened to Wodehouse following his ill-advised radio broadcasts from Germany during his internment.  Meanwhile, this BBC article headline says it all: the man who wrote the most perfect sentences ever written. 

Daily Links 3-28-14

Returning just in time to provide you with some interesting reading for your weekend: where is the next James Madison, choice rather than more spending will fix education, an anniversary surprise, and more.

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Where is the next James Madison? An article well worth reading and thinking about from Erich Bridges.

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Making the case for school choice:

The alternatives to traditional public schools differ in many ways, but they all discard the idea of government dictating where students go to school, how money is spent and what's being taught. 

Instead, students and their parents pick the schools. Money goes with the student. Schools survive and prosper by doing a better job of educating. If they don't deliver, the students will find another school, taking the money with them. 

Students will be better served in private schools run like businesses. There's no reason to shy away from what this means: operating for profit, replacing principals with CEOs, paying good teachers more, firing bad teachers, giving schools freedom to innovate in instruction methods and curriculum, letting new schools enter the market, allowing bad schools to fail, encouraging successful schools to take over unsuccessful ones, getting rid of unions that protect bad teachers and stifle change. 

 Hat tip: Glenn Reynolds, who also wrote a terrific book on this subject.

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Not that there is any doubt in my mind but here's 4 reasons why real books are better than e-books. (via Aaron Armstrong)

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Anyone who is a fan of Sherlock Holmes knows all about his arch enemy Professor James Moriarty. But was he a real person?

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Give the Tampa Bay Rays credit: they know how to help a couple celebrate an anniversary.

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And while we're on the subject of baseball, this book is at the top of my reading list:

Here's an early review of the book. Thanks to the author for the tip.

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Want to become a better writer? Try copying the work of others.

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Some very odd and specific rules from libraries.

Daily Links 1-6-14

Godd morning! In today's edition: Hugh Hewitt on living The Happiest Life, Sherlock Holmes the scientist, don't waste you weaknesses, essential books on the American Revolution, and more.

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National Review's Kathryn Jean Lopez interviews Hugh Hewitt about his newest book The Happiest Life. Related: my review of the book. It was also one of my favorite books I read last year.

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John Piper encourages us to not waste our weaknesses:

What is your goal in 2014? I hope it is to be humble and to magnify the power of Christ. If it is, then one key strategy is to identify and exploit your weaknesses. 

What does this mean? Negatively, it means that we stop complaining (to God and to people) about the things we are constitutionally not good at. And, positively, it means that we look for ways to turn our weaknesses into a Christ-exalting experience. 

When I say “constitutionally not good at,” I mean that we have done our best to overcome the weakness, but we can’t. God has ordained that, through genetics or life-experience, we are limited, broken, weak. Paul asked that God would take his weakness away (verse 8), but God said no. Which means that sooner or later, we should stop praying against the weakness and accept it as God’s design for our humility and the glory of Christ.

Hat tip: Challies

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How Sherlock Holmes is the archetypal scientist.

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A symposium on the essential titles to read about the American Revolution. (Hat tip: Washington's Library). I would recommend David McCullough's 1776 and John Adams, David Hackett Fischer's Washington's Crossing, and Jeff Shaara's two Revolutionary War novels Rise to Rebellion and The Glorious Cause as a good place to start.

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What does the future hold for libraries in the digital age? Here are five possibilities.

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Joe Carter offers a more unconventional (and possibly more practical) method for reading the Bible:

A few years ago I stumbled across a variation of the four steps in an article by theologian Fred Sanders and implemented his recommendation that day. I later had the pleasure of meeting Sanders in person and telling him how his post had transformed my life. My hope is that at least one other person will follow this advice and experience the same transformative effect.

Before I reveal the four steps I want to reiterate that while the advice could transform your life, it likely will not. As with most life-altering advice, it is simple, easy to implement, and even easier to ignore. Statistically speaking, the odds are great that you'll ignore this advice. 

But a handful of you will try it so for the one or two people who will find this useful, the four steps that will transform your worldview are:

1. Choose a book of the Bible.

2. Read it in its entirety.

3. Repeat step #2 twenty times.

4. Repeat this process for all books of the Bible. 

Christians often talk about having a Biblical worldview yet most have only a rudimentary knowledge of the Bible. They attempt to build a framework without first gathering the lumber and cement needed to create a solid foundation. The benefits of following this process should therefore be obvious. By fully immersing yourself into the text you'll come to truly know the text. You'll deepen your understanding of each book and knowledge of the Bible as a whole.

Daily Links 1-1-14

Happy New Year! Here is a bookish roundup of links to start your new year off right.

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This is surprising: through the first eight months of 2013, sales of e-books were only up slightly but sales of hardcover books were increasing by double digits.

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Copyright news: a court ruled last week that the bulk of the Sherlock Holmes stories have now fallen into the public domain as the copyrights have expired in the United States. This will, of course, make it easier for the materials to be published here.

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Scientific evidence that reading is good for you:

Being pulled into the world of a gripping novel can trigger actual, measurable changes in the brain that linger for at least five days after reading, scientists have said.

The new research, carried out at Emory University in the US, found that reading a good book may cause heightened connectivity in the brain and neurological changes that persist in a similar way to muscle memory.

The changes were registered in the left temporal cortex, an area of the brain associated with receptivity for language, as well as the the primary sensory motor region of the brain.

Neurons of this region have been associated with tricking the mind into thinking it is doing something it is not, a phenomenon known as grounded cognition - for example, just thinking about running, can activate the neurons associated with the physical act of running.

The neural changes that we found associated with physical sensation and movement systems suggest that reading a novel can transport you into the body of the protagonist,” said neuroscientist Professor Gregory Berns, lead author of the study.

“We already knew that good stories can put you in someone else’s shoes in a figurative sense. Now we’re seeing that something may also be happening biologically.”

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Life lessons from Winnie-the Pooh:

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A wonderful photo gallery of 62 of the world's most beautiful libraries.

Codrington Library, Oxford University, England

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Finally, here's my favorite books I read in 2013.