Faith, Fiction, Friends: Saturday Good Reads

It’s surprising, but people are talking of the “golden age of the blogosphere,” the period roughly from 2000 to 2006 or 2007 when blogging was all the rage. I can remember sitting in a communications staff meeting in 2004 and our boss asking if anyone knew what a blog was. No one did, except for me. I was the new kid on the block and had experienced blogs in my previous job. The blog era was peaking right about then. It would soon be displaced by what people started referring to as social media, and especially Facebook.

Facebook ended the golden age of blogging, but blogs have hung on (like this one of mine). With all of the controversy now surrounding social media, and especially Facebook, a few people are beginning to ask, is it possible to reconnect the blogosphere? Michael Bates at BatesLine is one of those asking the question. In the years ahead, the answer may be especially important for Christians.

Speaking of golden ages, we may be experiencing a resurgence of interest in and writing of poetry. If what I discovered this week is any indication, we are indeed entering a golden age for poetry. Tom Darin Liskey has a moving poem on a history of grief. Chris Yokel has a timely poem on The Existential Snowman. The Shankill Road in Northern Ireland is the subject of a poem by James Matthew Wilson. Jolene Nolte at Fathom Magazine writes about The Single Life. And Elizabeth Harwell at The Rabbit Room reflects on Mary Oliver’s Gift of Stumbling Stones.

More Good Reads

Writing and Literature

Tracing Footsteps Not My Own: Going Through the Motions, Learning to Write – B.J. Hollars at The Millions.

The Poetry of the Puritans – Andrew Roycroft at Thinking Pastorally.

The Dark and Dreamy Noir of The Great Gatsby – Lisa Levy at CrimeReads.

Their Lives Go On Until They Don’t: The Trouble with Refugee Novels – Robert Rubsam at The Millions.

Life and Culture

Is Big Tech Merging with Big Brother? Kinda Looks Like It – David Samuels at Wired.

Fables of School Reform – Audrey Watters at The Baffler.

Secularism is Boring – Nicholas McDonald at ScribblePreach.

New Media

The Crisis Facing American Journalism Did Not Start With the Internet – Jeremy Littau at Slate.