Sparklers, Literary Hotels, Wimbledon, Ice Cream Cookbooks, Seattle Noir & More: Endnotes 04 July

Every Friday, we celebrate the weekend — and all the reading and relaxing and daydreaming time ahead — with Melissa's favorite book- and travel-related links of the week. Why work when you can read fun stuff?!

This post is part of our Endnotes series.

Is it even summer if you don’t write your name in the dark with a sparkler? Some historians say we have Byzantine architect Callinicus of Heliopolis to thank for sparklers. He invented ‘Greek Fire’ — fire sticks meant to be shot at enemy ships. The incendiary liquid he created was nearly impossible to extinguish. And/but in China during the 7th century, bamboo sticks were filled with gunpowder to produce light and a big boom. Eventually, that evolved into dipping bamboo into a slurry that threw off pretty sparks, without the accompanying bang. Fast forward about 1200 years, and you get wunderkerzen, the German version of a sparkler that replaced bamboo with wire, but kept the original gunpowder. Today, sparklers are made from a wire coated in a (safely) flammable paste that burns at 1800°F to 3000°F (1000 °C to 1600 °C). The color of the sparks changes based on the metallic fuel: Iron delivers an orange/red glow, aluminum and magnesium burn white or yellow, and titanium shoots off silver sparks. This Wired magazine video will arm you with facts you can share at your July Fourth cookout. The artists Tobias Kipp and Timo Pitkamo put all that science to use in their pyrography: portraits drawn with lit sparklers. Here’s a video (with a very snazzy soundtrack) — and here are tips for photographing sparklers.

• Oooh, who doesn’t love a bookish topic that could start an argument?! Sprayed Edges Are Everywhere and I Hate Them. For the record, I do not have an opinion on sprayed edges. (But I will happily go to the mat for my dislike of long chapters!)

• If you take your journals and notebooks seriously — who amongst us doesn’t? — I think you’ll enjoy this essay about Techo Kaigi. ‘During a Techo Kaigi (which means “notebook meeting” in Japanese), you meet with yourself to reflect on your current notebook systems and whether they’re running smoothly. If your notebooks have become too overwhelming or are being neglected altogether, Techo Kaigi is the time to sit with these issues and do something about it.’

• Get ready to add to your must-visit list: The 20 Best Literary Hotels in the World. The Hotel Emma in San Antonio looks dreamy.

• Wimbledon by the Numbers — 40 miles of racket strings, 55,000 balls, 2.5 million strawberries, and more.

• If you listened to our guest appearance on this summery episode of the What Should I Read Next podcast, you know that Dave is a big fan of the Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Ice Cream & Dessert Cookbook. He’s also ready to build out our cookbook library with these three new ice cream cookbooks for summer 2025.

• These photos of a dinner party in a river are very appealing:

• I was recently a guest on the Books with Betsy podcast. It was such a fun chat! We got into the specifics I look for in a great read, my early reading memories, go-to authors, the books that made me cry, and more aspects of the reading life.

• Recommended by Sarah Perry, the author of The Essex Serpent: 5 Best Gothic Novels. (For more Gothic yumminess, here’s my list of 43 Gothic novels with a strong sense of place.

• News you can use: Atlas Obscura answers the question How Do I Pack Light for a Long Trip?

• If you enjoyed our recent podcast episode National Parks: Go Outside and Touch Grass, you might be interested in this collection of interesting nonfiction stories about US national parks.

• Eater has a tasty report on the award-winning food at the State Fair of Texas. Dubai chocolate funnel cake! Vietnamese corn dogs! Brisket-and-cheese-stuffed pretzels! Pop Rocks frozen margarita!

• THESE MINI SCULPTURES ARE ADORABLE!

• Are you one of the three million people who read Jennette McCurdy’s memoir I’m Glad My Mom Died? If yes, you’ll be glad to know Jennifer Aniston will star in a 10-episode series adaptation of the book.

• Rainy Noir: The Crime Fiction of Seattle. ‘Who doesn’t love Seattle – we’ve all been sleepless there in person or onscreen, those Pike Street Markets, the majestic Pacific… a big city, but never quite feeling like a crowded city. What could possibly go wrong in such a seemingly calm, placid metropolis? Somehow, crime writers always find trouble…’

• LitHub on why this summer might be just the right time to read a doorstopper book. ‘Summer is about leisure, and… reading is the ultimate leisure activity.’

Write your name on the night.

Top image courtesy of Ian Schneider/Unsplash.