Brendan I. Koerner's All-Time Favorite #Longreads

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As chosen by Brendan I. Koerner

A selection of all-time favourite articles from Wired contributing editor, former Slate and New York Times columnist, and the author of 2 excellent books, Brendan I. Koerner:

The Hunger Warriors by Scott Anderson – The story of Turkish women starving themselves to death for the most head-scratching of causes. Behold the sinister power of peer pressure.

Does a Sugar Bear Bite? by Lynn Hirschberg – A classic profile of Suge Knight at the zenith of his power. Maybe the best intro scene of any celebrity profile in history.

Pat Dollard’s War on Hollywood by Evan Wright – Rob Capps, my editor at Wired, turned me onto Wright’s work. This is my personal favorite—a portrait of a man blessed with bottomless energy and ambition, though only the smallest trace of empathy for his fellow man.

Reefer Madness by Eric Schlosser – A master class in narrative contrarianism. Deeply and elegantly reported, with a real human tragedy at its core.

A Bad Trip by Gary McLain (though doubtlessly ghostwritten by someone else) – Something I read as a boy, and which made me want to become a writer. Tough to have a better lead than this: “I was standing in the Rose Garden, wired on cocaine.” It gets better and more harrowing from there.

A Better Brew by Burkhard Bilger – Perhaps the best story ever by one of my favorite writers. (His piece on cockfighting from several years back is a classic, too.) Bilger does a tremendous job of creating real tension, while never losing sight of his primary duty as an explainer of business and science.

And a few you’ll need a subscription to read:

Rock is Dead by David Samuels – This is what it felt like to be young in the ’90s. A terrifying portrait of morality adrift in a sea of excess.

Gangland by Jon Lee Anderson – There is no more badass reporter working in journalism today. No one else could have set up an interview with the most violent (yet complex) gangster in all of Rio’s slums. Truly intrepid reporting.

What Young Men Do by Richard Lloyd Parry and “Eating Glass” by Alfred Lawrie (both from Granta 62) – I’m a huge Granta fan, and this is my fave issue of all time because it contains these two non-fiction classics. The Lawrie one, in particular, is a doozy—a seemingly lighthearted profile that goes to deep, dark places as it progresses.

After Welfare” by Katherine Boo – The story that got me into Boo’s now much-heralded work. Still haunted by the scene of the two kids eating ramen and boiled eggs.

For more from the man himself head over to his blog or sign up for updates via Twitter.