Every quest holds at its heart a puzzle to solve—and that puzzle can become an obsession.
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Posted inReading List
Knotty Business: A Delightfully Tangled Reading List on Knots
Six stories on our fascination with knots.
Posted inEditor's Pick
A Teen’s Fatal Plunge Into the London Underworld
“After Zac Brettler mysteriously plummeted into the Thames, his grieving parents discovered that he’d been posing as an oligarch’s son. Would the police help them solve the puzzle of his death?”
Posted inEditor's Pick
How to Quit Cars
“The history of transportation will always be social history, writ large.”
Posted inReading List
Dimes, Dunks, and Devotion: A Basketball Reading List
Seven essays that go beyond the box score.
Posted inCuration
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
Featuring notable stories from David Pierce, C.J. Chivers, Paige Kaptuch, Michael Adno, and Jessica Winter.
Posted inTop 5
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
“Featuring reads from Grace Glass and Sasha Tycko, Max Graham, Alex Blasdel, James Somers, and Ben Goldfarb.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
How Sandra Hüller Approached Playing a Nazi
“The German actress probes characters with unusual depth. But to portray a Fascist wife, in ‘The Zone of Interest,’ she reversed her usual approach—and withheld her empathy.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Hidden-Pregnancy Experiment
“We are increasingly trading our privacy for a sense of security. Becoming a parent showed me how tempting, and how dangerous, that exchange can be.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny, and Murder
“The only impartial witness was the sun.”
