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Patrick Doyle: Top 5 Longreads from 2010

Patrick Doyle is a senior editor for 5280 Magazine in Denver. 

patrickcdoyle:

The good folks at Longreads.com have been asking everyone for their five favorite pieces from 2010. Here are mine.  

Roger Ebert: The Essential Man,” by Chris Jones, Esquire
The best story of the year. Just give Jones his Ellie now.

The End of Men,” by Hanna Rosin, The Atlantic
A compelling case for why I and my male brethren are, umm, goners.

The Quaid Conspiracy,” by Nancy Jo Sales, Vanity Fair
Reminiscent of VF’s Pat Dollard story from a few years back; Sales gets out of the way and watches—along with us—the Quaid trainwreck.

Village Voice,” by Peter Hessler, The New Yorker
Hessler follows Rajeev Goyal as he wades through D.C. and Nepalese politics and tries to make the Peace Corps relevant again. 

Believeland,” by Wright Thompson, ESPN.com
A heartbreaking, but hopeful piece about post-LeBron Cleveland. (Also: Who knew that Dennis Kucinich was such a hoops fan?) I still haven’t forgiven ESPN for “The Decision,” but this is a much-needed salve.

Mallary Tenore: My Top 5 Media Longreads of 2010

Mallary Tenore covers media news for the Poynter Institute’s Poynter.org.

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Timothy Lavin: The Listener, The Atlantic, Jan/Feb 2010 

Refreshing to see well-written stories about lesser-known media phenomena like Coast to Coast AM.

James Verini: Lost Exile, Vanity Fair, Feb. 23, 2010 

Verini does a great job describing what the death of the paper (in this case, Russia’s English-language paper The Exile) means to the two men who started it and how this ties into the experience of loss. 

Richard Morgan: Seven Years as a Freelancer, or, How to Make Vitamin Soup, The AwlAug. 2, 2010

Using humor and honesty to show how unglamorous the life of a freelancer can be.

Laurie Hertzel: News Reporting in Duluth: Adventures of an Accidental Journalist, MinnPost, Aug. 26, 2010 

I’ve always loved stories about female journalists who aren’t afraid to advocate for gender equality in the newsroom, and I think this one is particularly good. I like the memories that Hertzel shares about working with Jacqui Banaszynski — arguably one of the most influential editors and coaches in the business. 

Frank Bruni: The Age of Laura Linney, The New York Times, July 28, 2010 

This story isn’t about the media, but I’m including it because it reminds me of the importance of being versatile as a journalist. Bruni has written about a wide variety of topics — Hollywood, politics, his struggles with weight,  etc. — and always does so in a way that makes me think he has studied that particular subject or source for years. 

Joe Spring & Chris Keyes: Our Top 5 Longreads of 2010

Joe Spring and Chris Keyes are editors for Outside Magazine.

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The Most Isolated Man on the Planet, Slate, Monte Reel (Aug. 20, 2010)

He’s alone in the Brazilian Amazon, but for how long?

The Last Patrol, The Atlantic, Brian Mockenhaupt (November 2010)

A veteran unit patrolling the Devil’s Playground hands off its territory to a new patrol.

An Army of One, GQ, Chris Heath (September 2010)

Who would be crazy enough to hunt Osama bin Laden alone…11 times?

The Ballad of Colton Harris-Moore, Outside, Bob Friel (January 2010)

One the trail of a teenage fugitive.

Last Drop, Outside, Brad Melekian (December 2010)

An inside look at the last days of surfing’s most troubled star.

Anthony De Rosa: Five Longreads from 2010

soupsoup:

With a bit more time on my hands commuting a few stops on the subway, I need some reading material to Instapaper to my iPad. Longreads has been invaluable in providing me with a great selection of really interesting articles. Along the way, there were five particular stories this year that really caught my attention. Without further ado, here are my five favorite longreads of 2010:

1) Is James Franco For Real by Sam Anderson – New York Mag

I’m generally uninterested in celebrity culture but this was a really fun, creative article that is a sort of modern day “Frank Sinatra Has A Cold.” The author has some interactions with Franco but for the most part Sam Anderson creates a mythology around the actor and his career schizophrenia. 

2) The Wrong Man by David Freed – The Atlantic

Amongst all the anti-terror hysteria of 2010 was this story of Dr. Steven Hatfill who was wrongfully accused of being responsible for a series of anthrax attacks in 2001. David Freed recounts in a breezy but detailed story of the entire ordeal.

3) Seven Years as a Freelance Writer, or, How To Make Vitamin Soup by Richard Morgan – The Awl

Richard Morgan bears his soul about his struggle to make a living as a freelance writer. 

4) The New Gawker Media by Felix Salmon – Reuters

There have been so many articles written about Gawker and so few tell us anything we haven’t already read before. Felix puts together perhaps the most comprehensive piece on where Gawker’s been and where it appears to be headed, revealing some odd financial handling using offshore accounts. 

5) Probably going to piss off a lot of white people with this one by Matt Langer – Matt Langer’s Tumblr

Tumblr may be better known as a micro-blogging platform but there’s plenty of longform content being produced and Matt Langer provides some of the best. In this piece Langer discusses race, the Shirley Sherrod affair, Andrew Breitbart, and how we are still very far from living in a post-racial America.

From 1948: Pearl Harbor in Retrospect

From 1948: Pearl Harbor in Retrospect

The Pentagon Papers Trial

The Pentagon Papers Trial

Aileen Gallagher: My 2010 Longreads

Aileen Gallagher is Assistant Professor of Multiplatform Journalism at Syracuse University.

agallagher:

Don Peck’s How a New Jobless Era Will Transform America (The Atlantic, March 2010)

Bleak, but I’ve never read a better numbers story.

Nick Blakeslee’s Alex Jones is About to Explode (Texas Monthly, March 2010)

Jones is sort of Glenn Beck meets Art Bell and Blakeslee nails the complex conflict of the man and the showman.

Tad Friend’s Sleeping With Weapons (New Yorker, August 16, 2010)

Profile of Lounge Lizard John Lurie starts off so well I use it in class: “From 1984 to 1989, everyone in downtown New York wanted to be John Lurie. Or sleep with him. Or punch him in the face.” 

Luke Dittrich’s The Man Who Would Fall to Earth (Esquire, August 2010)

I did not expect to get through this story, let alone love it. (The story in the same issue about the perfect Price is Right bid is more my bag.) This is how you take a pontentially complicated story about an event (the freefall jump from space) and make it about people.

Dana Priest’s Top Secret America (Washington Post, July 2010)

Priest is such a meticulous, awesome reporter.  She’s sourced like Sy Hersch. This is not as readable as her Walter Reed series, but equally depressing and even more important to our country.

Jared Keller: Top 5 Longreads of 2010

Jared Keller, in addition to being in charge of the whole internet, is also social media editor for The Atlantic.

michellelegro:

Trust in what Jared says. He’s in charge of, like, the whole internet. Or at least the portion of it housed in the Watergate building. 

jbkeller:

Dan Baum, “Happiness Is A Worn Gun” (Harpers, August 2010)
 
Many knee-jerk opponents of gun rights have never handled a gun before, so what happens when one liberal wears a concealed weapon? The Harpers articles is subscription only, but it’s worth subscribing just to read about Baum’s psychological transformation as a concealed gun owner.
 
Rebecca Mead, “Rage Machine” (The New Yorker, May 24, 2010)

I despise most everything about Andrew Breitbart – his personality, his politics, his smear tactics – but I loved this profile. Mead made him almost loveable.

Graeme Wood, “Prison Without Walls” (The Atlantic, September 2010)

This story has been done before, but I have an odd fascination with surveillance and surveillance states.

Robin Marantz Henig, “What Is It About 20-Somethings?” (New York Times Magazine, August 18th, 2010)

Caught between economic recession and a poisonous political environment, why do young people take so long to grow up? For maximum impact, read “The Recessions Long Shadow” which appeared in the March 2010 issue of The Atlantic, immediately beforehand.

Wayne Curtis, “Gunpowder On The Rocks” (The Atlantic, November 2010)

A New Zealand bartender learns what pirates and sailors knew long ago: explosives and liquor mix just fine.

I said, ‘What’s your — pardon me — your fucking plan, then, if you don’t like this?’” “‘We don’t like—’ I said, ‘Don’t tell me what you don’t like! Tell me how you’re going to stop the North Korean nuclear program.’ ‘But we wouldn’t do it this way—’ ‘Stop! What are you going to do?’ I could never get a goddamn answer. What I got was ‘We wouldn’t negotiate.’” I pointed out that the North Koreans had cheated on the 1994 agreement. “Excuse me,” Gallucci said, “the Soviets cheated on virtually every deal we ever made with them, but we were still better off with the deal than without it.

Curator Spotlight: Robert Sanchez on Highlighting Notable Storytelling from City Magazines Across the U.S.

By Cheri Lucas Rowlands

Related reading: Elaine Godfrey on the death of a local newspaper in Iowa and Nickolas Butler on the power of community journalism in Wisconsin.

Last week, the Black Mountain Institute announced that The Believer, the literary and culture magazine founded in 2003, will publish its final issue in spring 2022. It’s yet another blow to the world of print media, and reminded me of the other dismal headlines I’ve read this month lamenting the decline of small-town newspapers — and the ultimate cost to the communities they serve.

In a time when publications and newsrooms continue to struggle, Robert Sanchez’s tightly curated City Reads account is a beacon on Twitter. City Reads tweets the best writing from city magazines across the U.S., shining a light on local and regional stories that I might otherwise miss. Sanchez is a senior staff writer for 5280, Denver’s award-winning magazine, and has written many longreads we’ve read and enjoyed over the years. I chatted with him via email last week about the process of curation, the importance of amplifying city journalism, and his recent 5280 story on sifting through and reading the 8,500+ letters and postcards mailed to Colorado Governor Jared Polis, demanding justice in the Elijah McClain case. Read more…