“There were a million heavenly things to see and a million spectacular ways to die.”
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All Aboard: Four Stories About Trains
Ah, the romance of the rails. I still bear vivid memories of my family’s post-Christmas train ride to New York City when I was an adolescent. I listened to my non-Apple mp3 player and watched, wide-eyed, the people and places passing by. Last year, I hopped commuter train after commuter train trying to bridge the […]
On the Far Side of the Fire: Life, Death and Witchcraft in the Niger Delta
Jessica Wilbanks | Ninth Letter | Fall/Winter 2013 | 27 minutes (6,860 words) Download as a .mobi ebook (Kindle) Download as an .epub ebook (iBooks) One of our previous Longreads Member Picks, an essay by Jessica Wilbanks, is now free for everyone. “On The Far Side of the Fire” first appeared in Ninth Letter and was awarded the journal’s annual creative nonfiction award. This is […]
Top 5 Longreads of the Week
Below, our favorite stories of the week. Kindle and Readmill users, you can also get them as a Readlist. Sign up to receive this list free every Friday in your inbox. 1. Inside Monopoly’s Secret War Against the Third Reich Christian Donlan | Eurogamer | January 12, 2014 | 35 minutes (8,900 words) How a […]
Longreads Best of 2013: Here Are All 49 of Our No. 1 Story Picks From This Year
Every single story that was chosen as No. 1 this year.
Emerging from his haze, Sean O’Keefe felt a bizarre sensation in his mouth. Like chewing on gravel without taking a bite. He explored that mystery with his tongue until it registered: His mouth was awash with his own broken teeth. The Waiting: Survivors of the Ted Stevens plane crash in Alaska wondered if help would reach […]
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 […]
Chris Jones: My Top 5 Longreads of 2010
Chris Jones is a writer at large for Esquire. (His stories are on many of your Top Fives.) He’s currently blogging at My Second Empire. David Grann: The Mark of a Masterpiece, The New Yorker, July 12, 2010 Just a perfectly constructed, painful reveal of the sinister side of the art world, starting at its […]
Since Beating that Left Student in Coma, His Father Has Kept a Constant Vigil
Since Beating that Left Student in Coma, His Father Has Kept a Constant Vigil Ken quit his job running a health club in Loudoun County to care for his only son. Every day, he brushes Ryan’s teeth and bathes him, administers 50 medications, feeds him through a tube attached to his stomach, changes his catheter, […]
Andrea Pitzer: My Top 5 Longreads of 2010
Andrea Pitzer is writer and editor of Nieman Storyboard. *** To eliminate some of the choices that have already been popular—hello, David Grann! ;)—I haven’t included anyone I’ve met in person. All stories from 2010. Rabbi to the Rescue, by Martha Wexler and Jeff Lunden from The Washington Post Magazine Spiritual longing, the Holocaust, and […]

