Emily Perper is a word-writing human for hire. She blogs about her favorite longreads at Diet Coker. The following four pieces resist cliches about social media and its impact. These authors do not shame nor condone; they do not preach. They take a deeper look at the tendency and luxury to share our lives with […]
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Posted inBooks, First Chapters, Member Pick, Nonfiction, Story
‘Like Being in Prison with a Salary’: The Secret World of the Shipping Industry
Rose George | Metropolitan Books | August 2013 | 17 minutes (4,213 words) The following is the opening chapter of Rose George’s new book, Ninety Percent of Everything. Our thanks to the author for sharing it with the Longreads community. * * * Friday. No sensible sailor goes to sea on the day of the Crucifixion or the […]
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Longreads Member Pick: The Offline Wage Wars of Silicon Valley
For this week’s Longreads Member Pick, we’re excited to share a story from Next City’s Forefront magazine, by journalist Nona Willis Aronowitz. Aronowitz looks at the story behind the minimum wage increase in San Jose, which jumped to $10 per hour from $8 per hour after the city’s residents voted for the increase last November—”the […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
Ramona Pierson Spent 18 Months in a Coma and Woke Up Blind. She’s Now a CEO in Silicon Valley
Pierson, nearly killed by a drunk driver, has recovered to become the head of a new tech company called Declara: “Over time, and more than 100 surgeries, Pierson’s body improved. She had procedures to fix her eye socket, nose, and teeth. ‘One of my doctors did Wilt Chamberlain’s nose,’ Pierson says. ‘My face seemed to […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
Channel B
A new mother gets a glimpse into the life of another new mom—via her baby monitor. (The essay will be featured in the forthcoming Best American Essays 2013, edited by Cheryl Strayed): “For the first few months after my son was born, I called him The Baby, or sometimes just Him with a capital H, […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
Paradise Regained
Restoring Howard Finster’s visual art site in Summerville, Ga. Finster died in 2001 at the age of 84 and left behind more than 46,000 pieces of artwork and a garden of attractions: “Fueled by Coca-Cola, spoonfuls of instant coffee granules, and King B Sweet Twist tobacco, Finster started feverishly creating what would become 46,991 numbered […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
Welcome to Mogadishu
There are glimmers of peace found in Somalia’s capital—in a country that hasn’t had a functioning government for 22 years: “One brightly painted brick at a time, the shelled-out city is coming back to life. Along Mogadishu’s tree-lined drags, shopfronts form a tableau of hope. Outsized poster-paint impressions of burgers, fizzy drink bottles and doughnuts […]
Posted inNonfiction, Reading List, Top 5
The 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. How We Survived Two Years of Hell As Hostages in Tehran Shane Bauer, Josh Fattal and Sarah Shourd | Mother Jones | […]
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“The Story of a Failed Startup and a Founder Driven to Suicide.” Alyson Shontell, Business Insider.
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My Top 5 #Longreads on the Business of Film, Music and Books
Mark Armstrong (that’s not him above) is the founder of Longreads, and editorial director for Pocket. This past week’s Steven Soderbergh speech on “The State of the Cinema” isn’t as big a downer for film lovers as these choice quotes might have you believe: “Shouldn’t we be spending the time and resources alleviating suffering and helping […]
