Our 10 most-read Longreads essays of 2024.
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Posted inEditor's Pick
The Bottom of the Ninth
“In baseball and in life, there is a cost to our pursuit of an error-free existence.”
Posted inAnnouncements
Announcing Our 2025 Member Drive
It’s easy to think that thoughtful longform journalism is an endangered species. We refuse to believe that—and we need your help.
Posted inEditor's Pick
Feast Your Eyes on Japan’s Fake Food
“However persuasive they might be as facsimiles, shokuhin sampuru are subjective interpretations, seeking not only to replicate dishes but to intensify the feelings associated with the real thing.”
Posted inNewsletter
The Struggle is the Point
I know the obstacles are out there, and that there will always be a moment where creativity meets friction and grinds to a halt.
Posted inEditor's Pick
‘Here I Gather All the Friends’: Machiavelli and the Emergence of the Private Study
“Reading is a form of necromancy, a way to summon and commune once again with the dead, but in what ersatz temple should such a ritual take place?”
Posted inNewsletter
A Forgotten Deportation, a New Questionnaire Series, and Our Top 5
An essay about a forgotten deportation and the reckoning it left behind, a glimpse into Maria Popova’s writing and reading life, and our five recommended stories of the week.
Posted inAnnouncements
Introducing the Longreads Story Recommender
Learn to love your search results again.
Posted inNewsletter
Embracing the Struggle to Write
Episode highlights from The Creative Nonfiction Podcast, featuring The Chronology of Water author Lidia Yuknavitch.
Posted inEditor's Pick
He’s the Last Great Land Artist You’ve Never Heard Of
“Charles Ross spent 50 years building ‘Star Axis,’ a naked-eye observatory in New Mexico. Now his masterwork is ready. How to share it with a changed world?”
