Our 10 most-read Longreads essays of 2024.
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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.
How a Script Doctor Found His Own Voice
“For decades, Scott Frank earned up to three hundred thousand dollars a week rewriting other people’s screenplays. Finally, he decided to stop playing ventriloquist.”
How Losing My Limbs Turned Me Into a Different Kind of Cook
“Two years ago, our cooking columnist Yewande Komolafe woke from a coma and soon learned her body would be profoundly altered. She recounts her journey back to the kitchen, and to herself.”
‘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?”
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.
A Year in Reading: The Dark Side of Progress
We’re moving farther, faster, than ever before. But we’re also destabilizing crucial areas of human experience.
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.”

