“Books are inefficient, and the internet is training us to expect optimized experiences.”
reading
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Publishing Industry Has a Gambling Problem
“Companies keep betting on the next bestseller. Literature is poorer for it.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
Inside Beirut’s Fight To Save Its Reading Culture
“As reading declines and self-censorship grows, bookshops are shuttering in the city once hailed as the Arab world’s publishing capital.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
What Happened When I Tried to Replace Myself with ChatGPT in My English Classroom
“We would look at the evidence, and at the end of the semester, they would decide by vote whether A.I. could replace me.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
Reading Behind Bars, and Beyond Barriers
“Jackie Snow reflects on what working for a books-to-prisons nonprofit has taught her about reading.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
Did a Best-Selling Romantasy Novelist Steal Another Writer’s Story?
“Tracy Wolff, the author of the ‘Crave’ series, is being sued for copyright infringement. But romantasy’s reliance on standardized tropes makes proving plot theft tricky.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
Murderbot, She Wrote
“Martha Wells created one of the most iconic characters in 21st-century science fiction: Murderbot, reluctant savior of humanity. Then she faced an existential threat of her own.”
Posted inCuration
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
Featuring stories by Jeannette Cooperman, Jackson Arn, Andrew Hui, Myriam Gurba, and Simon Hattenstone.
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 inEditor's Pick
Against Rereading
“For those who do not reread, a book is like a little life. When it ends, it dies—or it lives on, imperfectly and embellished, in your memories.”