“It’s an especially American paradox: a ruthlessly meritocratic system where men nonetheless live to pull each other up by their bootstraps.”
The Paris Review
Posted inEditor's Pick
Rabelaisian Enumerations: On Lists
“What sort of collection should a library hold? How should books be classified? What is the function of lists?”
Posted inEditor's Pick
Six Handbags
“I’ve been looking for a bag that can fit my life. I should be looking for a life that can fit into my bag. I do not need to read, to go to the gym. I need only what will fit inside the portal.”
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.”
Posted inTop 5
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
Recommending excellent stories by Charlotte Higgins, Lex Pryor, Michael Hardy, Elissa Altman, and Brad Phillips.
Posted inEditor's Pick
Scrabble, Anonymous
“Somehow, doing it with other people took the stain away, made it feel fun instead of abject.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
At the Great Florida Bigfoot Conference
“As a thirty-six-year-old progressive, I was an outlier in this crowd. But, like many, I was a believer.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
Costco in Cancún
“This is the Costco psychology: quality over brand; value over status. To be ripped off is to be taken for a sucker. It is to have your resources wasted, your hard-earned cash sucked into a delusion of taste, timeliness, or class.”
Posted inCuration
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
Featuring notable stories from Paul Solotaroff, Maddie Oatman, Gabriel Smith, Meg Bernhard, and Alexandra Horowitz.
Posted inEditor's Pick
Swallowing: I Was Mike Mew’s Patient
“I wondered if the two dentists were right—whether my body was becoming ugly. And if it was, why it would do that to me. This was something I had not thought about before.”