November 16, 2011

Longform.org’s Editors Reveal What They’ve Been Reading

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We’ve been a fan of Longform.org for many months now, and decided to ask the editors there what they’ve been reading lately that gave them pause. Aaron Lammer and Max Linsky responded with their recommendations below.

Aaron writes:

Bit by Bit: An Illustrated History of Computers by Stan Augarten
“I picked this up at a garage sale. It’s got a lot of pretty incredible stories about pre-electrical computing and some images of early processors that verge on psychedelia.”

Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin
“Currently on book 5.”

The Skating Rink by Robert Bolaño
“I particularly like this one because it achieves as much as his more sprawling books (2666, The Savage Detectives) through a limited and sparse story.”

Dispatches by Michael Herr
“I didn’t realize until I read this how much the tone of the best Vietnam movies was borrowed from his prose.”

Some articles that I randomly am still thinking about:

  • George Trow’s two-part 1978 New Yorker profile of Ahmet Ertegun here.
  • This two-part 1970 Rolling Stone story on the Lyman Family cult (it’s book length, taken in whole) here.
  • “The Social Graph Is Neither”– On how social networks fail to map real world relationships here.
  • “The Ticking Euro Bomb”– Der Spiegel‘s history of the Euro here.

As for Max: He confessed that “Longform really does take up the vast majority of my reading time.” However, the sports fanatic has recently read:

Those Guys Have All The Fun: Inside the World of ESPN by James Andrew Miller and Tom Shales

Bottom of the 33rd: Hope, Redemption, and Baseball’s Longest Game by Dan Barry

and:

Steve Jobs: A Biography

Benjamin Franklin: An American Life by Walter Isaacson

Thanks to the guys at Longform for offering their recommendations. For those of us who work in publishing, often the last thing you want to do on the weekend is delve into A Serious Book or approach a 10,000 word article on climate change. So what have all of you been reading to relax, and what articles or books have you been reading to stay informed that you’ve actually enjoyed?

MobyLives