On Google declaring war on the Web — In Yesterday’s IO Keynote Google declared war on the remnants of the Web. (See longer description on their website.) TL;DR: They are pushing Search more into the “here’s your processed answer” direction that “AI Overviews” have established (yo
‘It's More Like a Playlist’: Lavinia Spalding on Editing the Best Women's Travel Writing - Longreads — The editor of The Best Women's Travel Writing series on curation, grief and levity, and the stories she hopes to read more of in the future.
How Phrenology Queered Language: Walt Whitman and the Evolving Lexicon of Love — This essay is adapted from Traversal and continues the story of the making of Leaves of Grass. With Leaves of Grass already printed — by a Brooklyn friend, at the poet’s own expense — W…
The Most Important Thing to Remember About Your Mother — “It is not easy to give closeness and freedom, safety plus danger.”
Teaching a child in <1000 ms: the architecture behind a real-time tutor — We set out to build the first AI tutor to teach math and reading to kids ages 4-9. For AI to actually teach a five-year-old, pedagogy must be baked into the engineering. A child can't wait for a slow…
The Strange Emptiness of the Crowded Governor’s Race in California — The state’s ballot is nineteen inches long, and lists sixty-one gubernatorial candidates. But where are the star applicants?
Rosalía Shares Tour Essay, Delights Ween Fans, Gets Shoutout From Mick Jagger — Last year’s epic Lux earned Rosalía attention from all sorts of listeners, including Mick Jagger, who recently told GQ that he’s a fan: “That was something really conceptual, really interesting. And…
I’ll Take the Fire — One night in November 2021, I lost my sense of taste and smell. There was a woman sleeping in my bed. I licked her shoulder, buried my nose in her neck. I moved my face down between her legs. I cou…
The Tragedy of Loving Sylvia Plath — My Sylvia Plath fandom dates back to the early nineties, when I was in my late teens and randomly pulled The Bell Jar off the shelf at my local library in suburban Salt Lake City. I had never heard…
Liberated McIlroy sets Scottish Open pace — Rory McIlroy revelled in his return to links golf with a five-under 65 to set the clubhouse target on day one of the Scottish Open.
Smashwords – Home — Indie ebooks, many free.
What to read next based on your favorite A24 movie. — Have you heard? A24 is taking over Hollywood. Possibly the world. The indie company that initially marketed itself as the edgy underdog has become a pillar/last bastion of extra-Marvel movies. No l…
In "Mutual Analysis" with Wallace Shawn’s Moth Days by George Prochnik — May 15, 2026 – "I do say to myself every day, Well, these crimes that have been committed in order for me to have this lovely fruit salad are inexcusable, but shouldn’t I at least enjoy the fruit salad?"
Notion just launched a brand-new iPhone app called Agents - 9to5Mac — Notion Mail is out, Notion Agents is in. Last month, Notion announced that it’s discontinuing its year-old email app. Today,...
The Point | A magazine of the examined life — The Point is a magazine of philosophical writing on everyday life and culture that is published three times a year in print and continuously online.
May’s Best Reviewed Nonfiction — Herta Müller’s The Village on the Edge of the World, Siri Hustvedt’s Ghost Stories, and Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw’s Backtalker all feature among May’s best reviewed books. Brought to you by Book M…
Lucy Sante on An Anthology of New York Poets — The Windham-Campbell Prizes Podcast features a series of conversations with past and present Windham-Campbell Prize winners about their favorite books and plays. Hosted by Michael Kelleher. The new…
Namwali Serpell and Angela Flournoy on Toni Morrison’s Tar Baby — Continuing on tour for On Morrison, Namwali Serpell travels to Philadelphia to talk with writer Angela Flournoy about a scene from Tar Baby. Speaking at the Free Library, they trace the novel’…
There Is No ‘Hard Problem Of Consciousness’ | NOEMA — Consciousness is not separate from the physical world — our “soul” is of the same nature as our body and any other phenomenon of the world.
Making of a Poem: Hannah Piette on “Nijinsky Dancing” — “Nijinsky’s face layered in makeup became an apt figure for the poem I wanted to write—one in which a ‘civilian face’ could be recognized only through its effacement.”
Don't Subscribe So Casually — Or, why your AI subscription is worth analyzing
Ukraine unleashes one of its heaviest drone bombardments, as Russia strikes Ukraine — Ukraine launched a major nighttime attack on a dozen Russian regions, Russian-held Crimea and the surrounding seas, and Russia attacked various regions of Ukraine, as their war grinds on.
My Story of 3D Realms / Apogee Part I – A Cup of Joe
The OnlyFans Economy of American AI — “The dreamers look skyward with longing. The Internet hums with its usual promise — you will find your people, your myth, your wonder, and maybe your transformation.”
Is This the End of Political Islam? — For decades, Islamic governance held allure in the Middle East. Now some scholars say the Islamist wave has passed.
Spotify boss defends move to AI music, saying it is better than ‘slop’ — Streaming platform says remix tool agreed with Universal Music Group will protect artists from piracy
Here are the winners of the 2026 Women’s Prizes in Fiction and Nonfiction. — Today, the UK’s Women’s Prize Trust announced the winner of the 2026 Women’s Prize for Fiction, which “champions excellence, originality, and accessibility in women’s writing,” and is awarded to th…
The Hollow Trickery of “The Wizard of the Kremlin” — Olivier Assayas’s adaptation of a novel about a fictionalized adviser to Vladimir Putin reduces politics to personalities and atrocities to anecdotes.
Hudson Williams has pretty good taste in books. — Hudson Williams, the Canadian sweetheart behind the smash hit Heated Rivalry, has pledged his allegiance to the English department. Your favorite hockey hunk is a reader, people. And we must say, t…
How to Help Someone Change: The Samurai Guide to Giving Feedback — Few things in life are more exasperating than seeing the potential in someone you love and seeing them continually fall short of it, stumbling again and again over the same self-erected roadblocks …
On Redeeming Freud — The inspiration to write a novel or story usually comes to me as a vague inkling that some image, situation, or statement (often a paradox) might open a doorway to a world rich in emotional and phi…
Poetry Foundation Poems — A vast poetry archive.
July’s Best Reviewed Fiction — Colson Whitehead’s Cool Machine, Sigrid Nunez’s It Will Come Back to You, and Valeria Luiselli’s Beginning Middle End all feature among the best reviewed fiction titles of the month. Brought …
Namwali Serpell and Kortney Morrow on Toni Morrison’s Paradise — Toni Morrison didn’t want a monument or statue erected in her honor; she wanted a dedicated reading room in her hometown public library, a space that could allow for change and continuous eng…
If Data Centers Are So Great, Why Are They Being Built in Secret? — We Have A Transparency Problem When It Comes To Data Center Construction
Nobody Cracks Open a Programming Book Anymore · unix.foo — A sad look at the state of modern programming books.
Best book deal: Save 78% on the Kindle version of A Parade of Horribles: Dungeon Crawler Carl — Princess Donut fan club here, reporting for duty.
Hermann Hesse on How to Hear the Wisdom of the Inner Voice — “If you are now wondering where to look for consolation, where to seek a new and better God… he does not come to us from books, he lives within us… This God is in you too. He is m…
Finding Heroes of My Own in Three Unsung Women of America’s Great Outdoors — If someone asked you to name the world’s most common plotline you’d probably come up with something like this: a hero heeds a call to adventure—maybe to slay a dragon or protect their homeland—then…
The Helter-Skelter History of the Manson Murders — “Now is the time for Helter Skelter,” Charles Manson is said to have said, and then the family went out and committed two nights of violence that meant to “shock the world” and “instill fear into t…
AIPAC Wants Democrats to Back Israel. Instead, They’re Turning on AIPAC. — Once the guardian of the bipartisan pro-Israel consensus, it is now a polarizing force in the party.
fadedpage.com — Fadedpage free eBooks forever
Christina Anderson on Wallace Shawn’s The Fever — The Windham-Campbell Prizes Podcast features a series of conversations with past and present Windham-Campbell Prize winners about their favorite books and plays. Hosted by Michael Kelleher. Christi…
The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows: Uncommonly Lovely Invented Words for What We Feel but Cannot Name — “Despite what dictionaries would have us believe, this world is still mostly undefined.”
Museo d'Arte Sacra di Catania in Catania, Italy — <p><img alt="The museum's rooftop terraces overlook Piazza del Duomo and the heart of Catania." data-width="1152" data-height="1536" width="300" height="200"…
What does Jeff Bezos think is going to happen? — I bought a book on my Kindle — a thing I have done many times before. I exchanged money for goods, as one is supposed to do in a capitalist society. Then this happened. I wonder what response Jeff …
How to Plan a Trip to Brimfield Antique Flea Market — Serious and silly all at once, this iconic Massachusetts market draws in fashion buyers, interior designers, and amateur collectors alike.
In memory of the man who put red and green squiggles under words - The Old New Thing — Starting in Word and expanding to nearly every other word processor, and even things that aren't word processors.
The Internet Archive is quietly digitizing every library card catalog ever made... and you can search them all in one place. Weird rabbit hole if you like old classification systems.
Annotated every margin of a library book by accident. Spent three hours trying to erase pen from pages that weren't mine.
The Seamstress Who Solved the Ancient Mystery of the Argonaut, Pioneered the Aquarium, and Laid the Groundwork for the Study of Octopus Intelligence — “I armed myself with patience and courage, and only after several months managed to dissolve my doubts and see my research crowne
Music, the Neural Harmonics of Emotion, and How Love Recomposes the Brain — “Who we are and who we become depends, in part, on whom we love.”
For a Historian, the Facts of Any Given Life Disappear the Moment They Occur — Caked calcium to be strip-mined from Dad’s bathtub and sink. Thick snowdrifts of dust to plow from his bedside tables. Looming towers of credit card statements and tax documents to audit and shred…
How Digital Environments Shape Human Behaviour | Tapas Sen | TEDxWBS Youth — An exploration of how digital environments shape human behaviour and perception, and how they can gradually normalise extreme patterns of thinking. Tapas Sen is a veteran radio professional and content…
Browse Standard Ebooks - Standard Ebooks: Free and liberated ebooks, carefully produced for the true book lover — Lovingly produced free classics.
The Top Five Longreads of the Week - Longreads — Showcasing stories from Sloane Crosley; Zadie Smith; Mark Johnson and Saumya Khandelwal; Todd Kliman; and Sheila Liming.
Epictetus on Love and Loss: The Stoic Strategy for Surviving Heartbreak — “Who is good if he knows not who he is? and who knows what he is, if he forgets that things which have been made are perishable, and that it is not possible for one human being to be with ano…
This Week in Literary History: Stanley Kubrick’s Lolita premieres in New York. — This first appeared in Lit Hub’s Literary History newsletter—sign up here. Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita was first published in 1955, after many rejections from American publishers, by the Paris-based …
“Little Prince” Author Antoine de Saint-Exupéry on Friendship — “Old friends cannot be created out of hand. Nothing can match the treasure of common memories, of trials endured together, of quarrels and reconciliations and generous emotions.”
The Queer Poetics in Writing About Past and Present Brazilian Politics — For novelist Cris Judar, language and bodies are charged with conventions and social norms, and as such, language and bodies contain within them the potential for social upheaval and change. They a…