We're sharing our favorite #longreads of 2025 over the next two weeks.

Bookmark our Best of 2025 page to catch up on the latest year-end essays and lists of notable editors' picks:

https://longreads.com/best-of-2025/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

#Longreads #Reading #Nonfiction #Writing #Journalism #BestOf2025

"We are surrounded by more than darkness, and transformed by more than violence." Next up in our "Best of 2025" series, Brendan Fitzgerald considers his year in reading https://longreads.com/2025/12/09/when-we-are-redefined/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social #longreads #reading #essays #journalism

Missed my reading wrap-up for September and have been too busy to read as much as usual, so here’s a combined September/October wrap-up. Lots of litRPG, and James S. A. Corey’s Caliban’s War (The Expanse #2) was definitely a highlight!

Wrap-up video on Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@molly0xfff/video/7568212380602207502
and YouTube:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLddyKiU3ac

#reading #bookstodon

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Storygraph September 2025 wrap-up page. Books: 10; pages: 4,124; av. rating 3.94. Highest rated reads: Demon World Boba Shop Vol. 2 (4.5 stars), Discount Dan (4 stars), Demon World Boba Shop Vol. 4 (4 stars). Average book length: 400 pages; average time to finish: 4 days. 100% fiction. 60% digital, 40% audio.

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Storygraph October 2025 wrap-up page. Books: 3; pages: 2,426; av. rating 4.0. Highest rated reads: Caliban's War (4.5 stars), Cul-de-sac Carnage (4 stars), Mage Tank (4 stars). Average book length: 653 pages; average time to finish: 11 days. 100% fiction. 67% digital, 33% audio.

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September 2025 reads: The League of Frightened Men, Rex Stout (4 stars) The Concrete Blonde, Michael Connelly (4 stars) The Last Coyote, Michael Connelly (4 stars) Trunk Music, Michael Connelly (4 stars) The Rubber Band, Rex Stout (3 stars) Angels Flight, Michael Connelly (4 stars) Demon World Boba Shop #2, R.C. Joshua (4.5 stars) Demon World Boba Shop #3, R.C. Joshua (4 stars) Demon World Boba Shop #4, R.C. Joshua (4 stars) Discount Dan, James A. Hunter (4 stars) Caliban's War, James S. A. Corey (4.5 stars) Cul-de-sac Carnage, James A. Hunter (4 stars) Mage Tank, Cornman (3.5 stars)

"This task was very simple as well as very hard. In every course, at every level, every semester—in every single class, multiple times every week—I taught close reading." —Johanna Winant for Boston Review

https://www.bostonreview.net/articles/the-claims-of-close-reading/?src=longreads

#Reading #CloseReading #WestVirginiaUniversity

"Just as the sun begins to peek over the flat horizon of Coon Rapids, Iowa, 1,383 pigeons fill the sky." —Oliver Egger for The Paris Review

https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2025/11/26/homeward-bound-on-pigeon-racing/?src=longreads

#longreads #pigeons #racing #writing #reading #essays

November 30, 2025 - Woke up at 4:00. Left at 5:00. Ended up in Tallahassee, Florida. Finished my book, Cold Welcome by Elizabeth Moon. Recommended.

#journal #discord #hairylarryland #travel #reading

"Let's finish up the paperwork tomorrow morning and get a train to the country to see if we're romantically compatible, I think we've dealt with all the supernatural threats here" - agree two characters while I squint at the 62% done status of the book with doubt at this outcome.

#reading #books #shitpost

New piece up: The Mediated Encounter Ontology of the World.
The realism–idealism debate keeps resurrecting itself because both sides accept the same bad premise. MEOW starts instead from encounter-events where mediation + constraint co-emerge. Mind and world come later as abstractions.

👉 https://philosophics.blog/2025/11/23/the-mediated-encounter-ontology-of-the-world/?utm_source=masto&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=meow

#philosophy #ontology #metaphysics #MEOW #epistemology #mediation #cognition #psychology #essay #blog #podcast #amwriting #reading #thinking

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The Mediated Encounter Ontology of the World. Layers of Mediation in an Encounter-Event (T₀–T₃).

This week's Top 5:

* Metal medicine, High Country News
* Hyped humanoids, Harper's Magazine
* Carnival crossroads, The Bitter Southerner
* Divine defiance, Places Journal
* Optimization obsession, Aeon

https://longreads.com/2025/11/21/the-top-5-longreads-of-the-week-588/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

#Longreads #Reading #Nonfiction #Journalism #Writing

Probably time again to share the Dan Brown review written in the style of Dan Brown.

https://onehundredpages.wordpress.com/2013/06/12/dont-make-fun-of-renowned-dan-brown/

#reading #bookstodon #danbrown

November 15, 2025

This morning I got in touch with Steve Lawson on Mastodon. Today, Something Blue production and a gig tonight at Stage Too, Main and Monroe in Jonesboro, AR. 6:00 to 7:00. Followed by Word Play Cafe. Writers reading.

https://stevelawson.bandcamp.com/

#journal #discord #hairylarryland #jazz #writing #reading

In this week’s Top 5:

Bear bones (Southlands)
Outstanding Outkast (Oxford American)
Brightline’s brutality (Miami Herald)
Lasting lunches (The Bitter Southerner)
Ruin ruminations (The Baffler)

Become a Longreads member and find out the five stories that our editors loved most this week (plus our Audience Award):

https://longreads.com/2025/11/14/the-top-5-longreads-of-the-week-587/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

#Top5 #longreads #reading #writing #essays

After managing to get back into reading all last year, I spent most of this year back to not reading at all.
I was disappointed with myself but lately I’ve been making another effort.

I read Tim Curry’s new memoir “Vagabond” which was reasonably engaging. Interesting, entertaining and very Tim Curry - which is what you’d hope from a memoir.

Last night I finished “A Psalm for the Wild-Built” by Becky Chambers, which was beautiful.

It’s been a long while since a book let me into a world I desperately wanted to stay in.
Like a dream you don’t want to wake up from or a warm hug in book form.
Delighted to learn there’s a second book.

#Bookstodon #Reading

What I am noticing is once I find a book series I resonate with, I’m much happier to devour that series. I want more of that character or that world, right now.

Next is anything else by that author, though I’m more cautious. Can they do it again? Is it the writing I enjoyed before, or just that specific character/world?

I find it so hard to try new authors. As if reading a book and not enjoying it is the worst thing in the world.
But I have to, or else I’d be re-reading Discworld and nothing else. Not that there’s anything wrong with that…

#Bookstodon #Reading

November 12, 2025

No bible study so kind of a day off. Give away stuff at Abilities. Shop for Christmas at the Friends Of The Library book store. Swim. Read and rest. Practice piano. Work on my new releases. Church tonight. Listening.

#journal #discord #hairylarryland #reading #music

"In reflecting on her now, I wanted to check in with modern-day heroes of the school lunch line."—Jennifer Justus for The Bitter Southerner

https://bittersoutherner.com/issue-no-12/all-praise-to-the-lunch-ladies/?src=longreads

#longreads #dinnerladies #lunch #food #children #reading #writing

"Liam tells me about one woman who, after whitening her teeth, demanded an all-white diet for two months." —Jack Burke for The Times

https://www.thetimes.com/life-style/food-drink/article/confessions-private-chef-9xh275c28

#longreads #food #privatechef #chef #wealth #rich #writing #reading

How to avoid reading – and how to avoid finishing a book.
👉 https://philosophics.blog?utm_source=masto&utm_medium=social/2025/11/05/how-to-avoid-reading/
Whilst mired in adminstrivia, I happened upon The Intellectual Origins of Modernity – a favourite whipping boy (or girl, lest I come across as sexist).

I asked ChatGPT to parse it for me, and it told me – despite it is well structured and written – to skip it.

#books #reading #amwriting #technology #chatgpt #ai #critique #philosophy #history #modernity #society #origins #Publishing #tenure #academia #blog

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The Intellectual Origins of Modernity by David Ohana

" I’d scour profiles in an effort to figure out where these men were coming from, why they seemed to oppose the things I’d previously spent a career fighting for . . ." —Vera Papisova for Cosmopolitan

https://www.cosmopolitan.com/uk/love-sex/relationships/a63915627/political-beliefs-dating-app-experiment/?src=longreads

#longreads #dating #rightwing #conservative #america #writing #reading.

Here, I share a video review of The Blind Owl by the Iranian author, Sadegh Hedayat.
👉 https://philosophics.blog/2025/11/03/the-blind-owl/?utm_source=masto&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=reviews
It's a wonderful non-Western look at an existential narrative that predates the Western flavour that arrives perhaps a decade later. It may be closer to Zapffe or Cioran than Camus or Sartre.

#books #book #bookreview #reading #AmReading #iran #persia #literature #video #youtube #blog #despair #psychology #philosophy #perspective #existentialism

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Books: The Blind Owl

Deux livres, une même lumière.
L’Illusion de la lumière rejoint The Illusion of Light — même œuvre, deux langues, deux respirations.

👉 https://philosophics.blog/2025/11/02/folie-a-deux/?utm_source=masto&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=light

Le monde n’a pas besoin d’être sauvé ; il a besoin d’être entretenu.

#Philosophie #AntiLumières #Entretien #Traduction #BryWillis #books #reading #AmWriting #Philosophy #livres #Enlightenment

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2 livres

1. Sue Grafton’s novels
2. Sold one of my prints (included here) in my gallery “Summer Sails on Lake Michigan” (many thanks to the buyer!)
3. Rain slacked off so I could get Dad up the front walk when we got home from his doctor appointment.

#grateful #ThreeGoodThings #3goodthings #BuyIntoArt #ayearforart #reading #today

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A scenic view of a calm Lake Michigan with several sailboats in the distance, and a lighthouse featuring a green band on a breakwater. The sky is clear and blue.

RE: https://mastodon.social/@microglyphics/115464053784464315

We thought we were done with exploitation; the 20th century said ‘hold my beer.’ Dive into why the promise of the worker-as-partner turned into invisible surveillance in my latest piece:

https://open.spotify.com/episode/530yUcoHvKeYQ34ZdfJigv?si=-ywZsp_iQaWrEBkl1zq-Ug

#NotebookLM #podcast #philosophy #psychology #books #reading #critique #sociology

Philosophics » 🌐 2025-10-30
@microglyphics@mastodon.social

‘Teamwork! Equality! No more bosses!’ said the ‘50s… and now we have RTO mandates and empty glass towers. Explore the illusion in my new post about Fromm, Beauvoir, and capitalist déjà-vu.

https://philosophics.blog/2025/10/30/the-sane-delusion-fromm-beauvoir-and-the-cult-of-mid-century-liberation/?utm_source=masto&utm_medium=social

#CulturalCritique #Fromm #Beauvoir #TheoryX #ReturnToOffice #books #philosophy #management #culture #psychology

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Book Covers: The Sane Society and The Second Sex

"... People also seem to like the idea of putting a little friction between their media consumption habits and Big Brother, even at the expense of a little convenience."

https://www.404media.co/libraries-scramble-for-books-after-giant-distributor-shuts-down/

#libraries
#reading
#books
#bookworm
#ILoveBooks 💖📚💖
#SupportYourLocalLibrary

2/2

"Suddenly, the teenager from Teddington who just wanted to be a theatre actress was one of the most famous women in the world." —Caitlin Moran for The Times

https://www.thetimes.com/life-style/celebrity/article/keira-knightley-interview-caitlin-moran-childrens-book-spj5wcgjp/?src=longreads

#keiraknightley #celebrity #profile #writing #reading

October 27, 2025

Rest. Bathe. Get groceries. Read Brandon Sanderson. Rest. Release the Jay Shepherd album, Millenium Fair. Practice piano.

#journal #discord #hairylarryland #music #piano #reading

@Daojoan The people who ‘approved’ it, are the people who voted for public #education ‘leaders’
that shifted focus away from teaching language and critical thinking skills to ‘feel good’ priorities, such as #HighSchool #football stadiums costing in excess of $70 million, all while #PISA standardized test scores in #reading , #math and #science for students in the #UnitedStates have been falling for decades! 🤔

There’s a ‘good’ reason Trump said “I love the poorly educated!”

What's up with my #reading habits lately?

Me: "I'd really like some #fantasy or #scifi comfort food. Nothing complex; maybe something cozy or slice of life, or a power fantasy where the good guys always win. I'd love that."

Me, a few hours later: "Hey! This #book was just a predictable power fantasy where the good guys always win! It was overly simple slice of life, and the conflict was low stakes. I hated that!"

It's gotten to the point where I haven't rated the last few #books I've read, because "2 stars: was exactly what I asked for!" just seems like an unfair review.

Anyway, authors: please figure out what I actually want to read and write that, then advertise it to me as what I think I want to read. Because book marketing isn't hard enough for you, right? Thanks! #bookstodon

[for your address book]

A Fediverse group for sharing your papers and preprints.

https://soc.octade.net/papers/

#Papers #Writing #Preprints #Authors #Research #Reading #groups #fedigroups #fediverse

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cartoon drawing of a feather quill standing in a inkwell