Some Recent Good Reads.

• A clear-eyed look back at Obama’s first term.
• Mass Incarceration in America.
• More, more, more condemnation of Scientology.
• Will Israel Attack Iran?, by an investigative reporter from Israel’s largest paper with access to the highest levels of Israeli government. TL;DR: Yes.

What I’ve Been Reading the Past 2 Months.

Last one for 2011. Probably won’t do these big compilations next year and will instead rapidfire them out, one-by-one, as I come across the good ones. 

I think long-form journalism is the only way out for news publishers given that the news cycle is a commodity. This year proves how much really good stuff is out there. On an unrelated note, I killed my Wired and Economist subscriptions this year. So maybe there is no way out except for the top of the Vanity Fair, New Yorker, n+1, etcetera-heap. Kinda sad.

• Todd Purdum on our National Security apparatus.
• Joseph Stiglitz, former Chief Economist of The World Bank, on how the banking system should serve society, not the other way around.
• Inside the Secret Service.
• Williams College’s Retired #50.
• Can the Bulldog Be Saved? TL;DR — No :(
• Hipster Bros Go To Tokyo. I’m a sucker for anything James Murphy.
• Homegrown Terror. On Najibullah Zazi’s conversion to radicalism and the close call the US had with his attempted NYC attack.
• The Fierce Imagination of Haruki Murakami.
• The Once and Future Way to Run. I now run quasi-barefoot. Fully converting next year.
• The Romney Economy. Photochop is kinda relevant.
• The Woman Who Knew Too Much. Great profile of Elizabeth Warren.
• Great profile of Bill Nguyen, the dude who founded Lala and the ill-fated Color. Sounds like a nightmare to work for.

What I’ve Been Reading the Past 4 Months.

Some of the best long-form articles I’ve come across recently. SportsFeat is responsible for more sports stories making it into this iteration, and as ever, The New Yorker and NYTimes have a disproportionate amount of representation (because I’m a wannabe snob).

• Steve Jobs: The Beginning. I’m pretty torn up, like many others, about the loss of Jobs. He was a very complex guy and this article does a great job illuminating a lot of what made him so unique.
• The Hero No One Knew. Sad profile of Walter Payton post his Hall of Fame career.
• The Rick Perry Hustle. Larry McMurtry eviscerating and obliterating. Love it.
• Back of All Trades. Great profile of Baylor’s Robert Griffin III.
• The Day That Damned the Dodgers.
• The Fierce Intimacy of Tennis Rivalries.
• Coach Fitz’s Management Theory. Michael Lewis is apparently developing a story about Coach Fitz for the silver screen. I’d be there day 1.
• The Art of Winning an (Even More) Unfair Game. Follow-up to the enigmatic Billy Beane and Moneyball.
• Between the Seams. Bo Jackson’s baseball career and how we’ll never see another athlete like him.
• The Journalist and the Spies. Pakistan is the problem.
• What if the Secret to Success Is Failure?
• ?uestlove. 15-year retrospective on The Roots’ drummer and hip-hop historian.
• It’s the Economy, Dummkopf! Michael Lewis’ most famous piece of recent Disaster Travel Journalism, this about the scheisse-obsessed Germans.
• California or Bust. More Michael Lewis Disaster Travel Journalism. 
• Planning and Executing the Mission to Get Bin Laden. The New Yorker’s essential report on killing the world’s biggest supervillain.
• “The Iron” by Henry Rollins. Oldie but goodie. Come back to this every time I get on a health jag.
• Colson Whitehead on the World Series of Poker. Part 2. Part 3. Part 4. Such a talented writer.
• How Digital Detectives Deciphered Stuxnet.
• Sheryl Sandberg and Male-Dominated Silicon Valley. Big, big fan of hers.

What I’ve Been Reading the Past 2 Months.

More great long-form articles I’ve come across recently.

• Paper Tigers
• US Support for Pakistan: A Long, Messy History
• Why Facebook Needs Sheryl Sandberg
• How Heavy Metal is Keeping Us Sane
• What Do You Think of The Rangers Now?
• Story of the Tokelau Teenagers Lost in the Ocean for 51 Days. Absolutely incredible what a human body can withstand.
• Bagging Bambi
• That Which Does Not Kill Me Makes Me Stronger
• Won’t Get Fooled Again
• Can Bill Simmons Win The Big One?
• Hashtags. Great non-techy coverage of one of the most important features on Twitter.
• Man with a Plan. Great profile on Andrew Luck. One of my only heroes that’s younger than me.
• Preet Bharara Takes on Wall Street Crime

What I’ve Been Reading the Past 2 Months.

I’m planning on keeping this type of post, where I list out some of the best long-form journalism I’ve encountered over the previous 2 months, rolling. This is what I posted 2 months ago. Here’s more:

• The Tallest Woman in the Room.
• How Carrots Became the New Junk Food.
• The Runaway General. I’m conflicted about MacChrystal. I think he’s a badass, but I also think he handled Pat Tillman’s death really scummily.
• Signs, Signs, Everywhere Signs: Seeing God in Tsunamis and Everyday Events. I am fascinated by cognitive biases.
• The Stoner Arms Dealers.
• Hermes: Handbag Heritage Under Attack.
• Secret Fears of the Super-rich. Man, I want to have complete financial freedom but I have no desire to be so rich that it undermines a happy life.
• Video Games: The Addiction. Excellent auto-biographical piece about an addict who uses cocaine and GTA IV to feed his neuroses. 
• Microsoft’s Odd Couple.
• Woody Allen’s Movies: What I Learned Watching Every Single One.
• How Slavery Really Ended in America.
• Why You Should Care About Cricket. Hope to see this level of sports writing quality on Bill Simmons’ new site.
• Bad Nights in the NFL. Sad story about Darrent Williams’ death.
• When Alan Met Ayn: “Atlas Shrugged” and Our Tanked Economy. Alan Greenspan’s legacy is rightly starting to be tarnished.
• The Real Housewives of Wall Street.
• The Straight Dope. More hard-hitting realness from David Simon, a real American hero.
• Welcome to the Far-Eastern Conference. Marbury in China!
• How Two White Guys Wound Up in This Kendrick Perkins Family Photo. More awesome sports writing for people who don’t like sports.
• Unlocking the Mystery of Paris’ Most Secret Underground Society.
• Chinese Citizens on Tour in Europe.
• Cranking. Merlinn Mann getting to what really matters in life.
• Who is WikiLeaks Suspect Bradley Manning?
• Mad German Auteur, Now in 3D. I would seriously consider making Werner Herzog one of the three people in the world I’d invite to my dinner party.
• The Joy of Stats. Mark Cuban and the vanguard pulling hoops into the 21st century of sabermetrics.