Friday, December 16, 2011

Long-form Reading 2011

Here are some long-form articles I've enjoyed this year.

The Hazards of Nerd Supremacy: The Case of Wikileaks (theatlantic.com)

The Octopus Conspiracy: One Woman's Search for Her Father's Killer (wired.com)

Confessions of a Prep School College Counselor (theatlantic.com)

The Great Rubber Robbery: How Julius Fromm's Condom Empire Fell to the Nazis (berlinbooks.org)

Bursting the Bubble (about David Vetter, the "Bubble Boy", houstonpress.com)

The Stutterer: How He Makes His Voice Heard (slate.com)

The Day The Movies Died (gq.com)

Man vs. Machine on Wall Street: How Computers Beat the Market (theatlantic.com)

Authorities in Awe of Drug Runner's Jungle Build, Kevlar-Coated Supersubs (wired.com)

Kiki Kannibal: The Girl Who Played With Fire (rollingstone.com)

The Battle for Tora Bora (tnr.com)

The Humility Imperative: CEOs Keep Your Arrogance in Check (inc.com)

How to Land Your Kid in Therapy (theatlantic.com)

How One Man Hacked His Way Into the Slot-Machine Industry (wired.com)

Cyber Weapons: The New Arms Race (businessweek.com)

Don't Be Evil (on google's narrowly conceived, yet handicapping motto, tnr.com)

A Few Too Many: Is there any hope for the hung over? (newyorker.com)

The Man With the $16 House (dallasobserver.com)

The Wrestler in Real Life (on Ric Flair's long decline, grantland.com)

Enter the Cyber-dragon (on how China is operating with impunity on America's defense and commercial computer networks, vanityfair.com)

Apple's Supply Chain Secret? Hoard Lasers (business week.com)

50 Years of Stupid Grammar Advice (thechronicle.com)

The Rise and Fall of the Columbia House Record Club -- and How We learned to Steal Music (thephoenix.com)

How a Financial Pro Lost His House (nytimes.com)

When Did the GOP Lose Touch With Reality? (nymag.com)

What is Sony Now? (businessweek.com)

The Pest Who Shames Companies Into Fixing Security Flaws (wired.com)



Thanks to Marco Arment's excellent Instapaper  service and iOS app for helping find and keep track of excellent reading material on the web.

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Reading List 2011

I was using up all of my accumulated credits on Audible.com just now, and realized I've listened to several great audiobooks over the last year. Here's a list of what I've listened to in 2011, along with a link to the book on Audible.com. I recommend them all.

Judas Unchained, Peter F. Hamilton, Part 2 of the Commonwealth Saga (link)
The Gun, C. J. Chivers (link)
The Windup Girl, Paolo Bacigalupi (link)
Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson (link)
Embassytown, China Mieville (link)
Pattern Recognition, William Gibson (link)
Spook Country, William Gibson (link)
Zero History, William Gibson (link)

I'm pretty excited about my reading list for 2012 (and likely beyond--I had 12 credits to use), which I will share soon.