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Sharing and publishing the best longform stories at longreads.com since 2009. Sister site of @atavist.com.
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@markblondin.comReposted by @longreads.comThirty years ago tonight, a supermarket parking lot in Bennington, Vermont. Day six.
From my journal: “today telneted to freeway and got the message from Joyce that mail sent to the MCImail account was returned.”
@theravenof.bsky.socialReposted by @longreads.com"The web of 1996 was not yet monetized in the way it is today."
i graduated high school in 1997 and got my first email address around that time and boy howdy can i tell you, it was a different time.
longreads.com/2026/09/22/f...
@longreads.com"I’m not aware of anyone who gets to write a sixty-thousand-word magazine piece these days." @justjokes247.bsky.social for @thebaffler.com on John McPhee, journalism, nature, and attention thebaffler.com/latest/up-a-...
@longreads.comIn this week's Top 5:
—Orange, the new everything (@nplusonemag.com)
—Data centers, the gold rush (@theverge.com)
—Sandy “Moose” West, the hero (@bittersouth.bsky.social)
—AI, the staff (@oaklandreviewofbooks.org)
—Boy dinners, the community (@GQMagazine)
@longreads.comOur latest Longreads Questionnaire features award-winning journalist Erika Hayasaki, who writes an essential newsletter for freelance writers, THE REPORTED ESSAY:
@kottke.orgReposted by @longreads.comIn 1996, the Blondin family drove all around the US, blogging about it all before “blog” was even a word. “We were doing something that had no name and no manual, and we were doing it over a dial-up modem while living in a motorhome.” [longreads.com]
@longreads.com"Within that space, you have a whole generation that was never really taught how to express their feelings effectively." —Zack Hauptman for @gqmagazine.bsky.social
@longreads.comQ: What’s one longread that you can’t stop thinking about?
A: “Julia Understands Everything,” by Richard E. Meyer, in the @latimes.com magazine. I often assign this story to students. It was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Feature Writing in 1996.
@longreads.com"They were as old as 70 and as young as 5. They died in the heat or the cold. But they all died within range of a surveillance camera." Lillian Perlmutter for @technologyreview.com & Times of San Diego www.technologyreview.com/2026/09/21/1...
@longreads.com"It’s like we were talking up a car’s bluetooth audio system when the person behind the wheel couldn’t even figure out how to move their seat back far enough to drive."
Stephanie Uchino-Beach for @oaklandreviewofbooks.org: www.oaklandreviewofbooks.org/how-ai-repla...
@longreads.com"The decades-long pursuit of a treatment for Jenna’s disease followed a very different path. There was no single hero, no lone scientist seeking glory."
An excerpt from the new @atavist.com story by Mark Johnson, about a family that made medical history: longreads.com/2026/10/06/r...
@longreads.com"The right to alter one’s consciousness does not include a company’s right to deceive."
Eric Leas for @aeon.co: aeon.co/essays/a-sci...
@markblondin.comReposted by @longreads.comThirty years ago today, October 4, 1996, we set out for Cleveland. A family, a website, and an online following, two years before Google existed.
How it unfolded, at Longreads:
longreads.com/2026/09/22/f...
@longreads.com"Many writers need an inciting obstruction. For Henry James, it was his own sexuality. For Nabokov, it was a homeland to which he could never return. For Barry, it has been a family secret that it was not his place to speak of." Giles Harvey for @nytimes.com www.nytimes.com/2026/09/29/m...
@longreads.comWant to support our original features and receive our Top 5 in your inbox every Friday? Become a Longreads Member! longreads.com/join/?utm_so...
@longreads.com"There are scads of rules: If you play clawhammer-style banjo in the bluegrass band competition, you will get disqualified. Same if you play bluegrass-style banjo in the old-time competition. If you break a string while performing, you must stop immediately." longreads.com/2026/10/01/g...
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@longreads.comOur Top 5:
ㆍHumanity, lost @theatlantic.com
ㆍLife, accumulated @oxfordamerican.bsky.social
ㆍMemories, flooded @electricliterature.com
ㆍParenting, practiced @newyorker.com
ㆍSleep, unoptimized @19thnews.org
Audience Award: @thesunmagazine.bsky.social
@longreads.com"Cannonball, world’s strongest slam, dropkick, Boston crab, lion tamer, some dozen or more slaps into a powerbomb. And then, dropping knees-first onto Amira’s shoulders, Johnnie leveled her." Katherine Cusumano for @thebeliever.net www.thebeliever.net/the-work/
@longreads.com"In a southwest Virginia fairground, thousands of musicians gather every August to keep a centuries-old tradition from flickering out." For @Longreads.com, David Alm heads to Galax for the 90th annual Old Fiddler's Convention.
longreads.com/2026/10/01/g...
