What should I be reading?

September 7, 2009 3:33 AM

I ask you, educated and oh-so cultured MeFites, what should I be reading? Everything's in order, except for my RSS feeds. I'm in need of a good mix of wit, news, and good ol' amusement from the world over to serve as nothing less than my daily reading material. Help me stock that RSS reader.

A little background on myself: I'm a 15 year old, suffice to say "linguistics junkie" from Vancouver, Canada.

As far as news goes, I like to have a variety of angles, political and geographical. Whatever you think would leave me with the most accurate and comprehensive knowledge of world news. Locally, if any Vancouverites could oblige, please do.

Otherwise, I'm open to anything. I haven't done well keeping up with all the news lately, but a couple places I enjoy visiting, are, for example: languagehat (of course), and The New York Times book review. I'm generally a big fan of book reviews, interesting short fiction, food, design, geography, history, travel, theoretical physics, photography and anything linguistics-related. I'd like to have a couple links under each of those headings, at least to peruse during the day.

I know there's a lot out there, but I'm only asking for the bare essentials, or at least your personal favourites.

Anything in French or German would be appreciated too, even Swedish/Danish/Norwegian... if you have anything in mind.

posted by csjc to media & arts (13 comments total)

Given that you seem to like reading quite a bit, I would expect that you would like The Millions, my friend.
posted by CRM114 at 4:07 AM on September 7 [4 favorites has favorites]

I like the New York Times' "Idea of the Day". It basically aggregates interesting material from all over the Web. Other such sites includes: 3 Quarks Daily, BookForum, and Arts & Letters Daily, although the specific focus for each varies.
posted by aheckler at 4:46 AM on September 7 [3 favorites has favorites]

Foreign Policy's blog Passport is a news oriented blog that's pretty good. I especially like their Morning Brief posts.
posted by dhruva at 6:15 AM on September 7

You did not mention Language Log, which is like languagehat, but not.
posted by knile at 7:36 AM on September 7

As a 16 year old American, I really enjoy Slate.com which is a online "news magazine". You might like foodie at fifteen (now 16) which chronicles a 16 year old's cooking faliures/triumphs. I also really like the pioneer woman. She does both cooking and photography on her site and they're both really great.

I have a lot more sites I read regularly, memail me if interested.
posted by kylej at 7:51 AM on September 7

Two other great book sites are Bookslut and The Second Pass. *immediately gets distracted by content on The Second Pass, wanders over there*
posted by Ladybug Parade at 8:24 AM on September 7

Marginal Revolution makes economics interesting and understandable (even to me, someone with 2 English degrees and barely enough maths know how to count them both), and if you love your politics with a very personal and passionate slant, and have time to read a billion posts a week, you should check out Andrew Sullivan. For a more pictorial view of the news, The Big Picture is beautiful and often heart-breaking. Few other websites obey the "only connect" rule as often.

On the arts side, I'll hat-tip Kottke; his writing style is pretty plain and you don't get a lot of analysis, but the link selection is top notch. If you're interested in writing as a craft, Script Shadow is terrific - it's basically reviews of both optioned, filmed, in progress and hyped scripts doing the rounds in Hollywood (I would recommend Mystery Man on Film, but he's just redesigned his site without RSS).

Keep an eye on fashion; A Continuous Lean avoids the nastiness and shrillness of many fashion blogs as it's written with a genuine, generous love of the topic.

For technology, and its role in the world, Anil Dash is pretty good, but Jan Chipchase is really inspiring; he works as a researcher for Nokia, and spends his time travelling the world, and with a sensitive eye, chronicling the ways people actually use stuff. The flow of information over time is wonderful.
posted by Sifter at 9:09 AM on September 7 [2 favorites has favorites]

The New Yorker keeps several good blogs on various topics.
I am addicted to Brand New, which covers corporate identity and branding design.

I do not have a baby or plan to have one anytime soon, but I find The Baby Name Wizard Blog fascinating. It discusses names and naming trends in the larger contexts of language and culture.
posted by lalex at 10:11 AM on September 7

If you're looking for some meaty book reviews and cultural commentary, be sure to check out the New York Review of Books.
posted by thisjax at 1:29 PM on September 7

Mother Jones is good for analysis of current events.
posted by agfa8x at 8:29 PM on September 7

Second The Big Picture. LRB and Conversational Reading are also good for books.
posted by amrangaye at 8:51 PM on September 7

From the UK: Bad Idea. The New Statesman.
posted by tapeguy at 9:41 PM on September 7

You might also want to try The First Post or a subscription to The Week.
posted by tapeguy at 2:52 AM on September 9