You Must Remember This “On the nature of autobiographical memory” When we construct our life story, we tap into autobiographical memory, our remembrances of events that we’ve experienced over our lifetime. In this article Jonathan Weiner, the Maxwell M. Geffen Professor of Medical and Scientific Journalism at Columbia University, examines how different peoples’ memories function
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The Rise of Literary Tourism “Explore the rise of literary tourism worldwide and how book lovers are traveling to iconic literary destinations.” Adam Ryan looks at the various ways that readers are incorporating literary destinations into their traveling plans. While I’ve never planned a trip explicitly around a literary destination, I try to include literary-related
How To Kill a Mockingbird Got Banned and Became a Pulitzer-Winning Classic “Happy anniversary, To Kill a Mockingbird! Harper Lee’s classic turns 66—explore the story behind its lasting power and timeless relevance.” In this article from July 2025, Millie Ramm celebrates the anniversary of the publication of To Kill a Mockingbird by asking, “why has this
Introduction During the last three weeks in June my husband and I undertook a huge road trip to attend a family wedding: 3,000 miles from the West Coast to the East Coast of the U.S., then 3,000 miles back. That trip provided lots of time to listen to audiobooks. We had enjoyed a TV series
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Think for Yourself “One of the most dehumanizing effects of AI is the short cuts it offers through the gaps and impasses intrinsic to the act of writing.” For those of us who write to discover what we think about a topic, Dan Chiasson, chair of the English department at Wellesley College, addresses a fundamental
How America Gave Up on Its Own History “Unable to agree on how to interpret the American story, the country’s schools, universities, and political institutions have stopped trying to tell it at all.” Just as individuals construct stories that assert their identity, so do other social and political groups, including nations. Yoni Appelbaum, deputy executive
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The Rise of Ragebait Lit “This spring, arguing about books in the group chat is back” In Harper’s Bazaar, Maris Kreizman discusses the predominance of “ragebait lit,” books that “are dominating the cultural conversation.” “The premises of these books may have inspired more than their share of hot takes . . . but the conversations
What Are the Routines of So-Called Super-Readers? Kelsey Rexroat, a writer and editor from San Francisco, talked with people who read 100 or more books in a year, “people for whom reading is not a hobby so much as a way of moving through the world.” She identifies five patterns among such “super-readers.” I found
The Summer Reading Guide If you’re still drawing up your summer reading plan, The Atlantic has 25 recommendations for books in the following categories: What Close Reading Can Reveal About an Author’s Intentions I was always taught that we cannot know what an author intended to do; we can only see what an author has
In Praise of Chick Lit: The Genre’s All-Stars Talk to Vanity Fair “As The Devil Wears Prada 2 dominates, it’s time to give these best-selling, much-maligned books about single women in the big city their due—with help from Plum Sykes and Jennifer Weiner.” I don’t like the term chick lit; nonetheless, I’ll have to live
