Should You Read the Same Book Twice?

Erich J. Prince | Merion West | 16th June 2023

Which is more conducive to an enriching reading life: rereading classics, or sampling new texts? Although purely indulging personal preference is undoubtedly one way of navigating this dilemma, the author does propose a rule to try: "When reading for style or because one just loves a book, read it twice (or perhaps even a third time). For content, in most cases, read once" (2,555 words)

The Hunt For The Missing Orient Express

Jennifer Walker | Messy Nessy Chic | 16th June 2023

The rise, fall and rise again of long distance train travel resulted in some interesting salvage projects. Orient Express sleeping carriages were sold off in the 1970s and then had to be tracked down for restoration in the 2010s when luxury rail travel became a viable business again. Detective work eventually located derelict but rescuable carriages in Poland, Germany and Switzerland (1,603 words)

How To Raise A Roman Army

Bret Devereaux | A Collection Of Unmitigated Pedantry | 16th June 2023

Everything you might want to know about military administration in Republican Rome. The system was simple but effective: between 218 and 214BCE, the army called up over 250,000 soldiers, half of all men liable for service in Italy. This method of mass conscription worked primarily because armies were cheap to run. Unlike in the Hellenistic East, Romans served for glory, not for cash (7,532 words)

Have You Been To The Library Lately?

Nicholas Hune-Brown | Walrus | 12th June 2023

A public library is no longer mainly about books. It is a welfare state in microcosm, a place where people go to fill in online applications for government assistance, a shared space for work and study, a place to warm up and use a washroom without being required to buy anything. To be a librarian is a bit like being a bartender: “Some bars have a quiet clientele. And some are nasty and violent.”(5,500 words)

Nothing, Forever

Aharon Schrieber | Seinfeld Law | 13th June 2023

Quite apart from there being something intrinsically wonderful about the very existence of an expert blog dedicated solely to legal issues posed on and by Seinfeld, the question explored here is a big one both for AI and for intellectual property. If an AI generates a TV show apparently in the style of Seinfeld, but without using content from Seinfeld, is that a copyright violation? (960 words)

Three Days With A Giant

Carey Baraka | Guardian | 13th June 2023

Wonderfully intimate profile of Kenyan writer Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, a giant of late- and post-colonial African literature. "If Chinua Achebe captured the deep feeling of displacement that colonisation had wreaked, and Wole Soyinka tried to make sense of the collision between African tradition and western ideas of freedom, then Ngũgĩ was the unabashed militant. His books were a weapon" (8,600 words)

You're only getting two of our article recommendations each day. We'd love to send you five article recommendations, a podcast and a video tonight:

Podcast: 'If It Makes You Happy' — Sheryl Crow | 60 Songs That Explain The 90s. Meandering and eccentric look at the nineties, song by song. The interview (from 53m) about Sheryl Crow's treatment in the media is a particular highlight of this episode (87m 02s)

Video: Why Do Movies Feel So Different Now? | YouTube | Thomas Flight | 37m 34s

The films of the 2020s feel different to those of previous eras and this video essay seeks to explain why. There is less "straightforward storytelling" and more introspection on the art of cinema itself.

Three Kings

Jonathan Bousfield | Deep Baltic | 14th June 2023

The story of the Vilnius Jazz Trio and jazz in the Soviet Union. Unlike the more archetypal "rebellious" rock music, jazz was a permitted, even respectable, art form — as long as musicians stayed away from more modern or free jazz styles. The Trio evaded the KGB by pushing the boundaries of what was possible: "Their music was so abstract that few officials really knew how to respond to it" (2,283 words)

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The World’s Most Polarising Watch Brand

Sarah Miller | Hodinkee | 13th June 2023

Tour of the premises of Swiss watchmaker Hublot, which prides itself on making timepieces that a lot of people don't like. Their entire design philosophy seems to be making fun of their wealthy customers. "Every time I turn around, I am looking at a watch that really should not exist, that is way too much. Does this watch need nine colours? Does this watch need to look like a very angry alien?" (5,211 words)

Olfactory Overload

Kim Crowder | Polyphony | 13th June 2023

How it feels to have hyperosmia, a heightened sensitivity to smells, which can accompany autism. "Where the neurotypical nose and brain sniffs, moves on, and forgets, the neurodivergent nose can’t let go. An unpleasant smell intensifies, invading nasal cavities, permeating the mind, the brain, triggering an olfactory echo-chamber effect lasting long after the smell’s disappearance" (1,500 words)

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Mystified by cryptic crosswords? We at The Browser are here to help. Pick up the ultimate guide, by Dan Feyer and Uri Bram, and let us guide you through the meaning of those clues - so you can get on with puzzling.

Snowden Ten Years Later

Bruce Schneier | On Security | 6th June 2023

In this essay written ten years ago for the New Yorker, but withheld until now for legal reasons, cyber-security expert Bruce Schneier tells how he helped Glenn Greenwald evaluate Edward Snowden's NSA documents for publication, and why he agreed to do so: "The odds are close to zero that Snowden is the first person to do this; he’s just the first person to make public that he did" (3,020 words)

The Mao-Kissinger Meeting Of 1973

David Cowhig | Translation Blog | 8th June 2023

Verbatim account of talks in Beijing between Henry Kissinger and Mao Zhedong following Richard Nixon's visit to China the previous year. Chilling and fascinating throughout. Mao leads and provokes, Kissinger holds up well. Mao seems almost hopeful of a Sino-Soviet war, and invites Kissinger to see the attractions of a Soviet invasion of China: "They would attack China and be defeated" (6,400 words)

How Folklore Goes Digital

Literal Banana | Return | 3rd June 2023

On the differences between myths, legends, fairy-stories, and stuff we just make up. In folklore studies, a story told for true is a story meant to be believed by its audience. What we now call urban legends are stories told for true until proved false. A memorat is a story that the teller claims to have experienced at first hand. Memorats "constitute the bulk of interesting folklore in our time" (3,600 words)

Podcast: The Enigmas Of Foreign Accent Syndrome | The Disappearing Spoon. Exploration of a rare neurological disorder, often a result of a stroke or injury, that radically changes speech patters to the degree that the speaker appears to have developed a "foreign" accent overnight (18m 14s)

Video: Mother Of The Dawn | Vimeo | Tommy Savas | 11m 23s

Short documentary about a Brazilian truck driver, Tia Neiva, and the spiritual group she founded in the 1950s after she began to have extraterrestrial visions. Neiva was gifted with great organisational skills as well as spiritual ones; after training thousands of other mediums, her group grew into a religion called Vale do Amanhecer that still has thousands of followers.

Peter Singer

Tyler Cowen | Conversations | 7th June 2023

Interesting throughout, of course. Topics include animal rights, Darwin, aliens, altruism, war, children, AI, human nature, Parfit, Vienna, Freud, retirement. Some signs of mellowing: "There’s the issue of how we compare the value of human lives  with the lives of nonhuman animals. I don’t think animals are equal in the sense that their lives contain equal value with that of humans" (10,070 words)

First Impressions Of Vision

John Gruber | Daring Fireball | 7th June 2023

So many wild claims have been made in the past about the imminent triumph of fancy headsets (Magic Leap, Google Glass, Meta) that one may reasonably hesitate to be taken for a fool yet again. But this is Apple; Apple gets stuff right in the end; Gruber knows from Apple; and Gruber says it's good. So if this is the iPad moment in VR after a decade of Newtons, remember, you read it here first (4,200 words)

Beamer, Dressman, Bodybag

Alexander Wells | European Review Of Books | 19th April 2023

Editor for an English-language monthly in Berlin considers "Denglisch, Berlinglish & global Englisch". The city's Anglophone inhabitants speak an ultra-local dialect formed from loanwords, puns and misunderstandings. This hybrid tongue is changing German, too. He takes pleasure in "my own language made camp", as he uses the language of Goethe to order «ein Flat White bitte» (3,534 words)

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A Gallop Through A Horse’s Pedigree

Mark Harvey | 3 Quarks Daily | 5th June 2023

Entertaining canter through one horse's family history. Bought at auction for his impressive turn of speed, Tatonka turns out to be a descendant of Native Dancer, a champion racehorse from the 1950s. Like all thoroughbreds, he is descended from one of just three early 18C stallions, at least one of whom came from Yemen. Although fast like his ancestors, Tatonka also has a lazy streak (1,773 words)

Ingenious Librarians

Monica Westin | Aeon | 5th June 2023

Librarians invented the modern search engine. In the 1970s, they created the first databases and queries. They even made it possible to piggyback on searches made by other users, a strategy Google is still using today. But the most radical aspect of this work was that it predicted their own obsolescence. "They saw that we would lose expert intermediaries and they designed for this cost" (2,785 words)

Mystified by cryptic crosswords? We at The Browser are here to help. Pick up the ultimate guide, by Dan Feyer and Uri Bram, and let us guide you through the meaning of those clues - so you can get on with puzzling.

The Secret History And Strange Future Of Charisma

Joe Zadeh | Noema | 24th May 2023

We all know when we are in the presence of charisma, but few can explain what it is. Science certainly struggles. It seems to be a kind of raw power, enhanced by our beliefs about it as an engine of historical change, which can be bent to the owner's will regardless of allegiance or ideology. Trump has it, many believe, while Gordon Brown decidedly does not. Now AI is being trained to imitate it (5,956 words)