It is possible you do not have time for books. In fact, in all likelihood you have an entire stack (let’s say right next to your bed, watching you disapprovingly as you instead choose to watch "30 Rock" on Netflix and eat Nutella with the wild, frantic abandon of someone who knows they have better, more enriching things to do. This could just be personal experience.) But, do you know what you do have time for? The internet!
Entire tracts of the internet are teeming with good things to read. Magazines devoted entirely to literature and culture will put all or most of their content online, or simply only publish on the internet. That lets you, the reader, pair the weirdly neutralizing feeling of mindlessly scrolling with the opportunity to read well-written, interesting, and entertaining content.
These are not necessarily literary magazines: They do publish fiction and personal essays, but also interviews, book and movie reviews, cultural commentary and more. Some, like Grantland, are devoted partially to sports.
So here are my top five publications that you can add to your Google Reader, or check up on once in awhile. You know that thing you do where you go on Tumblr and black out, only to find yourself, two hours later, scrolling through a blog devoted to pictures of animals wearing various kinds of hats? Do that, but with reading stuff.
Dave Eggers, the guy who wrote What is the What, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius and the screenplay for Away We Go also created a publishing house called McSweeney’s. McSweeney’s, in turn, publishes The Believer. In it, you’ll find interviews, essays, music and book reviews, sometimes even poetry. What is particular about The Believer is the blend of high and low culture: when they interviewed Nick Offerman, who plays Ron Swanson on Parks and Recreation, they discussed how to canoe without irony. They will interview Joan Didion as easily as they will Mindy Kaling. Often they take a piece of pop culture and put it through serious analysis, like when they tried to understand the politics behind the most salient question of the 60’s: The ‘Stones or The Beatles?
The easiest way to describe The Baffler is to point out something they did back in 1992, which was to feed the New York Times a list of “grunge” lexicon, all fabricated. The New York Times published the article, where it was eventually revealed to be a hoax. In response, The Baffler issued a statement: “We at The Baffler don’t really care about the legitimacy of this or that fad, but when the Newspaper of Record goes searching for the Next Big Thing and the Next Big Thing piddles on its leg, we think that’s funny.” The Baffler offers critique on culture (both high and low), politics, and business. They’ve critiqued everything from Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert to the Ivy League admissions game to calling out The Atlantic for its “soothing IV drip of frictionless, borderless, culturally agnostic thought-output.” If you are feeling particularly contrarian, indignant or thoughtful, The Baffler will have something for you to read. A full archive of their back issues is currently in the works, so you can stay culturally pissed off for hours, if you choose.
Full Stop publishes interviews, book reviews, essays and recommendations, all by or in support of young writers. Founded in 2011, it is relatively new, but still full of great pieces. Periodically they will post a feature called Full Stop Recommends, wherein the editors compile book, music and movie recommendations for a particular month. It’s a great way to be introduced to artists from trusted, knowledgeable sources. Another feature, Fiction Weekly compiles a list of great fiction pieces published that week. Full Stop, in this way, can work as the starting point from which your clicks branch as you spiral out of control into the black hole of procrastination.
Grantland is affiliated with both McSweeney’s and ESPN. Whatever image comes to mind when you mix a San Francisco literary publishing company and a sports television network is pretty much exactly what Grantland is. One can find sports analysis and an essay on Kubrick’s first film published within the same week. The articles are written in a conversational, relaxed style; but all articles, whether on film or music or sports, is approached with the same level of earnestness that makes reading about either equally enjoyable. This, from the person who confused a baseball referee with a football referee. Look, I know.
This Recording touches on everything: fiction, essay, poetry, interviews, movie reviews, and more. And by more, I mean they also write up various artists, philosophers or scientists and give an overview of their life and works. Here is a great one about Simone De Beauvoir. They will also publish diary entries and letter-exchanges between said artists, philosophers, or scientists. Their Saturday fiction series is always rewarding. You’ll also find television episode reviews told in the voice of Dick Cheney, which I feel is the most persuasive argument I can make for becoming a devoted reader.
Bonus!
Read The New Republic because they have crazy great book reviews at The Book and great essays and articles on the book industry here.
Read The Paris Review for some of the best and most thorough interviews you can find. Most of them are available online. You can hear from Ray Bradbury, Jonathan Franzen, William S. Burroughs, Borges, Norman Mailer, E.B. White and an overwhelming number of others all the way through 1953.
Read n + 1 for the great, long essays on a huge variety of categories. Here’s one on Joaquin and River Phoenix, and one analyzing the current generation of writers and their relationship with literary Theory.
Read The Smart Set for its great essays on everything from the politics of shoes to a guy’s relationship with mowing the lawn.
