A curated list of the author's favorite reads from 2015.
Did a quick dig through my Instapaper favorites (which also have their own Twitter account, by the way) and picked out a few of my favorite reads from last year. Many were written in 2015, but a few were just read by me for the first time last year. So, without any further ado and not in any particular order, a few of my favorites:
- I find snooker oddly satisfying to watch. Every time I'm in the UK and can't sleep at 3am on the first night I seem to find it on TV and get entranced. Not sure what it is and can't seem to get excited the same way about pool on TV here in the US. I tried to play once in Ireland with a friend and I was absolutely terrible. The table is about 6 miles long and the cue seems to be about 1/16th of an inch. All of that is just a long preamble to say that I really enjoyed this profile of snooker star Ronnie O'Sullivan from the New Yorker. (Two asides here: First, if you're interested here's a bunch of YouTube videos of people having perfect snookers games and second, I just ran across this profile of a darts champion Phil Taylor, which while obviously not the same as snooker, seems like a cousin.)
- I've always wondered about the East India Company, but have never really dug in much (mostly because I'm intimidated by the size of the books on the subject). As a result, this little Guardian primer was a great introduction into one of the craziest corporations in history.
- In the tweets I broke these up, but I'll file this all here under marketing writing. My favorite marketing writing of last year (and probably favorite marketing writer as well) was from Martin Weigel and was titled "Marketing Crack: Kicking the Habit". I actually enjoyed it so much I asked Martin to come speak at Percolate's Transition conference in September (where he did an edited version of the talk). While not an article, my favorite marketing book of the year (and maybe of ever) was How Brands Grow (which I talked about to whomever would listen -- sorry about that). If you're not sure you're ready to dive in and read it, the FT had a great writeup that built on many of the ideas (though so does Martin's "Marketing Crack" piece as well as this one from 2010). Oh, and I haven't read it yet, but there's an update to How Brands Grow out now that's on my must read list.
- Silk Road has all the components to be a movie you'd never believe. There's "the dark web" (which movies and TV shows now all seem to love to reference), faked murder scenes, and lots of drugs being delivered by UPS. This two parter from Wired did a fine job telling the whole story (which, if you don't feel like reading the 20-something-thousand words you could probably wait for a movie version of).
- Okay, now for some basketball stuff, which I continued my obsession with. First, a look at how shot arc effects free throw shooting. Second, an oral history of the greatest dunk of all time: Vince Carter's insane leap over French center Frederic Weis in the Olympics (to be honest, the article isn't even that good, it's just so fun to relive and reread about this thing). Third, though not from 2015, I couldn't help but be fascinated by this look at how the Houston Rockets are experimenting with their NBA D-League team.
- Following on the sports theme, I'm not sure what it is about tennis that lends itself to great writing, but this Serena Williams profile from the New York Times was really amazing (as is my all-time favorite piece of sports writing: David Foster Wallace on Roger Federer).
- Now for a New Yorker trio that have nothing to do with each other: First, a profile of Ken Dornstein, whose brother died in the Lockerbie bombing (he is also the author of the excellent book about his search for answers The Boy Who Fell Out of the Sky). Second, a crazy story of a college couple who murdered their parents. Finally, a profile of Judy Clarke who defends the worst-of-the-worst in court, including Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.
- Now a quick trip back to the Eighties for these two: First, it's Steven Levy on the possibly effects of the introduction of the spreadsheet (1984) and second, Peter Drucker on the organization of the future (1988). Both are pretty spot on.
- This one's a little different, but I really enjoyed this short Upshot piece on the two views of the economy. The challenge with writing about the economy is that while the factors that may drive it are simple, the outcome is incredibly complex. While this piece didn't blow me away or teach me something new, I thought the debate between himself was a clever way to present a nuanced story.
- Finally, and purely for fun, The Good Bagel Manifesto is full of bagel snobbery like this (which I appreciate): "Having tasted bagels around the country and around the world, I understand why toasting is the default for most bagel shops: It's because most bagel shops don't serve good bagels. If there is one Golden Rule for good bagels, it is this: A Good Bagel Shall Not Require Toasting. All Else Follows." (Emphasis theirs.)
There was lots else, but this was a few quick picks from my list. Hope you all had an excellent 2015 and I wish you an even better 2016.