The Best Words
This is my curated personal weekly reading log: all the media I consumed each week that I thought was worth saving, because it was novel, interesting, thought provoking, or well written. It is not the news—that is a job I don’t want to have. These pieces tend to be more timeless. It is also low-volume; I read a lot, but less than 10% of what I consume makes it onto this log at all. However, of the things I see that are worth saving, nearly all will make it into this log.
⚠️ DISCLAIMERS ⚠️
My summaries for each item are super haphazard and incomplete. They are more notes-to-self with a key point or two that stood out most (whether I think it’s true or not), not any kind of deep engagement with the piece. No note is my complete, nuanced thoughts on a subject, obviously.
I don’t 100% agree with almost anything on this list. In fact, I read things I disagree with on purpose, for perspective, and in case I'm wrong. Things are linked here not for being gospel truth, but for teaching me something even if I think the rest is nonsense.
Relatedly, inclusion in this list is not a personal endorsement. I believe we can learn something positive from everyone, regardless of their other flaws.
Ratings are for novelty and quality at that specific time—a great piece may be rated low because I’d already been exposed to the ideas, or a mediocre piece rated high because it was my first encounter with an interesting idea. (tbh this is a pretty subjective system, the boundaries are blurry, and I am not perfectly consistent)
I rate each piece on a scale from 1-7, as a bit of extra curation:
1-3 (0%): Maybe interesting but not worth saving—not in this list.
4 (~50%): Baseline interesting and worth saving, I may want to come back and reference it; this is already the top 5-10% of what I read.
5 (~35%): Distinctly novel or thought provoking above the baseline of 4.
6 (~13%): Unusually novel and well written, really made me think. Definitely worth coming back to periodically.
7 (~2%): Truly exceptional/singular, timeless. I strongly encourage pretty much everyone to read this.
Check out the full archive of all past readings here.
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