Weekend Reading

  • Good News Thanksgiving Extravaganza
    Welcome to the first ever NextDraft Good News Only Thanksgiving Extravaganza. (OK, the name needs work, but candidly, good news is not something I have a ton of experience with.) These stories were submitted by NextDraft readers.
    If you only want tales full of love, hope, and inspiration. Stop here.
  • What to expect from NHS cervical screening
    If you live in the UK and have a cervix, chances are you’ll either have already been invited to visit your GP for cervical screening (also known as a ‘smear test’), or you will be aware that you’ll be getting a letter once you reach the age of 25.
    These are important. Please, if you need to get one done, get it done.
  • A Chess Novice Challenged Magnus Carlsen. He Had One Month to Train.
    Max was not very good at chess himself. He’s a 24-year-old entrepreneur who lives in San Francisco and plays the sport occasionally to amuse himself. He was a prototypical amateur. Now he was preparing himself for a match against chess royalty. And he believed he could win.
    Humans continue to prove they can be utterly fascinating. FYI Magnus Carlsen is the best chess player in the world (some say ever), and is equally as oddly fascinating.
  • The World’s Most Famous Actor Whose Face You’ve Probably Never Seen
    When Doug Jones stepped into a quiet diner in the San Fernando Valley in mid-October, a handful of other patrons in the restaurant craned their heads to look at him. It’s easy to understand why.
    Dedication and passion to a craft.
  • Relationships
    “Most people seem to believe that if a relationship doesn’t last until death, it’s a failure. But the only relationship that’s truly a failure is one that lasts longer than it should. The success of a relationship should be measured by it’s depth, not by it’s length.”
    Shared this on Twitter already. It’s just that, the quote. But it’s kinda stuck in my head.
  • What Made Freddie Mercury the Greatest Vocalist in Rock History? The Secrets Revealed in a Short Video Essay
    I wasn’t always a Queen fan. Having cut my music fan teeth on especially downbeat, miserable bands like Joy Division, The Cure, and The Smiths, I couldn’t quite dig the unabashed sentimentality and operatic bombast.
    Anyone who disputes this FACT can meet me outside. Miss you Freddie!
  • 100 Questions to Spark Conversation
    Thank you Alexandra Franzen for these 100+ questions to ask your friends, family and dinner companions. She shared these because the U.S. is having Thanksgiving family gatherings coming up this week. But these come in handy anytime
    Can’t remember how I found this but I DARE you to try some of these on your family!
  • Charles Manson: The Incredible Story of the Most Dangerous Man Alive
    Book One: Year of the Fork, Night of the Hunter. But the decadence of history is looking for a pawn, To a nightmare of knowledge he opens up the gate, A blinding revelation is served upon his plate, That beneath the greatest love is a hurricane of hate. —”Crucifixion” by Phil Ochs.
    Dead now, but I get the feeling the sub pop culture aspects of him will remain for a long time.
  • Think More, Speak Less: 8 Best Books on the Power of Silence
    There’s something paradoxical about writing about silence. Reading and writing can be silent activities, after all, but their raw material is the same stuff from which conversations, lectures, and well-choreographed rants can emerge.
    I’ve added a couple of these to my Christmas wishlist.
  • How Margaret Atwood Learned to Type
    My childhood household had a typewriter. It was a portable Remington from the 1930s with its own black carrying case and round black letter keys with white rims around them. My mother had typed my father’s PhD thesis on it: she’d taught herself to type in order to do so.
    Everyone starts somewhere.
  • London buses are being powered by a new fuel: Coffee
    There’s a new buzz powering public buses in London. British startup bio-bean has partnered with Shell (RDSB) and Argent Energy to create a coffee-based biofuel that will be used in London’s diesel buses.
    Welcome, London buses, to my life. One thing though, do NOT touch MY coffee. I cut you. Got it?
  • Farewell to Malcolm Young, the Mastermind of AC/DC
    Picture yourself, if you will, at an AC/DC show at some unruly venue in Albany or Toledo in the fall of 1978. Perhaps a friend has brought you, or maybe hearing one of the band’s songs on FM radio has drawn you there. Regardless, you’re in luck.
    Always a band on the periphery of my rock catalogue, had no idea he was the ‘mastermind’.
  • Starbucks Is Criticized for Its Holiday Cups. Yes, Again.
    Thanksgiving is right around the corner, which means it is time to embark on a modern American holiday tradition: over-analyzing seasonally available Starbucks cups for signs of liberal nefariousness. Starbucks has produced holiday cups for 20 years.
    Focus people of America, FOCUS! THIS SHIT IS NOT IMPORTANT.
  • What Do We Do with the Art of Monstrous Men?
    Roman Polanski, Woody Allen, Bill Cosby, William Burroughs, Richard Wagner, Sid Vicious, V. S. Naipaul, John Galliano, Norman Mailer, Ezra Pound, Caravaggio, Floyd Mayweather, though if we start listing athletes we’ll never stop.
    It’s not stopping, and hopefully won’t any time soon. Out them all.
  • Read Disney animation chief John Lasseter’s memo to staff about his “unwanted hugs”
    As a follow up to the above, some of the names are still ‘surprising’ me (even though I know it’s All Men).
  • A new study confirms liquor makes you confident and gives you all the feels
    Unofficially, everyone knows that different kinds of booze will give them a different kind of night. But now, data from one of the largest surveys on drug and alcohol use finally prove it: hard liquor gives most people that extra ~swag~.
    Always nice to see scientists ‘prove’ this kinda thing, bet the Case Studies were a riot!
  • A Sense of Appreciation Is the Single Most Sustainable Motivator at Work
    Work can be a thankless task—literally. Despite the fact that most of us probably spend more time with our co-workers than anyone else—even partners, spouses, and families—they remain the people to whom we are least likely to express our appreciation.
    That reminds me, thank you for reading!