Did you read it? Did you read it?

Since my daughter was born I have spent countless hours in a dark room trying to get her to sleep with one hand, while reading things on my phone with the other. I’ve trawled the wastelands of the web, clicked on unprepossesing links, read the articles and sifted out the best. There’s everything from the Daily Mail-esque A 17-Year Old Russian Powerlifter With a Doll-like Face to the dizzlingly high-brow Further Materials Toward a Theory of the Man-Child.

Read it through from January to December (in progress) and you’ll be as up to date as the white people in Portlandia. I recommend using Instapaper to save the things you want to read later.

Enjoy!

January

• For 40 Years, This Russian Family Was Cut Off From All Human Contact, Unaware of WWII | History & Archaeology | Smithsonian Magazine
• Confessions Of A Mum Packing Meds | The Global Mail

February

• Maybe academics aren’t so stupid after all | OUPblog
• Why Americans Are the Weirdest People in the World
• Relax! You’ll Be More Productive – NYTimes.com
• Gangster bankers: Too big to jail | Rolling Stone

March

• What Being a Handyman Has Taught Me About Male Insecurity – Andy Hinds – The Atlantic
• Everyone needs a Plan B | Savage Minds Backup
• Science engagement in Australia is a 20th century toy
• Fat City – What can stop obesity? | Karen Hitchcock | The Monthly

April

• Advice to Little Girls: Young Mark Twain’s Little-Known, Lovely 1865 Children’s Book
• Has every conversation in history been just a series of meaningless beeps? | Charlie Brooker | Comment is free | The Guardian
• Before I Forget: What Nobody Remembers About New Motherhood – Jody Peltason – The Atlantic
• BBC News – A Point of View: The pain when children fly the nest
• Why I Am Not A Conservative (Any More) | Richard Cooke | Blog | The Monthly

May

• What Parents Of Little Kids Need To Admit To Themselves
• Anthropologists in the public sphere
• Jaron Lanier: The Internet destroyed the middle class – Salon.com
• Unexcited? There May Be a Pill for That – NYTimes.com
• The Virtual Academic
• Savage Minds Interview: Sarah Kendzior | Savage Minds Backup
• Don’t make fun of renowned Dan Brown – Telegraph
• But the Australian is Elitist, Too | Richard Cooke | Blog | The Monthly
• Why Australia hates thinkers
• Hyperbole and a Half: Depression Part Two

June

• The Anthropologist as Reader
• The weirdest languages
• How typeface influences the way we read and think – The Week
• Never Give Your Kid A Cold Shower: Advice From The Worst Dad On Earth

July

• Further Materials Toward a Theory of the Man-Child – The New Inquiry
• Bogans and boat people (Pt 2)
• Information Consumerism: The Price of Hypocrisy – Überwachung – FAZ
• Why Stephen King Spends ‘Months and Even Years’ Writing Opening Sentences – Joe Fassler – The Atlantic
• How to explain anthropology to a physicist | Savage Minds Backup
• Jack Handey: “Guards’ Complaints About Spartacus” : The New Yorker
• James Hansen: Fossil fuel addiction could trigger runaway global warming | Nafeez Ahmed | Environment | guardian.co.uk
• The History of Typography, in Stop-Motion Animation – Ivan Kander – The Atlantic
• Paris Review – Completely Without Dignity: An Interview with Karl Ove Knausgaard, Sadie Stein
• Ghosting, the Irish goodbye, the French leave: stop saying goodbye at parties. – Slate Magazine
• How to Listen – NYTimes.com
• Kim Jong-il’s Sushi Chef Kenji Fujimoto: Newsmakers: GQ
• Woman’s work : Columbia Journalism Review
• McSweeney’s Internet Tendency: I Look Good in My Pork Pie Hat.
• South Country by Kenneth Slessor : The Poetry Foundation
• What Makes Something A ‘New’ Language?

August

• Who comes first, your partner or your kids?
• The Problem with P0rn
• On the Phenomenon of Bullshit Jobs | Strike! Magazine
• The reality show
• Elmore Leonard’s ten rules of writing
• Anthropology Is Your Ally
• You Can Do <em>Anything</em>: Must Every Kids’ Movie Reinforce the Cult of Self-Esteem?
• Historical guilt in America and Germany – Susan Neiman – Aeon
• The Books We’ve Lost by Charles Simic | NYRblog | The New York Review of Books

September

• LRB · Colin Burrow · Frog’s Knickers: How to Swear
• Pussy Riot’s Nadezhda Tolokonnikova: Why I have gone on hunger strike
• How Tony Abbott defeated liberal feminism
• wait but why: Why Generation Y Yuppies Are Unhappy
• Facebook Feminism, Like It or Not | Susan Faludi | The Baffler
• Why Australia hates asylum seekers
• Timelapse of the Imperceptible Effects of Aging Created from Family Portraits by Anthony Cerniello | Colossal
• Why An Abbott Election Victory Would Be Good

October

• The Logic of Stupid Poor People
• The New King of Trash Publishing: Meet the Man Who Revolutionized Lowbrow
• Book of Lamentations – The New Inquiry
• Tomboy Style: SCENE | Cowgirl Roundup
• Rise and shine: the daily routines of history’s most creative minds
• A 17-Year Old Russian Powerlifter With a Doll-like Face (11 pics)
• What’s Scott Adams’ secret to success? ‘Goals are for losers’
• Ned Kelly’s capture: full text of letter written by witness
• Stalin’s Blue Pencil
• Let’s All Write Open Letters To Miley Cyrus And Also Your Mom Forever And Ever
• Elvis Impersonator Paul Kevin Curtis and the Ricin Assassination Plot