Subscribe
Printed works to illuminate a networked world.
The Accidental Billionaires The Founding of Facebook: A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius, and Betrayal
Ben Mezrich
After hacking into the Harvard computer system to snag the photos of every female student on campus, Mark Zuckerberg set up a site for fellow male students to “rate” them. Mezrich chronicles how the social experiment led to the birth of Facebook and the changing of American life forever.
By James Surowieki
New Yorker staff writer Surowiecki explores the idea that large groups of people are often smarter than an elite few even if those few are experts in the subject at hand. He finds down-to-earth ways to investigate the idea in fields as diverse as psychology, economics, and artificial intelligence.
By Clay Shirky
Social media has completely changed the way groups work together in many ways and Shirky chronicles them all: from antiauthoritarian demonstrations in Belarus and bloggers bringing down Trent Lott to the complete surprise of Wikipedia working effectively. Shirky entertainingly deciphers what makes groups work in this Web 2.0 world.
Twitter Wit: Brilliance in 140 Characters or Less
Nick Douglas
Like a collection of hilarious and fascinating haiku, Douglas, the founding editor of Silicon Valley gossip site Valleywag, collects 158 pages of 140-character (or less) tweets from a slew of celebs such as Stephen Colbert and New Yorker staff writer Susan Orlean and everyday Joes that prove to be priceless.
Stealing MySpace: The Battle to Control the Most Popular Website in America
Julia Angwin
MySpace’s founders weren’t tech geniuses. They were marketing guys who had dabbled in spam, pornography, and spyware before ripping off another social-networking site, Friendster. Pulitzer Prize-winner Angwin tells how one of the Internet’s most popular sites came to be and was eventually sold to Rupert Murdoch for almost $600 million.
Email
Print
Share
With dates announced for his upcoming Old Ideas concert tour, we celebrate the inimitable Leonard Cohen: bard, survivor, legend. His most recent album is a return to form for the balladeer, exploring signature themes of lust and longing, spirituality and struggle, all overlaid with a droll sense of humor as familiar as Cohen's prophetic voice.
When Jack Luxton hears that his estranged brother has been killed in combat, long-buried memories begin to well up like groundwater, and difficult choices Jack thought he reconciled himself to years ago turn out to be close at hand. Man Booker Prize-winner Graham Swift's novel plumbs timeless themes of regret, renewal, and the bonds of love.
The opening story in Matthew Battles's electric collection, "The Dogs in the Trees", documents the inexplicable appearance of arboreal canines. Further gorgeous fantastika follows, producing a volume sure to draw comparisons to Borges and George Saunders.
