The Compass of Pleasure

You might file this one under "Need to Know": as the subtitle makes perfectly clear, neuroscientist David J. Linden's learned and sprightly book explores "how our brains make fatty foods, orgasm, exercise, marijuana, generosity, vodka, learning, and gambling feel so good."

May 22: The video game Pac-Man, featuring "the most iconic character from the golden age of arcade video games," was released on this day in 1980. Over the next decade, gamers spent over $2.5 billion in quarters…

Ethan Rutherford and Matt Burgess (Dogfight: A Love Story) on the writing of Rutherford's surreal and fiercely funny story collection The Peripatetic Coffin

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