HELLO and welcome to the 255th installment of Things I Read That I Love, wherein I share with you some of the longer-form journalism/essays I’ve read recently so that you can read them too and we can all know more about Diana Vreeland! This “column” is less feminist/queer focused than the rest of the site because when something is feminist/queer focused, I put it on the rest of the site. Here is where the other things are.

The title of this feature is inspired by the title of Emily Gould’s tumblr, Things I Ate That I Love.

Judging Books By Their Covers, by Jason Diamond for Longreads, October 2017

I have so many of these books, I read this article on an airplane and even though I couldn’t google to look at them while I read I could see Bright Lights Big City in my head so clear. But also I love what’s in here about book collecting and collecting in general.

Moira Donegan: I Started the Media Men List, by Moira Donegan for New York Magazine, January 2018

Have you read this one yet

Get a Real Degree, by Elif Bautman for The London Review of Books, September 2010

I highlighted 16 passages in this essay, this is the shortest one.

It might not be true that you have to ‘know the rules before you can break them’, but knowing the rules can save you from certain pitfalls, like thinking you’re being revolutionary when you aren’t.

The Cult of Diana, by Amy Fine Collins for Vanity Fair, July 2011

Diana Vreeland, who held positions of esteem with Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar, a genius with a daring and influential sense of style, persistently dogged by her estimation of her own beauty as insufficient. A truly indulgent world to get lost in for ten minutes.

After Hours, by Linda Besner for Real Life Magazine, January 2018

This made me feel better about my refusal to go to the gym on weekends because I can go to the gym on weekdays when it’s less crowded so why would I go on weekends with so many other people you know? Because maybe that’s what I do, but also I could be culty about it if I wanted to be and I’m not, not like the people this piece is about. Phew.

The Afterlife of Newsies, by Sarah Marshall for The Baffler, January 2018

Hello I am one of the few human girls who fell madly for Newsies when it came out in the movie theaters, and this article was written for me, thank you Sarah Marshall.

Health care in the US: Why universal health care never happened, by Annalisa Merelli for Quartz, July 2017

This has been sitting on my instapaper FOREVER and I was like, listen Riese, you have to read this or go home, you know? And I was on a plane, decidedly not headed home, so I read it. And I learned something.

Ashley Feinberg trolls for all the right reasons, by Matthew Kassel for The Columbia Journalism Review

This isn’t LONGform but I just thought you might enjoy this piece about my hero Ashley Feinberg.

I went undercover in a Toronto factory where a temp worker died. Here’s what I found, By Sara Mojtehedzadeh and Brendan Kennedy, September 2017

I have not stopped thinking about this one. I kept wanting to talk about it, it’s just so sad and horrifying.

Profile: Katja Blichfeld of High Maintenance, by Emily Gould for The Cut, January 2018

Ahem, this is a beautiful profile of the creator of a show about marijuana that’s supposed to be debuting a very good and queer second season, and the creator came out to herself and her then-husband as a lesbian when Donald Trump won the election. And Emily Gould wrote it and she inspired the title of this column, so there’s just a lot happening here that is gonna really float your boat, my friends.

A High-End Mover Dishes on Truckstop Hierarchy, Rich People, and Moby Dick, by Finn Murphy for Longreads, June 2017

A fascinating look into a world I knew nothing about.

To Be, or Not to Be, by Masha Gessen for The New York Review of Books, February 2018

The way this essay progresses from one idea to the next is masterful.

On Valentine’s Day in 1982—I was fifteen—I went to a gay dance at Yale. This was a great time for gay dances. It was no longer terrifying to be queer on campus, but gay life was still half-hidden in a way that was thrilling. I do not remember, in fact, dancing, and I don’t even remember catching anyone’s eye. In other words, I’m pretty sure that no one noticed me. Strangely, that wasn’t crushing. Because what I do remember is standing somewhere dark, leaning against something, and feeling like I was surrounded by community. I remember thinking, This is who I could be.

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