Recommendations you can check.
Tokyo-based American writer; author of Ametora (2015), Status and Culture (2022) and Blank Space (2025).
11 things
The Cultural Origins of Human CognitionBook Michael Tomasello
The most meaningful book I read this year was Michael Tomasello’s The Cultural Origins of Human Cognition (2001), which ties together evolutionary theory and social theory in a much, much more compelling way than the ape-brain people.
Year-end look-back post on 2023 culture, ending with brief recommendations
2023-12-12·culture.ghost.io ↗
Rap Capital: An Atlanta StoryBook Joe Coscarelli
Joe Coscarelli's new book is essential reading on Atlanta's emergence as a major force in contemporary cultural production.
Essay reviewing Joe Coscarelli’s book Rap Capital
2022-12-14·culture.ghost.io ↗
The RehearsalOther Nathan Fielder
Art critic Dean Kissick went long on Spike about Nathan Fielder’s truly excellent The Rehearsal
Links roundup of cultural journalism and critique
2022-09-20·culture.ghost.io ↗
10,000 GecsOther 100 Gecs
100 Gecs’ 10,000 Gecs was solid.
Year-end look-back post on 2023 culture, ending with brief recommendations
2023-12-12·culture.ghost.io ↗
Get UpOther NewJeans
I had the same issue with NewJeans’s very good EP “Get Up,” which uses the exact 2-step and D’n’b beats from tracks on my MiniDisc in 2001.
Year-end look-back post on 2023 culture, ending with brief recommendations
2023-12-12·culture.ghost.io ↗
Everything I Need I Get From YouBook Kaitlyn Tiffany
Related to this is something I learned from Kaitlyn Tiffany’s excellent book Everything I Need I get From You
Year-end look-back post on 2023 culture, ending with brief recommendations
2023-12-12·culture.ghost.io ↗
DogpatchPodcast
Music podcast Dogpatch did an excellent episode covering their favorite songs from the last decade
Monthly links roundup on culture
2023-01-31·culture.ghost.io ↗
After SchoolOther Casey Lewis
When I read excellent newsletters like Casey Lewis’s After School, I am reminded that all new culture is internet culture.
Monthly links roundup on culture
2023-01-31·culture.ghost.io ↗
Fat: A Cultural History of the Stuff of LifeBook Christopher Forth
I just read Christopher Forth’s Fat: A Cultural History of the Stuff of Life, which I recommend for its very nuanced take on how girth has been valued and devalued over the centuries.
Monthly links roundup on culture
2023-03-29·culture.ghost.io ↗
The RecognitionsBook William Gaddis
Two really long books ate up a lot of my reading this year: Gaddis’ The Recognitions and Hofstadter’s Gödel, Escher, Bach. I would not casually recommend either, but as my friend Nick said, “I’m glad they exist.”
Year-end look-back post on 2023 culture, ending with brief recommendations
2023-12-12·culture.ghost.io ↗
Gödel Escher BachBook Douglas R. Hofstadter
Two really long books ate up a lot of my reading this year: Gaddis’ The Recognitions and Hofstadter’s Gödel, Escher, Bach. I would not casually recommend either, but as my friend Nick said, “I’m glad they exist.”
Year-end look-back post on 2023 culture, ending with brief recommendations
2023-12-12·culture.ghost.io ↗
Every entry is a verbatim quote and a link to the public post it came from. Nothing is paraphrased. If it is not on record somewhere public, it is not here.
The verdict is what they actually said: loved and liked are explicit; recommended means they told others to get it; uses means they only say they use it; read is a book on their public shelf with no verdict; mixed and disliked are kept too.
A dashed affiliate link, sponsored or their own label means the post disclosed a relationship. It is shown, never hidden.
The shading behind a date shows how dated a recommendation is for its kind of thing.
The shading behind a date shows how dated a recommendation is, for its kind of thing. Fully green is recent. It drains a quarter at a time as the post gets older, and is empty once it reads as dated.
What counts as old depends on the thing. A laptop praised four years ago has been replaced twice; a book loved twenty years ago is probably still loved. The shading is gone after about:
Stripes mean the post carries no date and the date shown is an estimate. No date at all, no shading.