Maggie Gram, early on in her fascinating new book “The Invention of Design: A Twentieth-Century History”: "People all over the world tried to ride these waves in ways that might preserve their own dignity and power. Our cont... https://stephenschenkenberg.com/2025/09/19/maggie-gram-early-on-in.html

Yesterday via Kottke, I learned that MIchael Sippey had built a new project: 3books, a nicely organized collection of all the books that Ezra Klein’s guests recommend at the end of his show. Great idea, well-executed. ... https://stephenschenkenberg.com/2025/09/04/yesterday-via-kottke-i-learned.html

“American culture was shifting Si-ward” — Michael M. Grynbaum on Si Newhouse: https://stephenschenkenberg.com/2025/08/30/american-culture-was-shifting-siward.html

Digital diary reminded me that 22 years ago I published an essay about receiving 7 letters of rejection from 6 PhD programs: www.thecommonspace.org/2003/06/sour...

Chef’s-kiss sentence from Orlando Whitfield’s “All That Glitters: A Story of Friendship, Fraud, and Fine Art”:

Annual look back at a few cultural highlights from the year: stephenschenkenberg.com/2024/12/27/y...

Spine blurb, 1856. Sneakily snagged from a private letter Emerson sent Whitman. (From “The Look of the Book,” Mendelsund and Alworth)

Annually, 11/30 means it’s time for another three weeks of Low’s “Christmas.” open.spotify.com/album/1SITmI...

Lovely, gentle new album from Clem Snide: “Oh Smokey” open.spotify.com/album/4bflEH...

Excellent interview w/ Jesse Eisenberg @newyorker.com.web.brid.gy. I can still remember seeing him for the first time in “Roger Dodger” in the early 2000s, perhaps at the Music Box in Chicago. A committed, inquisitive art-maker. www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...

“The Zone of Interest” was an astonishing film. How it shows what it chooses to show; the sounds we just barely hear of what it chooses not to show — a remarkable work of art made with deep sensitivity. Streaming on MAX.