Kevin Kelly has begun curating a list of the “best magazine articles ever” as suggested by him and his site’s audience. It’s a tad controversial, as most such lists are (many folks around the net point out the dearth of women writers, for instance), but will nevertheless serve as an exemplary list of long-form journalism.
If you’ve got some time, find a title that strikes your fancy and read it. Or start with the Top Seven—you probably can’t go wrong there. (It was “Frank Sinatra Has a Cold” that caught my eye, of course, the first time through. 😉 ) You’ll want to be sure and check out something by the two most represented on the list—Hunter S. Thompson and David Foster Wallace, at least; but there’s not much else I can say about such a (growing!) collection of journalistic excellence. We’ll probably talk about some of these folks, and maybe some of these pieces in class, someday. Until then, go read some stuff!