Pirates, poets, and pop quizzes: the most-read stories of the week at LitHub.com.
Here at literary website and widget factory Lit Hub dot com, I keep an hourly eye on traffic because, uh, traffic is also readers, and when you publish things you want people to read them (with this formula we will make millions). Here, then, are the five stories from the last seven days read by the most people. (Special mention to the story that got the most reads this week, The Loneliness of Donald Trump, by Rebecca Solnit, which people will be reading on the one last geothermal-powered iPad in that one last village in the Canadian Shield.)
1.
Where Have All the Pirates Gone? by Peter Lehr
“Nowadays, being a pirate is simply no longer seen as doing the right thing.” Honestly, sometimes you do know when a story is going to take off. This would be that.
2.
Can You Guess These Classic Novels from Their Library of Congress Subject Categories? by Emily Temple
Fishers–Fiction.
Older men–Fiction.
Male friendship–Fiction.
Cuba–Fiction.
A quiz for nerds, but not just any quiz for nerds, a good quiz for nerds.
3.
How, Exactly, Did We Come Up With What Counts As Normal? by Jonathan Mooney
“When normal was first used it had nothing to do with people, or society, or human behavior. It meant perpendicular.” This one’s for the RadioLab listeners among you.
4.
Whatever Your Classroom, Please Teach More Living Poets, by Nick Ripatrazone
“Joy and curiosity are refreshing reasons to bring poetry in the classroom.” When your readers are poets, and teachers, and teacher-poets.
5.
For Wittgenstein, Philosophy Had to Be as Complicated as the Knots It Untangled, by Jonathan Rée
“Philosophy was not a theory, but the practice of clarifying thoughts that are otherwise opaque and blurred.” Everyone thinks Wittgenstein is cool, especially people who haven’t read him.
