This dispatch comes from Patagonia—there will be plenty about fishing in the next few weeks (and then when The Believer comes out in April).
In the meantime, here’s a reading list with some of my favorite pieces.
-Tom Beller wrote this wonderful story in the Times about creative friendships. He uses the Degas/Manet exhibition as a basis of his own supportive but competitive relansiohp with the late Robert Bingham.
-Here’s Helen Rosner’s great New Yorker piece on the importance and taxonomy of diners. The idea that they’re just good enough (but not too good) is hysterical and true.
-Pete Wells is always great. And when he writes about old restaurants he’s even greater.
-If you’ve spent time in England you probably know (and love) the shipping forecast. In the FT, Jo Ellison puts it in wonderful perspective.
-Some people are just very good at what do, like John Jeremiah Sullivan. His Harper’s piece is undoubtedly the best thing ever written about plumbing. I’ll leave it at that, except to say you must read this.
-This is an oldie, but because we’ve been having a lot of beef here in Argentina we got on the topic of gout (ha!). Dwight Garner is, of course, the great Times book reviewer, he wrote a hysterical story for Esquire about his life as a gout man (though maybe that’s less surprising when you read his Grub Street diet for New York Magazine).
-I’m in the middle of a fascinating book on Francis Ford Coppola, by Sam Wasson. About his life and creativity and it’s inspiring and a bit overwhelming (in a good way!). I’m sure we’ll revisit this on the podcast or the newsletter later. So get in there!
Any piece on old restaurants that begins with “prime rib hash at Keens” is something I can get behind.
Great list. I can't get enough of the Grub Street Diets (both good and bad) and Dwight Garner's is maybe the best. His book the Upstairs Delicatessen is terrific too