Alex Dobrenko

This is the messy backyard with forking paths. I plant cool stuff here without worrying about organizing it.

My observation of the Brat cycle is that most people have never looked up the lyrics to this album — it’s unambiguous that Brat is about... doing drugs in the club ( “Should we do a little key?” ). It’s noteworthy when the right-wing criticism of a thing is more apt than the the left-wing co-opters.

The point of these lines is clear. In the old days, craftsmen did not cut corners. They worked carefully, and they took care with every aspect of their work. Every part of the product was considered, and each was designed and made to be exactly as it should be. These craftsmen did not relax their thoughtful self-discipline even with respect to... See more

Greetings from Read Max HQ, and welcome to our weekly roundup column. This week’s is the year-end READ MAX AWARDS EDITION , featuring previous selections from the Read Max Roundups given important year-end awards like:

• Best book I read all year


• Best alternate histories I read this year whose counterfactuals turn on the Columbian Exchange


• Best looming

... See more