我們都知道這種感覺。你在悲傷的夜晚失眠，或者在朦朧的週末清晨蹣跚而行，需要一些閱讀的東西，而那一堆未讀的書並不能阻止你。為什麼不從Twitter和RSS的消防水龍帶中休息一下，看看我們每週從網路上收集的關於技術、文化、媒體和未來的重要文章？當然，坐在Instapaper佇列中你會感到內疚的還有一件事，但總比再次在Twitter列表上徒勞地拉好。

在輪輞上

詹姆斯·蘇羅維茨基看了看輪輞哪裡出了問題。

《紐約客》：詹姆斯·蘇羅維茨基——動態研究與黑莓的興衰

C***umerization has been disastrous for R.I.M., because the company has seemed clueless about what c***umers want. R.I.M. didn’t bring out a touch-screen phone until long after Apple, and the device that it eventually launched was a pale imitation of the iPhone. Although the BlackBerry brand name was once seen as a revolutionary success, over time R.I.M.’s product line became bewilderingly large, with inscrutable model names. If you’re a c***umer, do you want the 8300 or the seemingly identical 8330? And the BlackBerry’s closed system has left R.I.M. ill equipped for a world in which phones and tablets are platforms for the whole app ecosystem.

論復古

蘋果的skeumorphic（毛絨皮革背景、iCal的縫線、報攤的書架）傾向常常被認為是糟糕的設計，但蘋果並不是唯一的違規者。例如，大多數日曆應用程式仍然堅持讓使用者瀏覽，就好像介面仍然受到紙質頁面的限制一樣。

連線英國：克萊夫湯普森-復古設計是削弱創新

Now ask yourself this: why does Google Calendar — and nearly every other digital calendar, come to that — work in this way? It’s a strange waste of space, forcing you to look at three weeks of the past. Those weeks are largely irrelevant now. A digital calendar could be much more clever; it could reformat on the fly, putting the current week at the top of the screen, so that you always see the next three weeks at a glance.

在tumblr上

《連線英國》介紹了Tumblr的創始人大衛·卡普（David Karp），他在2006年與馬可·阿蒙特（Marco Arment）的兩週休息時間裡，用自詡為“笨蛋，書獃子”（dippy，nerdy kid）的簡單部落格工具為Sorkin ready改編搭建了舞臺，在網站的簡單開端上進行了構建和創新，扮演了一個紐約媒體界小名人的角色，以及管理增長最快的社交網路之一的瘋狂增長。

《連線英國》：湯姆·柴郡——成功的絆腳石：Tumblr的大衛·卡普如何建立一個5億英鎊的帝國

"The social network that emerges out of Tumblr is interesting because it’s driven by content, not by the social graph that these other networks are building around," says John Maloney, the company’s president. And that content spreads quickly: on average, a Tumblr post gets reblogged nine times.

在裂縫上

喬安妮·麥克尼爾（Joanne Mcneil）回憶起她使用一部破裂的iPhone**的經歷，這部**有一種奇怪的效果，它會促使關心她的陌生人搭訕，奇怪地看著她，並一再擔心碎玻璃會割傷她的手指。

根莖：喬安妮·麥克尼爾-我的破iPhone

But a digital device is not an alarm clock or a shelving unit. It will grow obsolete very quickly. Which makes the atemporal look of electronics by Apple more uncanny, more rarefied. The personal computer as Holly Golightly’s little black dress.

關於評論

作家兼時代書評家列夫·格羅斯曼和裡賈娜·斯莫爾認為，在這樣一個時代，批評界發生了什麼？你會發現，在這個時代，對一切事物的評價都是無止境的，文學價值的標準似乎也消失了。

《時代》：列夫·格羅斯曼：《超越好與壞：亞馬遜評論時代的文學價值》

Not that things were better in the old days; in fact it was horribly oppressive. But post-Amazon and GoodReads, it’s much harder to maintain a stable, abstract idea of what literary value or greatness or what-have-you means — not in the face of all those stars. Personally I like The Great Gat**y, but if I wanted to make the case that my opinion about it was more valid or significant than those one-star reviews, I’m not sure how I’d go about it. "Personally" is about all that’s left.

還有錐子：裡賈娜·斯莫爾——我永遠不會告訴你你錯了，列夫·格羅斯曼

But you get to keep talking and so does everyone else — and if there is any way to transcend the crippling fear that you are but a tiny, isolated transient bit of c***ciousness, the first step might be the weird decision to accept that…you are a tiny, isolated transient bit of c***ciousness, who needs to hear the plaintive one-star cries of all those people who might be/definitely are/definitely aren’t wrong.

關於有聲讀物

瑪姬·格拉姆（Maggie Gram）講述了有聲讀物的歷史——在20世紀30年代，由於一戰期間許多士兵失明，Works專案管理局創作了一本有聲讀物（在國會圖書館可以找到更多資訊）——並探討了這種形式在閱讀世界中作為二等公民的持續地位。

n+1:Maggie Gram——聽書

I thought about starting this essay by insisting that I listen to audio books for work, so that I could not be mistaken for that other kind of person, that kind of person who listens audio books because it brings her some kind of unsophisticated pleasure. I am not, I wanted you to know, your Aunt Paula. My kitchen is not decorated with rooster towel racks and rooster potholders and rooster trim. I am a very serious person.

你想在下週的版本中看到你最喜歡的嗎？把它們發到@thomashouston或者在下麵的評論中分享。