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Michael Bentley's avatar

Responding to last week's prompt, I typically "read" everything except the letters, goings ons, capsule book reviews, and cartoons in the digital edition. Although this is usually saved in a read-in-later app like Pocket and I'll do a lot of text-to-speech listening of articles. Most my of actual reading happens on a treadmill. This means I usually consume it in inverse order of how it appears online (as that's how it's saved), going Talk of the Town -> Reviews -> Features, followed by the few remaining things in the print edition later in the week.

I thought that Lasdun piece had an odd style not very congruent with the typical New Yorker piece. The first person narrative and not bringing a lot of new original reporting was not what I was expecting from it.

I'd personally rank the Getty one as a must read, although perhaps for opposite reasons. There were new details on the family and tax avoidance that I found fascinating, although I guess it's been a while since I've browsed those Wikipedia pages. The personal intrigue of the wealth manager was less compelling and was happy to have that mostly recede.

Finally, I'd call out that Talk of the Town article on the guy restoring license plates as a must-read. As a non-New Yorker this was a scam I wasn't really aware of. The arch style of Talk of the Town suited this story well.

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