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Curious Reading Club

@readcurious.xyz

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Brilliant, hand-picked non-fiction delivered to your door every month. Sign up or get our newsletter at readcurious.xyz

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Curious Reading Club @readcurious.xyz · Jan 20

In case you missed it... We're a book recommendation service focused on hand-picking brilliant non-fiction that will entertain you, provoke your imagination and expand your horizons.

Sign up to get a new book each month: It's $25/month to subscribe (US-only)
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Three covers of books chosen recently by Curious Reading Club: On Tyranny, A Map of Future Ruins and Another Word For Love.

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Curious Reading Club @readcurious.xyz · 2d

Dice are a beautiful example of how games connect us through time.

"Dice were a Roman obsession. This was a culture intimately acquainted with their heft and bounce, the hollow, toothy rattle of the dice box and the clatter of knucklebones on marble."

newsletter.readcurious.xyz/p/the-weird-...

The weird and wonderful history of dice

And what they say about us.

newsletter.readcurious.xyz

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Curious Reading Club @readcurious.xyz · 7d

Our October book of the month is "Across the Board: How Games Make Us Human" by @timclare.bsky.social — a fascinating, charming history of games and why they matter.

Join our club now to get brilliant hand-picked non-fiction every month!

newsletter.readcurious.xyz/p/cur018-acr...

Curious Reading Club's October book of the month is "Across The Board"

Tim Clare’s “Across The Board: How Games Make Us Human”.

newsletter.readcurious.xyz

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Curious Reading Club @readcurious.xyz · 9d

"The very era that this book kind of covers is coming to an end... that sense of what American power looks like in Asia. I wish it was a happier end. "

A chat with The Pacific Circuit's @alexis-madrigal.bsky.social, about where we are and how we got here.
newsletter.readcurious.xyz/p/the-wheel-...

"The wheel is turning right now"

What the author of The Pacific Circuit had to say about people, cities, technology and American power.

newsletter.readcurious.xyz

Curious Reading Club @readcurious.xyz · Sep 1

Our latest book of the month is a real humdinger: "The Pacific Circuit" by @alexis-madrigal.bsky.social — a book focused on a very specific place and people that also reveals truths about everything and everywhere at the same time.

newsletter.readcurious.xyz/p/cur017-the...

Sign up to get a copy!

Connect the dots with September's book of the month

We're reading Alexis Madrigal's rangey, riveting modern history "The Pacific Circuit".

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Curious Reading Club @readcurious.xyz · Aug 1

📣 Our book of the month for August is... STRATA: STORIES FROM DEEP TIME by @laurapoppick.bsky.social

We loved this detailed, deliberate overview of geoscience—and its mixture of lyrical prose and detailed profiles of researchers and the things they study.

newsletter.readcurious.xyz/p/announcing...

Deep thoughts on deep time with August's book of the month

Laura Poppick's "Strata" takes the long view on geology.

newsletter.readcurious.xyz

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Curious Reading Club @readcurious.xyz · Jul 1

📢 Our pick of the month for July is "The Salmon Cannon and the Levitating Frog": @biologycarly.bsky.social's fun new book showing how silly science can lead to serious discoveries.

Publishers Weekly called it "pop science at its finest" and they're right!

newsletter.readcurious.xyz/p/cur015-sal...

Silly science is serious business in July's book of the month

We're reading Carly Anne York's "The Salmon Cannon and the Levitating Frog".

newsletter.readcurious.xyz

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Curious Reading Club @readcurious.xyz · Jun 30

Our interview with "Empire of AI" author @karenhao.bsky.social covered everything from the inception of artificial intelligence to OpenAI's voracious business to global journalism and Silicon Valley's "politics of exit".

Read more in our newsletter:
newsletter.readcurious.xyz/p/at-the-mom...

“At the moment, LLMs are the worst trade-off” — Karen Hao

Our live Q&A with the author of "Empire of AI"

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Curious Reading Club @readcurious.xyz · Jun 17

Contribute to the Kickstarter here: www.kickstarter.com/projects/the...

80% funded as I write!

The Approach - A Guerrilla Newspaper

A newspaper meets literary magazine meets organizing pamphlet focusing on how to approach––thwart, upend, survive––autocracy.

www.kickstarter.com

Curious Reading Club @readcurious.xyz · Jun 17

The great @laurenmarkham.bsky.social is almost there with her Kickstarter for a new "guerrilla newspaper" on "how to approach—thwart, upend, survive—autocracy"

More in our weekly update:
newsletter.readcurious.xyz/p/curious-ne...

A typographical poster saying "THE APPROACH - THWART! UPEND! SABOTAGE! SURVIVE!" on a glowing orange and white background

Curious Reading Club @readcurious.xyz · Jun 8

4. It suggests alternatives.

"Did OpenAI need to start an LLM arms race? Did it need to train its models on the sanity of workers and the resources of underprivileged people? Towards the book’s end she looks at what alternative models really look like if we don’t accept that “this had to happen.”"

Curious Reading Club @readcurious.xyz · Jun 8

3. It's expansive. "there are lots of books about AI and the people who shape it out... this book takes a much wider and more global view of things" and actually goes to eyewitness things that many others just take on trust.

Photo of a page in Karen Hao's book describing a visit to an "urban forest" built by Google in Chile to offset its data center there, which turns out to be a few straggly trees in a remote area -- not what Google claims.

Curious Reading Club @readcurious.xyz · Jun 8

1. It's thorough: "the meticulousness means that you feel as if you’ve taken a masterclass by the end."

2. It's transparent: "regularly credits other reporters who have broken stories about OpenAI and its dramatic little world; she tells you about the people who help inform her opinion."

Curious Reading Club @readcurious.xyz · Jun 8

Four things we loved about @karenhao.bsky.social's EMPIRE OF AI, our book of the month for June.

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What I loved most about Karen Hao's Empire of AI

A few highlights from this new book looking into OpenAI, Sam Altman and the dramatic, deterministic, technological world they are building.

newsletter.readcurious.xyz

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Curious Reading Club @readcurious.xyz · Jun 2

AI is surrounded by confusion, and OpenAI swimming in drama. But this book cuts through: it never shies away from its opinions, but it's well-informed and takes a wide, global lens.

We're also lucky enough that Karen is joining us for a live Q&A later in June. Sign up now for more!

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Curious Reading Club

Get great hand-picked non-fiction straight to your door every month.

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Curious Reading Club @readcurious.xyz · Jun 2

Our book of the month for June is @karenhao.bsky.social's astonishing look at the hottest company in tech: "Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman's OpenAI"

It's a detailed, critical dive into what AI is, where it comes from, and what it costs.

newsletter.readcurious.xyz/p/cur014-kar...

Get ready for some deep learning with June's book of the month

Our pick is Karen Hao's stupendous, skeptical "Empire of AI".

newsletter.readcurious.xyz

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Curious Reading Club @readcurious.xyz · May 2

Our book of the month for May is the fascinating ON MUSCLE by @bonnietsui.bsky.social.

It's a perfect blend of science and memoir, social history and technical detail, with some rivetingly beautiful personal stories.

Find out more and sign up here: newsletter.readcurious.xyz/p/bonnie-tsu...

On Muscle: Curious Reading Club's book of the month for May 2025

Bonnie Tsui’s new book will make you look at your body and what it can do in a whole new way.

newsletter.readcurious.xyz

Curious Reading Club @readcurious.xyz · Apr 17

Ok, here’s a feelgood story given the state of everything else

Residents of one Michigan town form a human chain to move a bookstore’s stock to its new location: www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

‘Book brigade’: US town forms human chain to move 9,100 books one-by-one

A small Michigan community banded together to help a beloved local bookstore move its stock to a new storefront

www.theguardian.com

Curious Reading Club @readcurious.xyz · Apr 17

Did you get there yet? The rage might not totally abate!

Reposted by Curious Reading Club

Lauren Markham @laurenmarkham.bsky.social · Apr 7

"I'm free. I'm free forever!" this was the voice memo I woke up to the other day from Hassan, one of the Moria 6, accused and convicted with zero credible evidence for burning down the Moria refugee camp in Greece.

www.bbc.com/news/article...

Moria refugee camp fire: Three migrants acquitted

The huge fire at the overcrowded camp left some 13,000 people without shelter on the island of Lesbos and sparked a humanitarian crisis.

www.bbc.com

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Reposted by Curious Reading Club

Ferris Jabr @ferrisjabr.bsky.social · Apr 7

🧵🐺🧬 An important point is getting lost in the discussion abt today's "deextinction" news: Colossal is not just claiming to have created something akin to a dire wolf. They claim they've made new/unpublished genetic discoveries that would rewrite our understanding of dire wolf evolution & anatomy 🧪

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Curious Reading Club @readcurious.xyz · Apr 2

What Goodreads alternatives are people using? What do you recommend?

We've tried a few but none of them really stuck, so still mainly tracking reading lists in the good old notes app.

Curious Reading Club @readcurious.xyz · Apr 1

The New York Times called it "wry and revelatory"

The New Yorker said it was “consistently entertaining and often downright funny"

And you know what, they are right.

PLUS!

We'll be holding a live Q&A with Henry later this month: if you're signed up you will get an invitation.

readcurious.xyz

Author Henry Grabar standing at a lectern wearing a suit.

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Curious Reading Club @readcurious.xyz · Apr 1

Announcing our April book of the month - PAVED PARADISE by @henrygrabar.bsky.social, an anger-inducing, funny and very smart look at our relationships with cars and specifically where and how we store them.

It's easy to sign up and get your copy!

newsletter.readcurious.xyz/p/announcing...

Park up and prepare for our April book of the month

Curious Reading Club's pick for April 2025 is Henry Grabar's Paved Paradise: How Parking Explains The World -- a book that is anger-inducing, funny and very smart.

newsletter.readcurious.xyz

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Curious Reading Club @readcurious.xyz · Mar 29

This week's newsletter is out, featuring highlights from our live conversation with @ayanaeliza.bsky.social.

It was a fun chat: she talks about how her book What If We Get It Right? came together, what surprised her about it and what it doesn't cover.

newsletter.readcurious.xyz/p/trying-not...

Ayana Elizabeth Johnson: “I was trying to not be boring”

Our live Q&A with the author of What If We Get It Right? the Curious Reading Club book for March 2025.

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Curious Reading Club @readcurious.xyz · Mar 15

This week's newsletter is out, featuring a decades-old beef between Ansel Adams and Henri Cartier-Bresson that should give you some perspective.

newsletter.readcurious.xyz/p/ansel-adam...

Wherever you go, there you are

Ansel Adams once said "There are always two people in every picture: the photographer and the viewer.” There are also two people in every book.

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