* “How the books we read shape our lives;” my most important book is probably The Lord of the Rings, though “most important” is of course ridiculous. Here is a 2010 post on influential books (on me).

* “Why Some of the Worst Attacks on Social Science Have Come From Liberals;” I’ve ordered the book discussed in the article.

* “East Germany thrived on snitching lovers, fickle friends and envious schoolkids.” Read properly, this is also a plea for modern privacy in the information age.

* “Why the 2012 non-Retina MacBook Pro still sells.” Makes sense to me: I’m still annoyed that I can’t replace the hard drive in my Retina MBP with a larger one.

* Don’t edit your imagination.

* “Tom Lutz and the ‘Los Angeles Review of Books’ set out to create a new model of literary review.” Great!

* “Chevrolet’s Bolt is an electric vehicle for the masses—and we’ve driven it: 200-mile range, sub-$30,000 price tag, and production begins this year.” This is more important news than it may first appear, and it relates to the many, many articles about global warming that have been appearing.

* Do Societies with Little Coercion Have Little Mental Illness? Original article makes a statement rather than asking a question.

* “Academics, we need to talk.”

* Signaling, status, blogging, academia, and ideas.

* “‘I Am an Attorney Because I Had an Abortion:‘ A powerful amicus brief to the Supreme Court is signed by 113 attorneys who shared their abortion stories.” I hadn’t considered this point: “Unlike same-sex marriage, a constitutionally related right whose appeal derived largely from real-world stories, abortion is typically defended as an abstract, theoretical decision.”