Recommended Reading: Silly, Serious, and Somewhere in Between.

To say I spent a lot of time on the internet is an understatement. A functioning wireless router enables me to do my research, keep abreast of the news, stay in touch with friends, watch four seasons of Bob's Burgers in three weeks, and do whatever it is I spend so many hours doing on Tumblr. Without internet access, I would spend a significant portion of my day lying in bed, glaring at the ceiling and wondering what other people with internet access are doing.

My browser history isn't all online shopping and social media, though. A significant amount of my bandwidth usage goes toward digital reading material that's undoubtedly wreaking havoc on my eyesight, but hopefully makes up for the headaches by providing some intangible sort of cultural enrichment, or at least fodder for the next time I have a conversation with an actual human being that doesn't live inside a small box on my laptop screen. I'm always wary of deluging my unfortunate Facebook friends and Twitter followers with too many links to articles they may not be interested in, so I'm experimenting with a weekly reader's digest of sorts here, instead, where anyone can elect to read (or not read) what I've been reading lately. Reading reading reading.

I haven't decided yet what day of the week would be best to commit to this feature; Sunday night is probably the worst, since everyone has school and work to get to the next day, but I forgot to do this yesterday and I want to start the week fresh. (Let me know if there's a certain day you would most appreciate seeing these published!) This first set of articles ranges from a little bit frivolous to significant and worth sharing; they may not all be to one person's taste (unless that one person is me), but they're all pieces I think are worth featuring.

All article titles are clickable, and all links will open in a new tab.

Playing with privilege: the invisible benefits of gaming while male by Jonathan McIntosh, Polygon
     I was glad this piece received some attention when I first linked to it on Facebook, where I called it a well-written introduction to certain advantages men who play video games might take for granted, not even realizing how much worse the gaming experience can be for "girl gamers." As the title suggests, it takes inspiration from Peggy McIntosh's classic piece on "White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack," in that both pieces attempt to deconstruct ways in which the author's belonging to a dominant group makes life easier for them in ways that an underprivileged population does not experience. It's especially salient to discuss "male gaming privilege" now, when recent statistics from the Entertainment Software Association show that adult women have overtaken teenage boys as the largest demographic in video games, and yet women who play, discuss, or even make video games are subject to derision, sexual harassment, and even death threats for daring to enter supposedly male spaces. Jonathan McIntosh's checklist of invisible benefits of gaming while male sheds welcome light on male privileges that should, in a happier future, be applicable to all.

The Strange & Curious Tale of the Last True Hermit by Michael Finkel, GQ
     This is a longer piece, but "strange and curious" sums up the reasons for reading it pretty well: a man lived alone in the woods of Maine for almost 30 years, surviving on stolen goods from nearby cabins, with no desire to re-enter society at any point. This account seems to be the closest anyone will ever get to understanding his choices from his point of view.

I Ate 2,346 Calories of Chocolate in My Sleep Last Night and I Don't Remember Any of It by Philippa Willitts, XOJane
     Explaining that this is an article about the consequences of one woman's sleep-walking doesn't ruin her fascinating and sad account of what it's like to live with such an unpredictable, often frightening condition.

It Took Me Two Years to Realize My Boyfriend Was Racist by Tiffany Tsai, Everyday Feminism
     I met my first boyfriend's parents just a few weeks into our relationship, and it would be a lie to say I wasn't nervous about it. Not only was I his first "real" girlfriend, but I was also very much not white in the home of blue-eyed Brits and a mother raised in the American South. I was lucky: they're a wonderfully kind family, who went out of their way to make me feel welcome on that first visit and during every interaction that followed. Though I occasionally teased that "half-American" boyfriend about his late, beloved, Fox-News-watching grandparents, our interracial couple status was a non-issue, and he was always quick to listen and sympathize with accounts of non-white experiences. Tiffany Tsai's piece reminds me to be grateful for that.

I was taking pictures of my daughters. A stranger thought I was exploiting them. by Jeff Gates, Washington Post
     Transracial adoption is a sticky subject that I'm not particularly educated about, but the idea of a white family going overseas to adopt Chinese babies when there are so many foster children in need of homes in their own country does give me pause. However, that doesn't stop me from being upset at this white adoptive father's story of how a man saw him with his teenage Asian-American daughters and assumed the worst. Human trafficking is a serious problem, but so is the assumption that good-looking young girls with foreign features must not belong here, must somehow be victims, can't possibly be happy American citizens on vacation with their loving, white parents. Plenty of people think "better safe than sorry," but that's probably cold comfort to those two girls.

Experience: I gave birth on a plane at 30,000ft by Debbie Owen, The Guardian
     And the baby was okay! Phew.

My Week on the All-Emoji Diet by Kelsey Rexroat, The Atlantic
     I was mostly excited about this because I finally learned what those unfamiliar Japanese food emojis represent. Fish cakes, rice crackers, and "sweet dumplings made from rice flour and often filled with red bean paste" -- now those symbols don't have to haunt me with their unfamiliarity.

I read many, many more articles this week, but I only thought to start collecting them about two days ago. Future weekly editions of Recommended Reading will have even more, um, recommendations. Get ready.