Social: Longform Article Reading Club

Discuss a longform magazine or newspaper article with a group of longreads fans in this monthly club from the Magazines and Newspapers Center. It’s like a book club, but instead of books we discuss periodical articles of approximately 10,000 words in length, which take about an hour to read.   

To participate, read the month's selection ahead of time, then join the discussion at the appointed time and location.  

The agenda of the meeting includes round-robin introductions, a forty-five minute discussion utilizing the shared inquiry method, and then a final twenty minutes to share any other thoughts the article brought up for you.  

Typically, selections can be investigative journalism, creative writing, personal essay or another genre, as long as it was originally published in a periodical.  

Sign-up for the Longform Article Club email list to get the monthly selections delivered to your inbox. 

August 2026 Selection

“Shipping Out: On the (Nearly Lethal) Comforts of a Luxury Cruise” by David Foster Wallace  

Harper’s Magazine, January 1996 

One week on a cruise ship, otherwise known as a “supposedly fun thing I'll never do again,” and twenty thousand words later, we get to know how DFW really feels about this luxury experience that he absolutely does not enjoy. This piece of travel writing is a classic example of the extended literary journalism genre, and we're closing out our literary summer by puzzling over its intriguing prose and meandering footnotes. 

Access options:  

• Read on Gale, a library database that provides access to Harper's Magazine (SFPL card required) (this is a text-only version)  
• Read on the Harper's Magazine website (personal Harper's subscription required)  
• Email mnc@sfpl.org to request a PDF scanned from the print version that includes the original graphics and layout