What's News

Social: Longform Article Reading Club

Ms. Daylily by Xujun Eberlein
Saturday, 5/30/2026
10:00 - 11:30
Virtual Library

United States

Register

Discuss a longform magazine or newspaper article with a group of longreads fans in this new monthly club from the Magazines and Newspapers Center. It’s like a book club, but instead of books we discuss periodical articles of 5,000—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. We recommend reading the selection a second time as well. 

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. 

May 2026 Selection

"Clouds and Rain over Three Gorges" by Xujun Eberlein. 

The man I’m now married to was a foreigner in 1987, when he and I took a heretical hike along the Yangtze. We went to the mountains of Wushan through which the renowned Three Gorges are carved. According to a Tang Dynasty poem,Water is hardly water after experiencing oceans / Clouds are no longer clouds apart from Wushan’s mountains. Until a dam—said to be the world’s largest—cut the Yangtze into two halves at the waist, those damned words were so poignant that they could make the stoic sentimental. 

American Literary Review, March 2014

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Book Clubs

Read, discuss ideas and connect through the many book clubs hosted by SFPL.

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Weaving Stories is the Library's celebration of the many diverse histories and cultures from AANHPI communities.

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Programs that highlight how the library's vast periodicals collection can help you dig deeper in your research, expand your horizons and stay informed.

This program is sponsored by Friends of the San Francisco Public Library.

Attending Programs

All programs are drop-in (no registration necessary) unless otherwise noted. All SFPL locations are wheelchair accessible. For accommodations (such as ASL), call (415) 557-4557 or contact accessibility@sfpl.org. Requesting at least 3 business days in advance will help ensure availability.

This program will be conducted in English unless otherwise noted.

Notice: This event may be filmed or photographed. By participating in this event, you consent to have your likeness used for the Library’s archival purposes and promotional materials. If you do not want to be photographed, please inform a staff person or the photographer. A sticker will be provided to help identify you so that we can avoid capturing your image.

Public Notice and Disclaimer

This program uses a third-party website link. By clicking on the third-party website link, you will leave SFPL's website and enter a website not operated by SFPL. This service may collect personally identifying information about you, such as name, username, email address, and password. This service will treat the information it collects about you pursuant to its own privacy policy. We encourage you to review the privacy policies of each third-party website or service that you visit or use, including those third parties with whom you interact through our Library services. For more information about these third-party links, please see the section of SFPL’s Privacy Policy describing Links to Other Sites.

The views and opinions expressed in programs presented by groups unaffiliated with SFPL do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of SFPL or the City.