Each week, members of the WFPL news team spotlight interesting stories we've read and enjoyed, for your weekend reading pleasure:Gabe Bullard: Did you have to go to a mall in the last month? Did you dread it? Relax, the Atlantic says malls are dying. The story is not only about the decline of malls, but the general effect of online shopping on physical retail space, whether it's in a suburban mall or on an urban street. Read The Death of the American Shopping Mall.Bonus: Joseph Lord is the king of recommending stories from the New York Times Magazine. I'd like to one up him this week by recommending this piece from a New York Times Magazine writer about another magazine. Mark Leibovich knows the cachet of claiming to read The Economist, but this month, he decided to read every single word in the venerable English magazine's end of the year issue. He put together a list of things he learned by doing so. Read 17 Things I Learned From Reading Every Last Word of The Economist's 'The World in 2013' Issue.(Web's note: I also read The Economist. — JL)Rick Howlett:This week ESPN's Dana O'Neill tries to make sense of the U of L/UK basketball fan rivalry. Rick Pitino, who has coached both teams, can't offer much help. Read Kentucky, Louisville and the City that Divides One of Basketball's Hottest Rivalries.
Joseph Lord: It's quite possible that in this day tucked toward the end of the holidays, you have or will have more than a few drinks. This lengthy piece in Lapham's Quarterly analyzes the relationship between drink and pen of the greatest English writer of all. Read Players Club.Erica Peterson: Over the past few weeks, the Lexington-Herald Leader has been exploring the legacy of Harry Caudill's book Night Comes to the Cumberlands in Eastern Kentucky. Caudill's book, published in 1963, brought Appalachia to the attention of people around the country. But as the Herald-Leader chronicles in Fifty Years of Night, the book also had a great effect on Caudill. So far, they've published five chapters, and promise more over the coming year. It's an interesting look at the man behind what's still one of the most influential pieces of literature about Appalachia.Read Fifty Years of Night.
