Looking for something to read?

Hi! Another Monday, another TLR reading list :) Sorry I missed last week's post. Was sick, then entered what was the most hectic work week I've had all year. I'm back now though. Let's dive right in: 1 - [**Mr. Nobody: The Bizarre Story of Sywald Skeid**](https://www.gq.com/story/mr-nobody-sywald-skeid) | *GQ, $* This is one of those stories that I feel was carried more by the writing than by the actual material. Which is not to say that a profile of this Mr. Nobody is boring—quite the opposite, really. But I do think Michael Paterniti’s lens and prose did a lot of heavy lifting here, magnifying the many twists and turns of this man’s life and lay them out along a compelling narrative thread. 2 - [**Hit Man**](https://www.texasmonthly.com/true-crime/hit-man-2) | *TexasMonthly, $* Really interesting profile of a cop who often plays the role of a hitman to help law enforcement catch criminals. This one has all the trappings of a Skip Hollandsworth story, but I’d say it leans further into questioning our morality as a species. Through a crime lens, this story questions whether each of us has an innate and deep capacity for evil. To that end, I’d say this piece perfectly achieves its goal. At some point, this article crosses over into horror as you realize how these seemingly everyday people can fall so far into their own despair as to actually pay for someone to get killed. 3 - [**Inside the Hunt for the Most Dangerous Asteroid Ever**](https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/07/08/1119757/asteroid-hunt-2024-yr4-earth-planet-protection) | *MIT Technology Review, $* One of those really fun science stories, following a dispersed group of top scientists tasked with tracking an asteroid that could have a catastrophic impact on the planet. The way it’s structured feels like a movie, jumping from one location to another. And the story does a good job at giving these experts their flowers, highlighting the very crucial work they do. 4 - [**Kiss and Kill**](https://archive.vanityfair.com/article/1991/9/1/kiss-and-kill) | *Vanity Fair, $* How do the kids say it these days? #WomenInMaleFields? I have to say: That’s very apt for this story, which is an accounting of the life and crimes of Aileen Wuornos, one of the few serial killers of note in American history. Personally, I found the story to be a bit *too* straightforward—not much flair in the structuring and prose, and no real twists that knocked the air out of me. Others may find that to be a good thing, though, because it *does* allow the craziness of Wuornos’ story to speak for itself. That's it for this week's list! Let me know how I did, and feel free to share your own recommendations below :) ALSO: I run *The Lazy Reader*. Subscribe [here](https://the-lazy-reader.beehiiv.com/subscribe) and get a list of some of the best longform stories every Monday. Thanks and happy reading!