Recomendo book/Art of Noticing/Waste some time
Recomendo book
This may be the coolest and most meta recommendation we’ve made yet: the best of Recomendo is now available as an inexpensive book on Amazon. We gathered the best 550 recomendos from this newsletter and grouped them by subject, laid out in 95 pages, printed on paper with QR codes for links, and sent to your mailbox in 2 days for $9.99. This book form of Recomendo is incredibly handy, and an ideal, practical gift for almost anyone, and the happiest book I’ve ever made. If you like this newsletter you’ll love the book. — KK
Newsletter about the Art of Noticing
Writer and New York Times columnist Rob Walker has a book coming out in May called “The Art of Noticing: 131 Ways to Spark Creativity, Find Inspiration, and Discover Joy In the Everyday” and he has relaunched his wonderful grab-bag newsletter of cultural signals, trends, and curiosities to promote it. I look forward to every issue. — MF
Waste some time
Before the year ends, check out this list of the "Best Websites for Wasting Time in 2018” by HubSpot. I didn’t even know there was an Oregon Trail website! All those rainy days in elementary school came flooding back to me. The OCEARCH Shark Tracker is pretty cool too. — CD
Big ideas in conversation
The economist Tyler Cowen has been a prolific blogger; he is now a prolific podcaster, and one of my favorite interviewers of big thinkers. A really great example of his craft is his interview of David Brooks, the political pundit and op-ed columnist at the New York Times. Their fun public conversation, recorded as a podcast, about the necessary moral dimension of life, and the role of religion in modernity, is super important, but often not talked about. But any Conversation with Tyler is engaging. — KK
Vintage Kids Book about the Human Body
I love the old large format Golden Books about science, math, and technology. The color illustrations are stunning, and the text is accurate and still valid, decades after they were originally published. You can get “The Human Body: What It Is and How It Works” from 1959 for about $6. — MF
Engineering gift guide
When it comes to giving gifts to the kids in my life, I prefer to not buy toys that are trending now but will become junk in a few months. For the holidays, I’m planning on buying from the Engineering Gift Guide from Purdue, which has a lot of inspiration-inducing gifts for boys and girls ages 3-18. — CD
— Kevin Kelly, Mark Frauenfelder, Claudia Dawson