Books
August 7, 2025

Listen to ‘Moby Dick’ Read by Benedict Cumberbatch, Tilda Swinton, Sir David Attenborough, and More for Free

Books like Moby Dick are beloved classics for a reason, but that doesn’t mean that they’re light reads. Sometimes a book is best read through listening. Luckily, Plymouth University put together the Moby Dick Big Read, a full audiobook that is free to anyone. Sail through 135 chapters plus an epilogue, all read by different people, including Benedict Cumberbatch, Tilda Swinton, and Sir David Attenborough.

Read Article

Photo Contest
August 6, 2025

Mangrove Photography Awards 2025 Reveals Winning Images Celebrating the Wonders of Mangroves

The Mangrove Photography Awards recently announced its 2025 competition winners, and the results offer a stunning glimpse into our natural world. An initiative of the Mangrove Action Project, this unique contest centers on conservation storytelling to celebrate the beauty, diversity, and, ultimately, fragility of global mangrove forests. It offers a platform to share the story of the mangrove, which is a shrub or tree that grows along coastlines and tidal rivers.

Read Article

Books
August 6, 2025

Man Who Kept Track of All 3,599 Books He Read in His Life Gets Posthumous Site for 100-Page List

By the time he died at the age of 92 in July 2025, Dan Pelzer had read at least 3,599 books throughout his lifetime. That number may seem precise to the point of being hyperbolic—and yet it’s entirely accurate. In 1962, long before the advent of Goodreads, Pelzer began keeping track of his reading on his language class worksheets while stationed in Nepal with the Peace Corps.

Read Article

Wildlife Photography
August 5, 2025

Perfectly Timed Photo Captures Unlucky Vole Looking Directly at the Camera as It’s Swept Away as Dinner

Wildlife photography requires great technical skill, and it also involves a bit of luck. Being in the right place at the right time can land you a once-in-a-million shot that, in one fell swoop, epitomizes the wild world. Photographer Sha Lu recently captured an image like that. In his photo, an unlucky vole is powerless in the talons of a white-tailed kite as it soars away with the rodent in mid-air.

Read Article

My Modern Met

Celebrating creativity and promoting a positive culture by spotlighting the best sides of humanity—from the lighthearted and fun to the thought-provoking and enlightening.