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Your Sunday Long Reads: One Direction, Reading Fifty Shades on the Subway, and Michael Keaton

(L-R) Niall Horan, Louis Tomlinson, Zayn Malik, Liam Payne and Harry Styles of the band One Direction perform on NBC's
One Direction. Photo: Neilson Barnard/Getty Images

It’s Sunday afternoon, or: your last chance to read all that stuff you meant to read last week before Monday brings a new deluge of things you will want to read. Below, some of our recommendations:

One Direction: The Tumblr Interview,” by Jessica Bennett (Storyboard/Tumblr): The British boy band answers the tough questions, including, “What’s it like having swarms of girls chasing you around the globe?”

Is It Creepy to See Someone Reading Fifty Shades of Grey on the Subway?” by Adam Sternbergh (The New York Times Magazine): At this point, it’s a question every single commuter has asked themselves. 

Dinner With Daniel: Michael Keaton,” by Daniel Kellison (Grantland): The actor on Beetlejuice, technology, almost starring in Lost, almost turning down Jackie Brown, and much, much more.

What Ever Happened to Hysterical Realism?” by Lev Grossman (Time): An argument in favor of contemporary fiction’s shift away from the “big, hyper-inter-connected” novels of the nineties (think Infinite Jest) toward today’s more controlled, plot-oriented “unrealism.”

The Uncannily Accurate Depiction of the Meth Trade in Breaking Bad,” by Patrick Radden Keefe (Culture Desk/New Yorker): A reporter compares Walter’s budding meth empire — complete with slick lawyer-criminal Saul Goddman —to his recent story on Mexico’s Sinaloa drug cartel, and finds that the show pretty much gets it right.

I Was an A-List Writer of B-List Productions,” by Stephen Harrigan (Slate): A TV movie-of-the-week screenwriter recalls an epiphany brought on by Lawrence of Arabia, and a career consisting primarily of “colon movies,” Shakespeare rip-offs, and being churned through the Hollywood grinder.

For more in-depth weekend readings, visit our friends at Longreads.

Long Reads: One Direction, Michael Keaton