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From sentences in Unko Kanji Doriru (“Poo Kanji Drills”), a series of writing-exercise books for elementary school students in Japan. The books were written by Yusaku Furuya and published in…

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By Valeria Luiselli, from Tell Me How It Ends, which was published in April by Coffee House Press. Luiselli is a novelist and essayist. Her article “Terrorist and Alien” appeared in…

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From Donald Trump: America’s 45th President, which was published in November by Gallopade. The biography, by Carole Marsh, is for readers aged eight and up.

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From a conversation that took place in March in a high school classroom in Bryansk, Russia. Earlier that day, Maxim, a student, was arrested for spreading information about an unsanctioned…

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By Philip Roth, from remarks he gave at a celebration of his seventy-fifth birthday at Columbia University in 2008. They are included in Philip Roth: Why Write?, which will be published…

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From a series of podcasts that Uber, the ride-hailing platform, created last year for its drivers in Seattle. In 2015, the Seattle City Council passed an ordinance granting Uber drivers…

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From a list of experiences on Airbnb that are offered by the platform’s hosts to their guests. The feature was introduced in November.

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By Patrick Modiano, from Livret de famille, an untranslated novel that was published in 1977 by Éditions Gallimard. Modiano’s most recent books in translation, Such Fine Boys and Sundays in August, were published this…

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From a list of over-the-counter sexual-enhancement products sold since 2007 that have been identified as harmful by the Food and Drug Administration.

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By Ann Lauterbach, from a manuscript in progress. Lauterbach has published nine volumes of poetry, including, most recently, Under the Sign (2013).

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By Ellen Ullman, from Life in Code, which will be published next month by MCD, an imprint of Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Ullman is a former computer programmer and the…

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From tasks performed in Walden, a computer game in which players simulate the life of Henry David Thoreau. The game was developed by Tracy Fullerton at the University of Southern…

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From letters that Marcel Proust wrote to his neighbors Marie and Charles Williams between 1908 and 1916, while he lived at 102 Boulevard Haussmann, in Paris. Charles Williams owned a…

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From voice messages sent on WhatsApp by Abdul Aziz Muhamat, a twenty-four-year-old Sudanese refugee detained on Manus Island, to Michael Green, a journalist, in March and April 2016. That April,…

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From a guide to “common principles of behavior” recommended to Russian tourists visiting foreign countries. The guide was released by the Russian Foreign Ministry in March. Translated from the Russian…

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From minutes at a county council meeting in Kauai, Hawaii, in 2015. Residents gave public testimony regarding the repeal of an ordinance that imposed fines on the owners of barking…

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By Catherine Lacey, from Certain American States, a forthcoming collection of short stories. Lacey’s second novel, The Answers, was published last month by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. She is a…

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From a list of features advertised for I Just Made Love! The cell phone app consists of a user-generated map and social network.  Use your built-in GPS to mark the…

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