Where does one even begin to measure how much she's read in the past year? An Instapaper or Pocket queue? A stack of half-finished books for book club? A list of Twitter favs?
Perhaps it doesn't need measurement. It's gratifying to read something so completely engrossing that time is no matter, even if it means riding the subway an extra stop or two (guilty).
See also: 15 Young-Adult Books Every Adult Should Read
Below, we've rounded up our favorite can't-miss Mashable stories from throughout the year to read and reflect on as 2013 comes to a close. They range from the geeky depths of the video game world (our Grand Theft Auto V review) to the annals of weird Internet culture to the futures of mammoth companies such as Google and Yahoo. We'll take you to Mars and back.
Keeping scrolling down to find a Readlist, where you can export all of our must-reads to your tablet to save for a time when you have no distractions. Simply click the "read later" button alongside each story or or click "export" to send the entire list of articles to your preferred device.
If a Mars colony is truly in our future, how will we fulfill one of the most basic human needs? Having sex on Mars is unexplored and could potentially be life-threatening.
When Eric Lim's sister committed suicide, she left him money to make a film. He embarked on a project to help foster online discussion about mental health, to honor his sister's memory and help prevent others from making the same choice.
Image: Eric Lim and Stephen Reedy
That Dragon, Cancer is not the kind of video game you'd expect at E3, an event brimming with twinkling lights and distractions. Ryan Green created the biographical point-and-click adventure game as a coping mechanism that allows players a glimpse into life with a very sick child: a little boy, Green's son, who was diagnosed with cancer at age 1.
In a community biolab in Brooklyn, N.Y., students are creating "biotic video games," systems that incorporate living microorganisms. While such games have the potential to enrich learning, some are raising concerns for human beings’ level of control over life.
Many hail Mayer as a beacon of hope for the struggling tech giant. But to understand the origins of that enthusiasm, remember: It's had four different CEOs in one year, two of which ended poorly. Here's how she's trying to move the company forward and what to expect in her second year.
For most millennials, Neopets remain only in memory, a relic of the dial-up era. But for the past 13 years, in the world of Neopia, some of those little creatures are still among the living.
Image: Mashable composite, Neopets.com
Debates over A.I. often take one of two sides: the technology's benefits or its dangers. Upon deeper inspection, though, its moral implications are murkier than simply "good" or "bad." We explore the deep-seated issues associated with merging technology with our bodies (note: read before your next argument about robots).
When David Hilfiker, 68, was first diagnosed with Alzheimer's last year, he was determined to strengthen the relationships with his loved ones — not lose them to a deteriorating memory. So the author and self-described exhibitionist begin writing about his disease.
Crowdfunding sites such as Kickstarter and Indiegogo are making space accessible for common Earthlings. As NASA missions hit red tape in Congress, some smaller missions would not be possible if not for private companies and public fundraising.
Social sites like Facebook could become stronger and smarter by looking to the behavior of ant colonies, where too much growth can lead to collapse. Welcome to the Anternet.
Summer rumors abounded that Tim Cook would take the stage in September to introduce the next iPhone. Ultimately, Cook would pitch products for a smartphone market that has changed in several noticeable ways since the release of the iPhone 5 over a year ago. In this precursory piece, we predict its success will depend in large part on how Apple has adapted.
YouTube phenomenon Michelle Phan, 26, has a way with a brush. Over the past six years, her acclaimed makeup tutorials have brought in 4.6 million subscribers, making her the second most-subscribed-to female on YouTube. In a sit-down interview with Mashable, Phan discusses the make up of her makeup empire.

Daryl Oster, head of Evacuated Tube Transport Technologies, or ET3, has plans that go beyond Hyperloop: He intends to send passengers from New York to Beijing in less than two hours. “It’s global space travel on Earth" and different than Elon Musk's design, but challenges to making it a reality are just as persistent.
3D printers aren't just making our lives easier — they're making life possible. We follow the story of toddler Kaiba Gionfriddo, whose doctors took a risk using a 3D-printed lung to help regulate his breathing and save his life.
When Microsoft was about to launch BitLocker, its Windows software to encrypt and lock hard drives, the FBI may have repeatedly asked the tech company to put a backdoor in its software to break or circumvent supposedly secure systems. The head of the engineering team working on BitLocker at the time revealed to Mashable the exchanges he had with various government agents.
In the most complex and story-driven entry of the franchise, Grand Theft Auto V sets a new bar for open-world games overall, writes Mashable's games reporter Chelsea Stark. It balances an engaging story, a gigantic world and fun gameplay.
Image: Rockstar Games
Native advertising is not like porn: If it's done well, people don't know it when they see it. This way of packaging content can seem deceptive to readers (a fact publishers are well aware of). Now, the FTC is stepping in.
Fantasy football used to be part of a niche culture until the game came to the Internet and permeated homes and offices. Now, it's a multi-billion dollar industry that draws in 33 million Americans. Fantasy sports have fundamentally changed the way we approach sports — but when does the obsession cross the line?
The most online popular marketplace for drugs, Silk Road, was seized and shut down by the FBI this week. One of its prominent dealers — "Angelina," a user who made nearly 10,000 transactions over the course of a year and a half — spoke with Mashable about her business acumen, privacy tactics and approach to selling drugs.
In the post-Napster industry, music was nearly broken. But then companies like Spotify figured out how to monetize streaming services. No one can argue Spotify's model is a boon for record labels and music execs, but many artists are less than thrilled with their respective cuts.
Image: Mashable, Bob Al-Greene
Making cold, hard cash from paid applications in the App Store is proving more difficult for developers. But according to the latest statistics from analytics companies, app revenues for Apple's App Store and Google Play are on the rise. If people aren't buying as many paid apps, how are developers making more money?
You may not be able to recall the last time you made a copy, but the world printed 3 trillion pieces of paper last year. This is the story of how two men created the world's first dry copy in an apartment in Queens, N.Y. — and changed corporate America forever.
Two weeks ago, California became the second state in the U.S. to ban revenge porn — the act of publishing intimate photos, videos and contact information online without the subject's consent — and New York might be next. Mashable spoke with victims, activists and lawyers about the swirling controversy over the First Amendment that the issue has opened.
The video streaming service is starting to lose sight of its own mission — to help people find and enjoy premium content when, where and how they want it. A former Hulu employee looks back at the company's history and wonders whether Mike Hopkins, Hulu's new CEO, formerly of 21st Century Fox, can be the change the company needs.
Google's latest venture is not tech, at least not in the traditional sense. With California Life Company, or Calico for short, the company wants to extend human life by 20 to 100 years. Yes, it sounds like an amazing feat for humanity — but Google has dollar signs in its eyes. The quest to live just a bit longer is in high demand.
Image: Flickr, Salle-Anne
After doctors diagnosed Brian Curtis with lung cancer, they said his time left on Earth was limited. So in a quest to bring joy to the end of his dad's life and keep other family members connected, his son, Brandon, started an online campaign called #SkyBluePink. "Sky blue pink" was Brian's favorite color — a beautiful blend of shades found in sunsets and sunrises. Hours after its launch, the photos started streaming in from strangers to comfort a man they'd never met.
Major media companies such as Amazon, Netflix and Pandora rely on algorithms to personalize the user experience, and many journalism outlets now use algorithms to recommend stories, organize the homepage and even generate original content. But that doesn't mean real editors and curators have completely lost out. Sometimes the "gorgeous messiness of flesh and blood" does prevail.
In 1988, a 23-year-old Cornell student Robert Morris released a worm onto the Internet, sending computers to a screeching halt. It was an accident that would change Internet security forever. Now, 25 years later, the industry takes a look back.
Forget Indiana Jones — there's a new crop of archaeologists using space tech, like satellite imagery, to uncover the world's mysteries. Here, we dig into how specialists are discovering ancient sites once invisible to the naked eye — from thousands of miles away.
Image: NASA/Getty Images
The Mafia's strongest weapon is its ability to instill an unwritten code of silence among victims or witnesses of crimes — a code rooted in fear. An anonymous group of Italian citizens has built a WikiLeaks of sorts, but with a much narrower focus: It's a website for mob whistleblowers called MafiaLeaks.
Not all issues afflicting military officers are confined to the battlefields. Some problems are so basic that they affect every soldier, like the lack of storage space in everyone's email. So after a few years of service, many leave the rigid confines of military life for the open and innovative environments of companies such as Google and Facebook.
After Typhoon Haiyan tore through the Philippines, a suspected 2,500 people were left dead and more than 600,000 were displaced, according to some reports. One of those 600,000 is a man named Peter Borromeo, who was on a work trip when the storm hit. He texted his family that he was fine — and that was the last they heard from him for four days.
The story of Finland’s fascinating emergence as a hotbed for startups — quite possibly the next Silicon Valley of Europe — can’t be told without looking at Nokia, the once hometown hero of the country. Nokia has imploded, but a thriving startup scene comprised of hundreds of new companies has emerged from its ashes.
Kiwi Gardner, a slender high school sophomore from East Oakland, Calif., was just tiny point guard on his high school basketball team. But that all changed when one day, a cameraman in the stands recorded some MVP-worthy footage of Kiwi and uploaded it to YouTube. The video shot Kiwi to Internet stardom. After bouncing between colleges and jobs, suspended between YouTube fame and the harsh reality of big-business basketball, he declared for the 2013 NBA Draft. The odds weren't in his favor. There was no cameraman to make him look good — just Kiwi.

Image: Mashable composite. iStockphoto, VLADGRIN, mustafahacalaki