During the week, we consume words in snackable, tweetable bites. But on the weekends, we have the time to take a dive into the murkier, lengthier depths of the Internet and expand our attention spans beyond 140 characters. We can brew a cup of coffee and lie back with our iPads, laptops, smartphones and Kindles.
Since you're bound to miss a few things during the daily grind, we present to you, in our weekly installation of Mashable Must Reads, a curated list of can't-miss stories from around the web to read and reflect on. (You can find last week's must reads here.)
Be careful what you wish for, Putin: He crushed his enemies and has nothing to show for it but a country that is falling apart. Here, Julia Ioffe takes us inside Russia's anti-Putin movement, on which the Winter Olympics in Sochi has put a spotlight.
The Super Bowl is one of the most-watched TV events, but records aren't the only things it breaks. Concussions are a huge, growing problem in sports. While several promising technologies for the diagnosis and prevention of traumatic brain injuries are beginning to emerge, science is still lagging far behind when it comes to finding a solution.

Jake Woolley on the field for the Portland State University Vikings football team.
Image: Portland State University Athletics
Every two minutes, someone in the U.S. is sexually assaulted. A primer on the cultural factors behind the statistic — something everyone should know and read.
The majority of the world's poverty is concentrated in the tropics, where more than 40% of the world's population currently lives. That number is expected to reach 50% by 2050. But in the middle of the jungle in Panama sits a small village called Kalu Yala, which is poised to become the world's most sustainable residential community. Can its 30-year plan effectively restore balance to the global allocation of resources?
New York City has sealed up a 169-year-old landmark, but the man who discovered it wants back inside. "Gradually he built a career — and an identity — around the 169-year-old underpass." (Pro tip: scroll up/down on the photos.)
Ten years ago, Facebook — the site that is now almost ubiquitous with turning on your smartphone or opening your browser — was nothing more than Mark Zuckerberg's pipe dream. On its decade anniversary, some of the network's first employees, including cofounder Dustin Moskovitz, recall their earliest memories; the designer behind the Like button almost got fired because he never made a Facebook account.

Dustin Moskovitz, cofounder of Facebook, poses in San Francisco on April 26, 2012.
Image: Eric Risberg/Associated Press
Amid an alarming and frequently violent government crackdown in Russia, coming out of the closet — or simply supporting gays and lesbians — can get you thrown in jail, beaten up or even worse. As the Winter Games begin in Sochi, Russia, Jeff Sharlet reports on the lives of the new enemies of state, otherwise known as men expressing their love for other men.
Don't have time to read them all now? In our Readlist below, export this week's must reads to your tablet to save for a time 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.