Sanjay Sipahimalani

‘The time of monsters’: everyone is quoting Gramsci – but what did he actually say? Line handily sums up people’s bewilderment at state of world, but it isn’t quite what the Marxist thinker wrote

Gramsci’s monsters.

www.theguardian.com/world/2026/f...

Nation states, says Rana Dasgupta, are past the moment at which "the alignment of the interests of the state and the interests of the population was at its greatest".

Twenty-five years since Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser ... When the American journalist’s seminal book was published in 2001, he became a target of threats and intimidation. He has been dealing with the fallout ever since

Twenty-five years after his pathbreaking 'Fast Food Nation', Eric Schlosser is “humbled, disappointed, amazed, outraged, angry beyond words, and yet hopeful”.
observer.co.uk/culture/inte...

Why is this man still allowed to meddle in our health and agriculture policies?

“The tension in a mystery novel is not between the killer and the detective, but between the author and the reader.” Actor known for playing Sherlock Holmes gets involved in a locked-room mystery. Not as much fun as I thought it would be, but clever and diverting, nonetheless.

‘Welcome to the calentón’: no nation speaks and thinks in a single language Beyond the xenophobia, as was made clear by Bad Bunny’s performance at the Super Bowl, the existence of different languages ​​does not weaken countries, but enriches them

"Linguistic diversity is one of a country’s greatest assets because each language shapes a way of seeing and describing the world; each word holds its own history."

english.elpais.com/society/2026...

Fascinating: researchers have identified inscriptions in Tamil Brahmi, Prakrit and Sanskrit at tombs in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt.

*Rothfeld*, sorry.

The End of Books Coverage at the Washington Post Becca Rothfeld, a former critic at the Washington Post, on the death of the paper’s books section.

"A consumer is a person whose preëxisting tastes you strive to satisfy over and over; a reader is someone you hope to change, convince, and surprise."

Becca Rothfield on the end of books coverage in the Washington Post.

www.newyorker.com/books/page-t...

How Capitalism Turned Mindfulness Into a Productivity Hack A Buddhist teacher discusses how the concept of mindfulness has been co-opted by corporations—and how we can reclaim the practice for social good.

On the evolution of the Buddhist practice of mindfulness in the West: "Neoliberal capitalism is trying to harness the psyche as a productive force...We’re numbing ourselves to intolerable conditions so we can keep functioning within them."

www.newyorker.com/news/fault-l...

By one of Fernando Pessoa's alter egos.

Feeling a little bereft because I’ve come to the end of what Julian Barnes says will be his last book. Not sure if it entirely hangs together but the last section manages to be wistful, wry, and whimsical all at once.

Go Left, Young Writers! A century ago, a socialist magazine published a manifesto calling for workers to pick up the pen, heralding the dawn of America’s proletarian literary movement. Our society’s need for working-class wr...

“The best thing a young writer can now do in America, is to go leftward . . . Do not be passive. Write. Your life in mine, mill, and farm is of deathless significance in the history of the world.” Mike Gold, 1929. Applicable to every country.

jacobin.com/2026/02/new-...

Mother Trouble | Vivian Gornick In her new memoir, Arundhati Roy tries to find the language to grapple with the shadow of her formidable, extraordinary mother.

"Page by page she’s a pleasure to read," writes the redoubtable Vivian Gornick of Arundhati Roy's 'Mother Mary Comes to Me', but what is lacking, more often than not, is "the ability to put felt life on the page".

www.nybooks.com/articles/202...

A letter in the FT: "Perhaps the question isn't how to build more intelligence, but why we've abandoned investing in the intelligence we already have." Answer: because LLMs won't ask for proper wages and working hours.

Anke Gowda: The Karnataka man who built a library of two million books Anke Gowda, whose library is open to everyone, recently received an Indian government award.

A profile of Anke Gowda, retired sugar factory worker from Karnataka, and his library of two million books free for anyone to borrow and read.

www.bbc.com/news/article...

I’ve Been Laid Off. I’m Not Done. After 20 years at The Washington Post, I’m suddenly on my own — and still writing about books.

“I intend to keep nattering on about books, authors and our imperiled literary culture.” Ron Charles on being laid off as book critic at the Washington Post.

substack.com/home/post/p-...

Since nothing makes sense anymore, we may as well start pronouncing pirates the same way as pilates.

“It's always the same wherever one goes—it's not the most powerful rulers who have the happiest populations.”

- Graham Greene, The Quiet American

Yes indeed, it’s a very interesting contradictory assertion.

The lost lessons of Jorge Luis Borges: His English and American literature classes Shortly before the 40th anniversary of the Argentine writer’s death, a new book explores a course he taught in 1966

Borges: “the art of verse consists in arousing expectation and satisfying it” while “the art of prose is perhaps more difficult, because it consists in arousing an expectation and then disappointing it.”

english.elpais.com/culture/2026...

Meet Jack Edwards, the world's most powerful literary critic Jack Edwards shapes the online world’s reading habits from BookTok. But can he handle his success?

Samuel Johnson, William Hazlitt, Harold Bloom, James Wood...and Jack Edwards.

www.newstatesman.com/culture/book...

Sounds like an unnecessarily painful read.

Geetanjali Shree: ‘I’m absolutely against the purity of l... The Indian writer on angering the grammar police, and why the domestic is as important as the political

Geetanjali Shree: “One doesn’t have to try to be political or sociological in these times, when politics and society are so much upon us. Whatever you do, they creep in.”

observer.co.uk/culture/book...

The New Yorker offered him a deal Two months ago, I read a seven-hundred-page collection of short stories by John Cheever.

Is there such a thing as “a New Yorker story?” A very deep dive by Naomi Kanakia.

www.woman-of-letters.com/p/money-and-...

Frida Kahlo-branded luxury condos go up for sale in Miami Units in the Wynwood towers inspired by the anti-capitalist artist are priced between $500,000 and $1.6m

Frida Kahlo once wrote: "I’m convinced of my disagreement with the counterrevolution – imperialism – fascism – religions – stupidity – capitalism – and the whole gamut of bourgeois tricks."

Today, we have "Frida Kahlo-branded luxury condos".

www.theartnewspaper.com/2026/01/29/f...

‘There’s no market for Filipino literature’ is a lie. Here’s why. Often, the books we escape to cage us in systems of our own oppression.

A plea from the Philippines for "a future where 'literature' is not shorthand for the Western canon, and we are [not] forced to Other ourselves in our own country."

Via the Literary Saloon.

philstarlife.com/news-and-vie...

People should try this during waking hours, too.

‘Don’t google the Beckhams!’: How to read more, according to Britain’s top authors A drastic drop in reading for pleasure has prompted a national campaign to get Britain to fall back in love with books. Leading authors, including Helen Fielding, Salman Rushdie and Tom Fletcher, tell...

The book doesn’t matter. The pleasure does.” Ian McEwan, Helen Fielding, Salman Rushdie, Jeanette Winterson, and other authors on how to read more.

www.independent.co.uk/arts-enterta...

Havana pulses with jazz despite blackouts and Trump’s threats The organizers of the Jazz Plaza Festival say that maintaining the event’s standards is becoming increasingly difficult due to the economic crisis and a reduced presence of international artists

"The sky in Havana isn’t falling." Despite many challenges, Cuba's Jazz Plaza Festival endures.

english.elpais.com/culture/2026...