What else I've been reading in January 2026
Charles Dickens, Jacques Pépin's memoir, examinations of the American empire, and more
This is the first in a series of monthly posts that will round up the (mostly non-city-related) books and essays that figure into my reading life.
Books
Perry Anderson, American Foreign Policy and Its Thinkers (2013): Though I don’t regard myself as especially “of the left,” most of the historians I read are, especially on the U.S. empire. Maybe they’re better writers on the whole; Anderson’s prose could hardly appeal to me more.
Charles Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit: Part of an ongoing Dickens read-through. I enjoyed the lampoon of America in the middle, but read the whole book in too slow and fragmented a fashion to keep track of all the characters in England, with their excessive circumlocutions and similarities (two of them are even named Martin Chuzzlewit).
Timothy Gowers, Mathematics: A Very Short Introduction (2002): Emphasizes the sheer abstraction required by — or that constitutes — math, which was part of the fascination when I once attempted to add a major in it in college. Alas, I had too few available credits to complete it.
Clive James, From the Land of Shadows (1982): The big section devoted to dissident writing from the then-extant USSR stoked my mild interest in learning Russian. Elsewhere, on Erica Jong: "I quite liked Fear of Flying: there was the promise of humor in it, if not the actuality."
Jacques Pépin, The Apprentice (2003): The memoir of the celebrity chef I most respect. He grew up around Lyon, a region about which I know nothing, so I kept Google Maps open while reading. Few can boast so vivid an experience of both mid-century France and mid-century America.
Emma Shortis, After America (2025): With the notion of a "post-American Korea" much on my mind lately, so this case for a post-American Australia made for a point of comparison. The language can be dramatic (the "world is on fire," you say?) but the premise bears articulation.
Essays
“One way that Silicon Valley and the Communist Party resemble each other is that both are serious, self-serious, and indeed, completely humorless.”
“At some point I wrote a fan letter to David Thomson. In his reply, he urged me to develop interests other than film. That was Spielberg’s problem, Thomson said – he didn’t know anything else.”
"Durante la presentazione americana del precedente romanzo, un vecchio amico le ha donato 'un libro d’altri tempi' sul cui frontespizio, nelle parole ricamate in corsivo nero, si leggeva: Rapporto finale sulla costruzione dell’acquedotto di Los Angeles."
“In his fedora and tailored suit, Bellow strides toward us guffawing, stomping like a colossus into our sandbox, where we scramble to hide our YA novels and Instagram poetry and video games and memes and porn.”
“On a date, one might hear about Taylor Swift concerts and astrological charts; afterward, one might become a character in a story of beastlike sexual control, hearing the rattle of antidepressants on a bedside table.”
"Aunque resulte paradójico, de cierta manera, la conexión con Borges ha impedido una lectura menos prejuiciada de la obra de Bioy, pues si bien es cierto que su libro más logrado, La invención de Morel, es tributario del universo borgeano."
"Steely Dan’s tics and obsessions positioned them distinctively: the subjects of their songs could be relatable, but their fanatical studio perfectionism seemed like it was governed by a secret formula."
"Adams knew, deep in his bones, that he was cleverer than other people. God always punishes this impulse, especially in nerds."
“Una pregunta de su valet hindú, 'Are you 1 or 2?', dispara la 'disociación', el 'desdoblamiento' espiritual del sujeto cuando, en realidad, sólo buscaba saber cuántos ocuparían el taxi."
“Tech people are good at building things. Alongside the world we all inhabit, they’ve created a synthetic, overengineered version of the one we’ve lost.”
“Intelligent people who hold socially liberal views are engaged in a kind of cognitive error, wrongly assuming that what works well for them works well for everyone.”
"L’autore cinematografico non possiede un dizionario ma una possibilità infinita: non prende i suoi segni (im segni) dalla teca, dalla custodia, dal bagaglio: ma dal caos, dove non sono che mere possibilità o ombre di comunicazione meccanica e onirica."
"Why should the editor necessarily be granted the benefit of the doubt when the material reality of the industry suggests they’re often just a nervous kid with a track changes habit?"
“Displaced from his central role in the national pageant, at mid-century, the Establishment man was distinguished mostly by his cultural pretensions — pretensions he clung to until J.Crew repackaged them as weekend wear.”