THE FEED: FEB 4TH

What we're reading:

Profile of Naguib Mahfouz
(New Yorker): Time to revisit this insightful 1990 piece about the Egyptian novelist, written two years after he won the Nobel prize

Are you there God? It's me, brain
(Slate): We are biologically programmed to have faith, or at least to feel existential

Bruce Reidel on Pakistan
(Browser): A former CIA officer and bestselling author chooses his five favourite books about Pakistan

Today's quote:

"[T]he arts are aligning themselves with the Tories in ways much more subtle and insidious than simple endorsements. Just as New Labour managed to slot itself into the wider moment known as Cool Britannia, so there are lines that can be drawn from musicians, actors, film-makers and novelists to people at the top of government... the privately educated seem to be newly dominant, and a sharp change of tone and taste stretches from politics, to the arts, and beyond."

~ John Harris, "Uncool Britannia: how British culture turned Tory" (Guardian)

Picture credit: Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com