Food books taste good.
Food obsessed much?, originally uploaded by meliass.
I’ve tried to do a fair amount of reading this year and it seems that a fair amount of this reading is related to food. That’s not even counting the hours I spend perusing cookbooks.
I suppose that I’ve always had a mild interest in books related to restaurants and food. I bought “Kitchen Confidential” by Anthony Bourdain shortly after it was released years ago and own a few of his other books. I also possess several memoirs about waiting tables.
The real obsession with reading and owning food books didn’t start until late last year when I read “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle” by Barbara Kingsolver. I devoured it and wanted more. So I read “The Omnivore’s Dliemma” by Michael Pollan as 2008 began.
This year I’ve worked through several more food books and have a few more on the shelf waiting to read…not to mention the growing number of them on my amazon.com wishlist.
I’m still reading “In Defense of Food” by Michael Pollan…but it’s taken a backseat to the new (non food related) David Sedaris book, “When You Are Engulfed in Flames”.
“Julie & Julia” by Julie Powell got me a little obsessed with wanting to read more about Julia Child…and I want the Smithsonian National History Museum to finish their renovation so that I can see her kitchen. Not to mention that I can’t wait to see Meryl Streep as Julia Child in the movie version of this book that will be out next year.
The Ruth Reichl book, “Tender at the Bone” was good entertainment. I have her food critic memoir, “Garlic and Sapphires” on the shelf to read soon. If it’s half as entertaining as “Tender at the Bone”, I’ll be happy with it.
Gosh, I’ve rambled. Food books taste good. I won’t say anything more.
In other news, I’ve got not much to tell. Work is pretty boring. It’s hot, the cranky tourists are in town, and I don’t seem to want to spend much time there as a result of these two things.
The house continues to be built. Very, very slowly. Instead of moving into it at the end of July or beginning of August, we’re now looking at the end of August or beginning of September.
I was a bit disappointed for a couple of days but I’m okay with it now…the boyfriend is going to be so busy with his job in July that moving could have been a bit much. Plus we might get to sneak away to the beach for a few days in August this way. If we were moving in August, we probably wouldn’t have gotten to go.
Now I need to slow down on the packing and cleaning since the move is still at least 2 months away. I got a little ahead of myself and have packed boxes stacked up in the living room…not to mention all the empty boxes in the hallway and in my trunk. No more packing for a while. I’ll repeat that to myself a few more times.
Since it’s summer and hot and we’re not going out of town much, I’m pretty boring. I cook and work and take pictures and read and play on the internet…with the occasional walk in the evening or guest for dinner.
Not too much else at the second…but I do have a bunch of food stuff to post about in the next couple of days.
Thursday, 3. July 2008 11:32
I have been obsessed with Julia Child for the past few years. You should definitely read “My Life in France”, which is a great book about how she got started in cooking, her training, her life in general, and is just so wonderful. I am also a Francophile, so I especially enjoyed this one. Was Julie and Julia good? I think that’s next on my list…my big christmas gifts this year will be a few of her cookbooks. I can’t wait to get them–I’m only waiting until Christmas because I have spoiled myself enough this year–and it’s only July!!
Friday, 11. July 2008 12:19
I think I’m going to break down and order “My Life in France” today…I’ve resisted for long enough.
“Julie & Julia” was good in the same way I think “Bridget Jones” is good…girly and silly…but it has the wonderful addition of cooking & food. Does that make sense?
Saturday, 12. July 2008 11:26
Yeah, I love silly books, especially involving food! I love anything involving food, come to think of it!
Wednesday, 16. July 2008 19:00
I’ll be interested in your thoughts about Michael Pollan’s book. On the political side, he really shows how corporations rig the regulatory regime to homogenize food production, dictate distribution models that favor big business, and crowd out small producers – and this has a direct impact on the quality of our food, not just from a health but also a taste and gourmet perspective. The more I read about economics and agribusiness in particular, the more I think a genuinely free market in food would look resemble famers markets, local varieties of staple crops, and a variety of bakers, butchers, and other small tradespeople doing what big business now refers to in their mechanistic way as “processing”. Obviously, smaller, more intimate farming has a direct effect on what a cook / baker can produce!