Food-lit - Not Just For Foodies
by sassymonkeyThere is an epidemic at my house. My bookshelves are being taken over by food-lit. Books about food, about chefs, about the editor's of chefs, about gardening and everything food related are taking over my bookshelves. And I'm not the only one suffering this epidemic, I'm seeing it all over the blogosphere.
There are very few shelves in my house reserved for any special type of book because things are organized in a way to fit as many books per shelf as possible. But the food-lit? It gets its own shelf. So do cookbooks. Yes that's right, cookbooks and food-lit are not one and the same. While cookbooks are manuals for cooking and teach us how to make things, food-lit speaks to the experience of food and our relationships with it. Fast Food Nation? Food-lit. Animal, Vegetable, Mineral? Food-lit. The Omnivore's Dilemma, Julie and Julia, and Gluten-Free Girl? Food-lit, food-lit and food-lit. Some books in the genre contain recipes, others do not - the same way that some cookbooks are dry user-manual types and others have personal anecdotes.
From a blogging point of view food-lit offers one of those great situations where birds of a different feather meet. We all eat and we all have relationships (though they may be vastly different from one another) with food. We all have feelings about food, be they good or they bad, and as such food-lit crosses boundaries in blogging. Food-lit shows up on all kinds of blogs but, unsurprisingly, predominantly on food and book blogs. Since the two groups of bloggers often approach the books from different angles it's interesting to read their reactions. Here are a few examples.
Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food is a pretty hot little book right now. Stefanie at So Many Books recommends it to everyone who eats, ie. she liked it. At Tigers and Strawberries Barbara, who enjoyed The Omnivore's Dilemma, didn't like it. She agreed with Pollan's main points but found that the book wasn't a cohesive unit and that it felt like "two long, investigative magazine articles."
Andi's post at Tripping Toward Lucidity about Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Mineral pushed me into finally reading it after letting it gather dust on my shelf for a year. Andi loved it calling it one of her favourite reads of the year and I'm right the there with her. 1700 Miles of Cooking had this to say about it:
Firstly let me say that I realize the average person could never do an experiment like this and pull it off. However, after reading this book, I now think about my grocery purchasing and eating habits in a whole new light.
Tea and Cookies posted about the best books about food. 40 Forever, the singing librarian, offers some others.
If you are looking to take the plunge into food-lit The Perfect Pantry had some bookworms in her pantry and posted a fantastic list of 2007 food-lit. Remember that last year's hardcovers are usually this year's paperbacks and that makes them perfect for summer reading!
Contributing Editor Sassymonkey blogs at Sassymonkey and Sassymonkey Reads.
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Comments
The joys of food - eating, reading, worrying
I enjoyed both of the Pollan books. I have actually organized all the recipes and food articles I clip from the net and print media into a binder. I enjoy reading about food almost as much as eating it.
I worry about the food we eat and about food shortages. I hope to garden.
Hooray to all the people writing about food, professionally and casually. It means that more of us are thinking about this essential subject and, hopefully, more of us are breaking bread together.
Good and plenty!
I think we are becoming more conscious of
food
What with the organic/non-organic/local/etc debates, the salmonella outbreaks and the rising costs of food it's hard not to be more conscious of it than we used to be.
I've planted a few tomato plants in pots. I'm mostly hoping not to kill them. ;-)
Sassymonkey and Sassymonkey Reads.
Mmm tasty prose!
Until you named it, I hadn't really thought of myself as a food-lit enthusiast. But I am. Just finished reading/reviewing a great food book: Comfort Food, by Kate Jackson. It's behind the scenes at a cooking show. And entire passages made me drool! Octopus salad, even!
I love it when deliciously, sensuously written prose is so vivid it makes me hungry, or better yet, makes me taste the food I'm reading about. I'm geared more towards food-fiction, memoir, or travelogues, rather than ideological considerations. (Not going to read Fast Food Nation in this lifetime, although I know it's an important book.)
- E
elizabethwillse.wordpress.com
Freelance Book Reviewer
Me too!
"I love it when deliciously, sensuously written prose is so vivid it makes me hungry, or better yet, makes me taste the food I'm reading about." I couldn't agree more.
I've heard good things about Comfort Food. I think I'll be adding to my library list later this summer.
Sassymonkey and Sassymonkey Reads.
My book club just did ...
... Inheritance of Loss which one the Booker prize. It can't be called food lit but had so many lingering food references, we ordered Indian carry-out, curry take-away would have been better given the Britain-India issues central to the storyline.
... and two book clubs are merging this fall for a potluck and a discussion of The Omnivore's Dilemma. This book may be oh-so-old-hat in the food world but in 99% of my friends, it's a brand-new concept. We forget, blogging, how far out in front we can get without even knowing it.
Alanna Kellogg
Kitchen Parade &
A Veggie Venture
I just finished it recently myself
I had read all about it but it was slow to get to actually reading The Omnivore's Dilemma. I'm sure it will be interesting to hear everyone's reactions to it outside of the blog world. Every time we pick up a new product off the grocery store shelf we're looking for HFCS. ;-)
Sassymonkey and Sassymonkey Reads.
Love it!
I love food-lit! Thanks for posting the lists with more book ideas. In addition, I love books about food history. Something from the Oven by Laura Shapiro is one of my favorites. I also love books about the eating patterns of other cultures like French Women Don't Get Fat.
Blondie in Brazil
www.fakefoodfree.com
www.blondieinbrazil.blogspot.com
Glad you enjoyed that list
I'll be adding a bunch of the books from it to my library wish list.
It's interesting that you mentioned Something From the Oven - I'm reading it right now! Have you read Finding Betty Crocker by Susan Marks? Something from the Oven reminds me a little bit of it - Betty Crocker covers a bit of the same era.
Sassymonkey and Sassymonkey Reads.
I want to read Animal, Vegetable, Mineral for
sure.
LOVE books that involve food, of course...given that I love food. : )
I love Ruth Reichl's books, in spite of myself, "Garlic and Sapphires", especially...and have to say that Linda Ellerbee's "Take Big Bites" (a food and travel memoir, really) was one of my favorite books of the past year.
Carolyn See also just wrote a lovely review of a book in this weekend's Washington Post called "Feed the Hungry: a memoir with recipes" by Nani Power that sounds really good. See is such a spot-on reviewer and talented writer, and she had some good points about why we like to write, and read, about food.
Laurie
Animal, Vegetable, Mineral
I just finished it a week or two ago and kicked myself for waiting to read it (I owned it for about a year before I read it). I think I might need to pick up a copy for my mother.
I'll have to keep an eye out for Feed the Hungry.
Sassymonkey and Sassymonkey Reads.
Food Lit? Perfect name!
I've read most of those food-lit books you mentioned, and I enjoyed every one of them. Even though I don't cook very much, I love the IDEA of good, clean food. One of these days I'm going to be inspired enough to stop eating cereal for dinner! :)
Personal blog: Keep Up With Me
BlogHer blog: Singles/Fitness
lol Zan
I can't picture you giving up cereal for dinner completely. ;-)
Sassymonkey and Sassymonkey Reads.
Great list!
Unfortunately during the winter I spend a lot more time cooking food, photographing it, and blogging about it than I do reading about it. But a couple of those books are on my summer reading list. Right now I'm reading "Half-Assed: A Weight Loss Memoir" since I'm looking forward to meeting Jennette at BlogHer.
Kalyn Denny
Kalyn's Kitchen
That'll be on my next book order
Half-Assed Will be on my next book order. I originally was going to pre-order it but then wasn't sure when I'd be moving, etc. But it should be on my summer reading list. Jennette is a great writer and her story is fantastic.
Sassymonkey and Sassymonkey Reads.
Audiobooks
instead of listening to music, I listen to food podcasts and audiobooks that I download from NPR, Audible.com or iTunes.
It makes driving so much more pleasureable!
I listened to The Omnivore's Dilemma
... while driving through Iowa and Minnesota, lots of corn, hogs and cattle in those states. It was a perfect venue. I'm addicted to listening to bookson tape, for sure.
"March" would be interesting for vegetarians --
Alanna Kellogg
Kitchen Parade &
A Veggie Venture
I'm a fan of audiobooks
And I need to download some soon for a my vacation. I mostly get my from the library because I'm all about the Free when it comes to books.
Are there any that were particularly good on audio that you'd recommend?
Sassymonkey and Sassymonkey Reads.
Interesting
I am trying to kick my own butt into a more healthy version of myself so I wouldn't pick anything out right now that would make me drool (it's hard enough skipping snacks and desserts!!)
Food education sounds like a great read for me though - something that is practical and not overly depressing (since I'm not in a position right now to move to a farm and stop going to the grocery store).
Anyone have a good suggestion of a book to start?
Great question!
I'm trying to think of ones that wouldn't make it too tempting to eat... Memoirs might be a good start because they are usually about a lot more that what's on the table. Julia Child's My Life in France is a great read - it's about how she came to write Mastering the Art of French Cooking. A good follow-up to that might be her editor's memoir - The Tenth Muse: My Life in Food by Judith Jones. I bought The Tenth Muse recently and hope to read it soon (I'd have far more success with this if I stopped going to the library two times a week).
Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential and A Cook's Tour didn't have me running to the kitchen but were entertaining You need to be ok with profanity though, Bourdain is littered with it. And there are a few times where it's a wee bit gross (think icky foods and gross kitchens) but somehow that's part of the charm of his books.
Mark Kurlansky's two books - Salt and Cod are supposed to be good but I haven't read them yet. They are histories of well, salt and cod. lol (Please do not ask how long Cod has been sitting on my bookshelf...)
I've been hearing really good things about Comfort Food, which is actually fiction. Someone mentioned it in the comments on this post too.
Hopefully someone else will chime in with their suggestions!
Sassymonkey and Sassymonkey Reads.