Attention Deficit Disorder or A Comfortable Rut?

A friend asked me recently, good-naturedly, “Do you only read books about food?” We had been having one of those “have you read this? No, but have you read this?” book discussions, and I stopped short at her question. I like to think of myself as roundly read but maybe I’m not. A quick check of the growing pile of books I’m currently reading, neatly stacked on the floor of my office (some with handmade bookmarks to remind me of where I had stopped reading, some simply dog-eared) revealed the following list:


* My Life in Food, by Judith Jones
* A Short History of the Stomach, by Frederick Kaufman
* It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time: My Adventures in Life and Food, by Moira Hodgson
* The Widow Clicquot: The Story of a Champagne Empire and the Woman Who Ruled It, by Tilar Mazzeo
* Best Food Writing 2008, ed. by Holly Hughes
* Between Meals: An Appetite for Paris, by A. J. Liebling
* Red, White and Drunk All Over, by Natalie MacLean
* The Cheese Chronicles, by Liz Thorpe
* Passion on the Vine, by Sergio Esposito
(can you believe this…?)
* Goat Song, by Brad Kessler
* Well-Preserved (yes, I’m one of those who reads cookbooks), by Eugenia Bone
* Local Flavors, by Deborah Madison.

but, wait! The stack with the bookmarks also had:


* Hawthorne in Concord, by Philip McFarland
* Gomorrah (only got as far as the first chapter on this one), by Roberto Saviano
and…
* The Forger’s Spell, by Edward Dolnick
* Revolutionary Road, by Richard Yates.


So, what does this say about me besides that I like using Amazon’s “1-Click?” Actually, I love bookstores, too. I have no answer except that each of these books is a pleasure to read and each has something to teach us—about good food, about where our food comes from, about the production of wine, and about good writing. Let me know if you’d like to borrow any. Enjoy!