Wednesday, February 14, 2007

anna karenina, tolstoy

maybe i picked this novel up thinking that if tolstoy were as good a writer as dostoievski, i should not be ignorant of that. or maybe i just wanted to flex the old biceps.

dont read this book unless you are really bored. i got to page 500 then found a synopsis on the internet and so i didnt feel like i had to read the remaining 400 pages.

tolstoy's style did remind me of dostoievski except that dostoievski's stuff actually has really great content to it. i wont ever doubt dostoievski again.

Sunday, February 11, 2007

omnivore's dilemma, part 1

michael pollan

all i can say is "wow". i finished this book this morning, and it took me approximately 3-4 weeks to read. i can certainly say that i've learned so much about food and what goes into food that when i was done, i felt sad because i just wanted to read more and more. with all that said, let me do a brief synopsis...

the book is divided into three parts illustrating pollan's quest for the "perfect meal", or at least tracking how food ends up on his plate. the first part talks about the commercial food industry, how corn shows up in everything that we eat that is pre-processed (corn is cheap and full of calories), and how cattle are raised in CAFOs. the second part talks about organic food and how it's not as organic as one would like to imagine, and compares it to local farming, and how local farming pretty much trumps everything else in the quest for "good food". lastly, he talks about hunting and gathering his own food, which in my opinion he feels has been the most perfect meal to date.

once i have more time, i will write my opinions on the book and how it's made a big impact in my food life. i'll just let you know...i check ALL labels for traces of corn now...!