Topic: What are you currently reading?

[aligreto]

Related: I was born in 1972. What am I?

Starting to get old 

Please, don't!   

OK, in your prime 

[Florestan]

We're the lucky generation... because we are the ones ignored in the culture war.  There is boomers vs millenials, boomers vs GenZ, GenZ vs millenials (basically everyone hates millenials) and in all that gen x never comes up.

You lost me. Boomers? Gen Z? Wtf? 

Hey, I don't hate millennials because I have no idea who they are. 

[Florestan]

OK, in your prime 

That's more like it! 

[vers la flamme]

As a millennial and a professional food writer, I can say this book changed our industry forever. It changed food writing in a huge way, from a stuffy old thing for gourmets to compare notes into a visceral, blood-and-guts thing that could be cool rather than elite. It changed the restaurant business in many specific ways - for example, because of Bourdain's comments on when to order fish, restaurants have changed what days they order their fish.

There is also a somewhat strong backlash in the industry against the type of angry, drug/alcohol-fueled, unprofessional kitchen work environments which are depicted in the book. Bourdain was criticized by some as the poster boy (along with Gordon Ramsay and his cursing), but he clearly does not glamorize or glorify it...or at least in his later years, on the TV show, he stopped doing that. Oh, an interesting note for you - the character "Jimmy Sears" in the book is in real life a chef named John Tesar, who lives here in Dallas and whom I've interviewed, met, and reviewed. Tesar is 63 now and hasn't changed very much since Jimmy Sears in the book; he's still a gloriously good chef, a grade-A schmoozer, and a guy who can't stay in the kitchen because he's busy chasing women. (Tomorrow he has a hearing in a custody battle over the kid he had in his late 50s with a 20-something waitress at his own restaurant...if that gives you an idea...  )

I got the Globe 8" chef knife Bourdain recommends in the book and I love it. Have been using it daily for 8 years or so now.

I appreciate the comments! That's interesting about "Sears"/Tesar, one of the more curious characters mentioned in the book. And I was looking at that same knife. I'd buy it if I cared more about cooking. Maybe in a few years.

I'm a mid 90s baby, a younger millennial. For what it's worth, I can confirm that "foodies" in my generation really look up to Bourdain. I won't pretend I'm one of them, I know next to nothing about food, and even less about international travel, but I do have a lot of the respect for the guy. Anyway I'm fairly close to finishing the book. Enjoying it all the way so far.

[Florestan]

I'm a mid 90s baby,

About 20 years younger than me... blimey, I'd have never guessed that.  I always thought you were more or less my age.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

As a millennial and a professional food writer, I can say this book changed our industry forever. It changed food writing in a huge way, from a stuffy old thing for gourmets to compare notes into a visceral, blood-and-guts thing that could be cool rather than elite. It changed the restaurant business in many specific ways - for example, because of Bourdain's comments on when to order fish, restaurants have changed what days they order their fish.

There is also a somewhat strong backlash in the industry against the type of angry, drug/alcohol-fueled, unprofessional kitchen work environments which are depicted in the book. Bourdain was criticized by some as the poster boy (along with Gordon Ramsay and his cursing), but he clearly does not glamorize or glorify it...or at least in his later years, on the TV show, he stopped doing that. Oh, an interesting note for you - the character "Jimmy Sears" in the book is in real life a chef named John Tesar, who lives here in Dallas and whom I've interviewed, met, and reviewed. Tesar is 63 now and hasn't changed very much since Jimmy Sears in the book; he's still a gloriously good chef, a grade-A schmoozer, and a guy who can't stay in the kitchen because he's busy chasing women. (Tomorrow he has a hearing in a custody battle over the kid he had in his late 50s with a 20-something waitress at his own restaurant...if that gives you an idea...  )

I got the Globe 8" chef knife Bourdain recommends in the book and I love it. Have been using it daily for 8 years or so now.

Thank you for the nice review and insightful opinion (and good writing). Enjoyed reading the post.

[Brian]

I appreciate the comments! That's interesting about "Sears"/Tesar, one of the more curious characters mentioned in the book. And I was looking at that same knife. I'd buy it if I cared more about cooking. Maybe in a few years.

I'm a mid 90s baby, a younger millennial. For what it's worth, I can confirm that "foodies" in my generation really look up to Bourdain. I won't pretend I'm one of them, I know next to nothing about food, and even less about international travel, but I do have a lot of the respect for the guy. Anyway I'm fairly close to finishing the book. Enjoying it all the way so far.

Always good to meet another person under age 45 on this board! 

[vers la flamme]

Always good to meet another person under age 45 on this board! 

I wouldn't have guessed you were as young as you are just going off of your seniority here at GMG. I'm guessing you're a few years older than me, but still, you must have been around since you were a teenager!

@Florestan, you seem to have such a youthful spirit—which I suppose everyone does, ultimately—that it does seem odd that there's an age gap of a couple decades between you and me. Otherwise, I'm with you; I'm an incurable romantic. 

[Florestan]

@Florestan, you seem to have such a youthful spirit

Why, thank you, good Sir! Honestly, I do feel much younger than my biological age --- and many people who don't know the truth do think, and do tell me they think, I am much younger than my biological age. 

I'm with you; I'm an incurable romantic. 

I'm only too glad to learn that the romantic spirit still lives. Carry on, young man! 

[SimonNZ]

As a millennial and a professional food writer, I can say this book changed our industry forever. It changed food writing in a huge way, from a stuffy old thing for gourmets to compare notes into a visceral, blood-and-guts thing that could be cool rather than elite. It changed the restaurant business in many specific ways - for example, because of Bourdain's comments on when to order fish, restaurants have changed what days they order their fish.

There is also a somewhat strong backlash in the industry against the type of angry, drug/alcohol-fueled, unprofessional kitchen work environments which are depicted in the book. Bourdain was criticized by some as the poster boy (along with Gordon Ramsay and his cursing), but he clearly does not glamorize or glorify it...or at least in his later years, on the TV show, he stopped doing that. Oh, an interesting note for you - the character "Jimmy Sears" in the book is in real life a chef named John Tesar, who lives here in Dallas and whom I've interviewed, met, and reviewed. Tesar is 63 now and hasn't changed very much since Jimmy Sears in the book; he's still a gloriously good chef, a grade-A schmoozer, and a guy who can't stay in the kitchen because he's busy chasing women. (Tomorrow he has a hearing in a custody battle over the kid he had in his late 50s with a 20-something waitress at his own restaurant...if that gives you an idea...  )

I got the Globe 8" chef knife Bourdain recommends in the book and I love it. Have been using it daily for 8 years or so now.

Have you read Medium Raw? There's a chapter in that about how he's come to regret having put forward the "fish on Mondays" thing.

There's also a where-are-they-now chapter on the characters from Kitchen Confidential. (And lots of other great stuff for anyone who enjoyed KC)

[Fritz Kobus]

[SimonNZ]

Re: Heron Books editions:

I was wanting a copy of Darkness At Noon and the one I found today at a secondhand book store was the Heron edition:

(I'd forgotten what a distinct fragrance they all have)



Also picked up:

Bob Woodward's Veil:The Secret Wars Of The CIA 1981-1987
Gore Vidal's Burr
Richard Hall's How To Gaze At The Southern Stars
Paul Griffiths' Modern Music: A Concise History From Debussy To Boulez
and Stephen King's Lisey's Story, because apparently it is his personal favorite among his own works


but currently reading Dave Cullen's book on Columbine, alongside listening to the audiobook of Gravity's Rainbow

[aligreto]

Re: Heron Books editions:

I was wanting a copy of Darkness At Noon and the one I found today at a secondhand book store was the Heron edition:

(I'd forgotten what a distinct fragrance they all have)

That certainly looks very elegant. Enjoy it!

[steve ridgway]

Generation X, hmmm... Count me out, I'm definitely a romantic.    

”Trying to forget your generation
You know all the ways when in what I see
The ends must justify the means
Your generation don't mean a thing to me”

- Your Generation by Generation X.

[philoctetes]

Following logically from Beckett, but very much adding his own flavor to the pot.

[Brian]

Have you read Medium Raw? There's a chapter in that about how he's come to regret having put forward the "fish on Mondays" thing.

There's also a where-are-they-now chapter on the characters from Kitchen Confidential. (And lots of other great stuff for anyone who enjoyed KC)

I haven't and need to! He gave some interviews in late years talking about other things he regretted from Kitchen Confidential. In this interview he says he's given away all the royalties from the book.

Update - this morning I watched the custody hearing with "Jimmy Sears" and his ex-girlfriend, about their child. It ended with the very unhappy tableau of a slideshow of photos of the ex-girlfriend with bruises, cuts, choke marks, etc., from times that "Jimmy Sears" had attacked her. That was hard to see. Oof. 

[k a rl h e nn i ng]

L. Frank Baum's Oz books. Don't know why I never read them before....

[SimonNZ]

Following logically from Beckett, but very much adding his own flavor to the pot.

Can tell at a glance that that is going to be a Dalkey Archive edition. One of those rare publishers where you can pick up any obscure thing they put out knowing how carefully their list is curated.

Its a real pity their Context magazine can no longer be read on their website.

[philoctetes]

Can tell at a glance that that is going to be a Dalkey Archive edition. One of those rare publishers where you can pick up any obscure thing they put out knowing how carefully their list is curated.

Its a real pity their Context magazine can no longer be read on their website.

Yeah, I love publishers who have such a consistent aesthetic. In my field, we have a series of books that has taken that to heart, Studies in Writing & Rhetoric published by the NCTE, and it is a scrumptious set to be hold - such consistency.

The best press I ever saw though was the Ox Head Press (https://bashosroad.outlawpoetry.com/robert-bly-four-small-poems-by-robert-bly-a-note-on-don-olsen/robert-bly/haiku/), but that was more of an artistic endeavor than pleasing functionality.

[vers la flamme]

After a few false starts I'm now well into yet another great book, one that was much discussed here a couple of months ago. Shusaku Endo's Silence.



So far I'm really enjoying it. The images of a religion practiced in persecution in a bleak and destitute corner of the world (from the eyes of the protagonist, a Portuguese priest, that is) are incredibly striking. It's hard for me to fathom being in the shoes of any one of these characters, so rough is the hand that each is dealt. Anyway, reading this has put me very much in a historical frame of mind that I enjoy being in. Clearly a meaningful book. I look forward to reading it more over the days to come.