5 posts tagged “reading”

Title: The Namesake
Author: Jhumpa Lahiri
Genre: Fiction

I don't know how I had avoided reading this for so long. It had been on my to buy list seemingly forever yet for some reason I just never did. With the film version coming soon to theaters I knew I had to finally read it before a) I saw the movie or b) someone spoiled too many details for me to be able to enjoy the book on my own.

So read it I have. I enjoyed the book, very much. I'm not sure if the story was supposed to feel more foreign or more familiar than it did. I suspect a little of both. Save the details that are specific to being Indian-American it's really a very universal story about not relating to parents, feeling disconnected from family and traditional upbringings, making a place for yourself, and finding, one way or another, to finally make peace with both the world and life that you come from and the world and life you make for yourself.

Recommended.

Title: The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals
Author: Michael Pollan
Genre: Non-Fiction

From my journal

I had been thinking on issues of food, farming, agribusiness, animal concerns and the social, economic, environmental, and culture impact of all three for a while and this book helped define some of my thoughts and beliefs and gave me a whole batch of new things to think about and seeds of belief that need to be defined. Clearly this book has given me many gifts.

Had I not already been thinking seriously about the food in my life (where it comes from, how it was produced, how it makes me feel physically and emotionally, how I feel about it, etc) I believe this book would have been truly life changing for me. Truthfully I think it will still be life changing because of things it brought into my field of vision, knowledge it taught me and things that it introduced me to that need more personal research on my part. However it didn't set me on this path, I was already there, but it has moved me significantly further down it. What is this path? For me it's the path to conscious eating. The path to knowing about my food as much as possible. Also though it's about support a certain kind of life, the life of the small American farmer, that I find worthy of supporting.

Some loose thoughts from my journal from several months ago

- It is important to me to support farming (small farms, family farms) as a viable way of life in American society. If paying more for my food would allow farmers to make a more comfortable and sucessful living I definitely would pay more for food.

- Though I do wish I could be vegetarian it is not a reasonable option for me. I don't like vegetables enough to give up meat completely without simply swapping fake meats as replacements. This would be harmful to my diet. I currently eat very little meat balanced with grainds, fruits and vegetables. Eating a healthy diet, one low in processed and fake foods is very important to me.

- The reason I wish I could be vegetarian is because I feel great compassion for animals and feel guilty that they must die to become my food. Not overly guilty though because, as objectively as I can, I believe that humans are at the top of the natural evolutionary food chain. Though I have no scientific evidence to support or dispute my feelings I do think that being part of this food chain is important. All things are connected and humans play their part. So while I don't feel extreme guilt over being part of a food chain that turns some animals into food I do feel extreme guilt, displeasure and anger over completely unnecessary suffering inflicted on the animals that eventually become food. An argument can be made of course that killing an animal for food is an unnecessary cause of suffering. I'll agree with the suffering but not the unnecessary part of that argument.

As I have formulated these opinions and stances it's become exceptionally clear that to be true to my values and beliefs then I must acknowledge that factory farming is something I am deeply opposed to. I think whenever possible I should choose food that was grown locally. Whenever I can I should choose meat that was raised and slaughtered humanely. This sounds easy enough but it is not so easy at all. But I feel it's worth the work.

Some quotes from The Omnivore's Dilemma that resonated with me deeply:

"It takes more than a calorie of fossil fuel energy to produce a calorie of food; before the advent of chemical fertilizer the Naylor farm produced more than two calories of food energy for every calorie of energy invested."
- Michael Pollan

"Just because we can ship organic lettuce from the Salinas Valley or organic cut flowers from Peru doesn't mean we should do it, not if we're really serious about energy and seasonality and bioregionalism."

"Part of the problem is, you've got a lot of D students left on the farm today."

"The guidance counselors encouraged all of the A students to leave home and go to college. There's been a tremendous brain drain in Rural America. Of course that suits Wall Street just fine; Wall Street is always trying to extract brain power and capital from the countryside. First they take the brightest bulbs off the farm and put them to work in Dilbert's cubicle, and then they go after the capital of the dimmer ones who stayed behind by selling them a bunch of gee-whiz solutions to their problems."

"It's a foolish culture that entrusts its food supply to simpletons."

"Frankly, any city person who doesn't think I deserve a white-collar salary as a farmer doesn't deserve my special food. Let them eat E. Coli."
- Joel Salatin
Polyface Farm

I cannot recommend this book highly enough.

Title: Under the Tuscan Sun
Author: Frances Mayes
Genre: Non-Fiction, Memoir

This is another re-read and again I deem that to be quite ok. If there were ever a book that you should read first or better yet instead of seeing the movie it is this one. The movie is fine as a typical chick flick but it really has no relation all to the book other than the name and a very few details. The specifics, the story, the feelings, the mood, the impressions you are left with are night and day different from the book to the movie.

The book is earnest, beautifully written, heartfelt and a tiny bit melodramatic in just the right places. I very much enjoyed reading it and being transported not just to another place but to another life and another kind of living. As I approach the next chapter in my life I hope to carry some memories and inspirations from this book with me. Such as finding the house you can really love and make a home in. Finding joy and contentment in the manual labor associated with your house and home and finding a place in the community you've chosen to settle in. Those things brought so very much joy and deep happiness to the author I can't help but hope to follow, in spirit, in her footsteps.

Yes the book is very common and very popular, things which normally push me away from books, but this one is special in spite of its popularity. There, I now sound quite like the literary snob I am.

From Reading List

Title:  The Emperor's Children

The Emperor's Children

I can't decide whether I'm pleased that this was the first book I read in 2007 or not. I enjoyed reading the book but I do not like the book. Does that make sense? For something so decidedly high brow it employed far too many soap opera plot lines for my taste. The soap opera plot lines were very, very well written but they were still not what I was wanting in this book. I expected a deeper look into the main characters instead of just an acknowledgment of their faults by other characters, and at least some resolution to the major fallout that was hinted at throughout, instead of bringing it to the breaking point and then letting it drift off. The author is clearly a brilliant writer, I found her prose very engaging and I read the 430 page book quite quickly. I just wish she'd trimmed 75 pages and left the soap opera stuff to All My Children.

From the Reading List

Title: Beasts of No Nation
Author: Uzodinma Iweala
Genre: Fiction

This was a very short, very direct story about a child soldier in an unnamed West African nation. It was very disturbing. I'm not saying it wasn't good, but just, I didn't enjoy reading it. With a book like this perhaps the best compliment you can give is that it's disturbing and you didn't enjoy reading it.

With this short book, that I read in it's entirety today on New Year's Eve, my 2006 reading comes to a close. I'm very disappointed that I only managed to read 21 books this year. I don't make New Year's resolutions but it is a soft goal to read at least 40 books in 2007. With the 6 or 7 wonderful sounding books I received as holiday gifts I'm well on my way to getting started on that goal. Happy reading to everyone in 2007.

Also posted at Reading List