What are you reading these days?

[helenas]

I prefer to read several books at the same time, so currently piling on my nightstand

related:

Gastronomy of Italy by Del Conto;

The Il Fornaio Pasta Book;

Passion for Vegetables by Gayler;

somewhat related:

The Art of Travel by de Botton;

non-related:

Bohemian Paris by Dan Franck;

[maggiethecat]

Helena: Thanks for some good what-to-read-next ideas.

Food related:

"The Last Days of Haute Cuisine" Patric Kuh

"South Wind Through the Kitchen" Elizabeth David A "best of"

Other:

"Poker Nation" by Andy Bellin...effectively used up a day of my life

"Chicago Days/Hoboken Nights" Daniel Pinkwater

"Maigret: A Fifth Omnibus" Georges Simenon

[Sandra Levine]

"Oscar and Lucinda" by Peter Carey.

[Suvir Saran]

Just finished:

Giovanni's Room - James Baldwin

(Finished day before yesterday. Had me in tears. One of the best novels I have ever read) Not sure when I will read another book that will make me churn as much in deep thought.

Currently Reading:

Founding Brothers- Joseph J. Eellis

We wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families - Philip Gourevitch

Truth, love & a little Malice - Khushwant Singh

Ol'Strom - Bass and Thompson

Too Many Men - Lily Brett

9-11 - Noam Chomsky

The Sikhs - Patwant Singh

Let us eat cake - Sharon Boorstin

Personal History - Katherine Graham

Learning To Cook - Marion Cunningham

The Fourth Estate - Shulamith Shahar

I always have at least 10 books I read at the same time. It keeps my interest going and also keeps me informed about more than just one way of thinking. Some think I am a fool for keeping so many books open at the same time... But that is how I am. I read a lot and sleep little. Books are my companions for the most part of my life.

[g.johnson]

With some difficulty, Austerlitz by W.G. Sebald. At the risk of seeming more of a pretentious git than I do normally (hard, I know), I believe Sebald's Rings of Saturn to be a masterpiece. Austerlitz has the same qualities but far more longueurs.

[Lord Michael Lewis]

Norman Davies' 'Europe a History', for the third time. Like painting the Forth Bridge, once you get to the end you have to begin again.

[Christopher]

Food Related: Always thumbing through Ed Behr's The Art of Eating

Not Quite Food Related: Modern Psychoanalysis of the Schizophrenic Patient - Hyman Spotnitz.

[stefanyb]

Not Quite Food Related: Modern Psychoanalysis of the Schizophrenic Patient - Hyman Spotnitz.

Maybe not quite food related but perhaps eGullet related.

[thefoodhunter]

Food - A culinary history by Jean Louis Flandrin and Massimo Montanari

Voyage Gastronomique en Italie by Davide Paolini

Food and Healing by Annemarie Colbin

Chocolat by Joanne Harris

The Great Food Gamble bu John Humphrys

[Suvir Saran]

Food and Healing by Annemarie Colbin

How are you enjoying this one?

What made you buy it?

[cakewalk]

Foodstuff: I just bought "Vegetables from Amaranth to Zucchini" and I'm having a lot of fun learning about vegetables I've never heard of before.

Non foodstuff: "After the Quake" by Haruki Murakami, and I just finished "Reflecting the Sky" by S.J. Rozan, who has a very good series of detective novels.

[Rail Paul]

Rick Bayless's Mexican Kitchen (book for season 2 of Mexico One Plate)

Constantine's Sword by James Carroll. Origins of anti-semitism in Christian relgious texts.

A Nervous Splendour by Frederic Morton. Vienna 1888-1889. The intellectual ferment caused by the modernists (under Crown Prince Rudolph) and the traditionalists (under Franz Josef and Franz Ferdinand). Freud, Herzl, Brahms, Karl Lueger, and Mahler make appearances.

Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond. Why societies have evolved in radically different ways and what that portends for the future

[Gavin Jones]

London Orbital - Sinclair

The anatomy of Melancholy - Robert Burton

[wingding]

Gangbusters;How A Street Tough Elite Homicide Unit Took Down New Yorks Most Dangerous Gang-Michael Stone[Ah,the crack years] .... The Valley of the Assasins,and Other Persian Travels-Freya Stark..... Mes Confitures;The Jams and Jellies of Christine Ferber-Christine Ferber

[helenas]

Mes Confitures;The Jams and Jellies of Christine Ferber-Christine Ferber

thanks for pointing to this book. Are you reading the french or english version?

[Nick]

"Why I became a prostitute". Name your own author.

Sorry, I'm getting a little jaded. Too much WSJ.

[gknl]

I went on a geek binge and just finished:

Robert Wolke's What Einstein Told the Cook, Alton Brown's I'm Just Here for the Food, and James Villa's Between Bites. I'm still working my way through Slow Food a collection of essays edited by Carlo Petrini from Slow Food's magazine. The next ones to open will be Hot Sour Salty Sweet, finally!, and In the Heart of the Sea about the sinking of a whaling ship.

Does grading tests count as reading too?

[ngatti]

I'm almost embarassed to say it...

A Tale of Two Cities

I never read it and it's hanging about leftover from my daughters summer reading list.

Nick

[Michael Laiskonis]

I confess I finally opened Bourdain's A Cook's Tour the other day. I enjoyed Kitchen Confidential, but so far this one has made me want to be better cook, and not in the professional sense, but just for me, my wife whom I cook for, and the ingredients and all the work that went into them.

Thanks Tony!

[torakris]

How do you people manage to find time to read?!?!

Does no one on egullet actually hold a job?!?!

Just kidding, but wish I had time to read!

I flip through various cookbooks while I am in bed and occasionally thumb through a People magazine while I am waiting for my food related magazines to arrive in the mail.

My most recent "read" is the Kodansha Compact Kanji Guide, great reading!!

[Suvir Saran]

How do you people manage to find time to read?!?!

For me it is Insomnia.

Get on average 2-3 hours of sleep a day.

[torakris]

How do you people manage to find time to read?!?!

For me it is Insomnia.

Get on average 2-3 hours of sleep a day.

WOW!!

I am one of those you don't want to be around if I get less than 7 hours.

8 is preferable.

The book I took to bed with me last night?

A Spoonful of Ginger by Nina Simonds a really great book discussing the medicinal/healing effects of food, yin and yang principles, and some of the best recipes I have ever pulled out of a cookbook.

[Suvir Saran]

How do you people manage to find time to read?!?!

For me it is Insomnia.

Get on average 2-3 hours of sleep a day.

WOW!!

I am one of those you don't want to be around if I get less than 7 hours.

8 is preferable.

The book I took to bed with me last night?

A Spoonful of Ginger by Nina Simonds a really great book discussing the medicinal/healing effects of food, yin and yang principles, and some of the best recipes I have ever pulled out of a cookbook.

I have owned it ever since it came out.. and I have never opened it yet. Maybe it will be in my next batch of books I read.

Thanks!

[stellabella]

I just finished reading The Human Stain by Philip Roth, and The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen--I can't rememer which one I read last. I am about 3/4 of the way through Wilkie Collins' Woman in White--it is taking me a while because it's so, well, so VICTORIAN.

Waiting on the nightstand are Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential and about 2 dozen other books I can't name off the top of my head. I'm not sure what I will read next.

[Simon Majumdar]

just finished Michel Houllebecq ( Sp?) - Platform - phallocentric and entirely inconsequential mainly, I suspect, down to a slightly bizarre translation.

Managed to snaffle a copy of the new Michael Connelly, Chasing the Dime which seems up to par.

Have on my bedside table to read.

Nickel & Dimed

Jolie Blons Bounce ( James Lee Burke )

And, a copy of Revolution: The Making of The Beatle's White Album ( published by my good self - I always like to read the finished books when they come in, a lot more satisfying than staring at the pages of a proof )

S