I find myself intermittently inspired to finish reading more than an article or poem or two every so often, and through the year I’ve found myself inspired perhaps a bit too often to pick up a book that looks interesting (I started reading 7 at the same time this year…), due in part to a friend of mine that is very well-read.
The unfortunate nature of my otherwise self-appreciated creative side is that while reading, my mind wants to do about 1,000 other things at once (including write its own version(s) of what I’m in the midst of). Too often a writer’s rhythmic stylings will resonate in my head like the cadence of a crass F sharp during a jazz jam session. I thoroughly enjoy when the writer of something I’m reading happens to have a rhythm that reverberates well in my head. Unfortunately most of the time it goes back and forth between the two, paragraph by paragraph.
I began reading Heat by Bill Buford this year, at the same time as a couple of other books: Salt, Kitchen Confidential, and The Jungle. If you’re familiar with any two of these three books you may have guessed that they all have one thing in common - food.
Heat turned out to be a very interesting book with an often confusing intertwinement of past and present tenses which I have to admit I’m not sure is always correct, but could quite possibly be the perfect use of tenses illustrating Bill Buford’s firm grasp on the English language. It also happen to be written in an easy going rhythm for the most part.
Through and through I found the book interesting, and though some things were explained in much detail, there were often points which I longed for more explanation. Buford wrote about his discovery of Italian food through his experiences at one of Mario Batali’s restaurants in New York City; his time at a restaurant in Italy; and his apprenticeship at one of the proposed best butcher shops in the world found in Italy (among a few other stops along the way). Chapter by chapter I found myself hungry for more food knowledge. Heat has rekindled my desire to take a few years and really immerse myself in food by exploring the world.
Thanks for the book FakeAngeleno.com.
