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pineislandI started writing this last week and then found it in my drafts.
I'm reading a book! I'm reading a book for the first time since (*checks notes*) January, not counting books I've read to/with my students. (I've been lazy about keeping up my reading log and I should, at some point, go back and add in at least some of the books I've read at/for work.)
I'm reading All Consuming: Why We Eat the Way We Eat Now by Ruby Tandoh, a Great British Bake Off finalist.
I want to be clear that I'm saying this with great affection and I'm 50% of the way through the book and not DNF'ing: Tandoh is not a good writer:
Tandoh also has the XKCD expert problem: "experts in anything wildly overestimate the average person's familiarity with their field." That said, I may be unusually inexpert re: food in particular, because I don't really like eating. (I've said before on main that this isn't a diet thing or an eating disorder thing, just that, if I could take three pills a day and feel satiated and get all of my calories and nutrients and minerals… I would, and I'd save eating for a social event.)
That's where I left off… Here's the rest:
I finished this book but I kept waiting for it to get good? I picked it up based on the title; I didn't recognize Tandoh's name, although I probably watched her season of Great British Bake Off. (I binged the entire series to date in 2020-2021 but it was 2020-2021, you know?) I didn't feel like Tandoh really answered the question implied by the (sub)title of her book. Instead, it's a poorly organized collection of facts that never come together. Unlike good baking, it is not more than the sum of its ingredients. As a big fan of microhistories, I'd go so far as to say that this one has a soggy bottom.
I'm reading a book! I'm reading a book for the first time since (*checks notes*) January, not counting books I've read to/with my students. (I've been lazy about keeping up my reading log and I should, at some point, go back and add in at least some of the books I've read at/for work.)
I'm reading All Consuming: Why We Eat the Way We Eat Now by Ruby Tandoh, a Great British Bake Off finalist.
I want to be clear that I'm saying this with great affection and I'm 50% of the way through the book and not DNF'ing: Tandoh is not a good writer:
Gregorian history pivots at Anno Domini. British food history, according to British food writers, started in June 1950, or 0 AED, the year that Elizabeth David published A Book of Mediterranean Food.This is not only not funny, it's incorrect: if Tandoh is drawing a parallel to BC/AD (not even BCE/CE? really??), it should be 1 AED. There was no 0 AD. The book is riddled with these failed attempts at funniness.
Tandoh also has the XKCD expert problem: "experts in anything wildly overestimate the average person's familiarity with their field." That said, I may be unusually inexpert re: food in particular, because I don't really like eating. (I've said before on main that this isn't a diet thing or an eating disorder thing, just that, if I could take three pills a day and feel satiated and get all of my calories and nutrients and minerals… I would, and I'd save eating for a social event.)
That's where I left off… Here's the rest:
I finished this book but I kept waiting for it to get good? I picked it up based on the title; I didn't recognize Tandoh's name, although I probably watched her season of Great British Bake Off. (I binged the entire series to date in 2020-2021 but it was 2020-2021, you know?) I didn't feel like Tandoh really answered the question implied by the (sub)title of her book. Instead, it's a poorly organized collection of facts that never come together. Unlike good baking, it is not more than the sum of its ingredients. As a big fan of microhistories, I'd go so far as to say that this one has a soggy bottom.
