MY READING LIST
To read without reflecting is like
eating without digesting. ~ Edmund Burke (1729 – 1797)
WHAT ARE YOU READING?
I love to read. One of the joys of public transportation is that you can read while leaving the driving to someone else. And while being car-less makes us all into feminine pack animals, I nonetheless always carry a book for reading and a journal for writing. Mealtime is another opportunity for opening a book as company at a solo dinner. Like reading the newspaper at breakfast, eating with a good book is a way of slowing down and enjoying the moment.
Studies have shown that those who eat slower feel more satisfied after eating less. So, if you want to eat less and enjoy it more, grab a good book and join me for a dinner in good company. You’ll be surprised at how satisfying it can be.
Today I give you my reading list from the past eight months. My interest in learning about the American food supply, the politics of food, and sustainability in general has been at work, so the non-fiction portion contains a focus. I’ve had the good fortune of hearing Marion Nestle, Annie Leonard and Alton Brown speak at book signings, and have heard interviews with Michael Pollan and Dr David Kessler after reading their books.
I’ve also added some fiction titles that I’ve enjoyed over the past decade to give you a bit of information about my interests. I come from a library-enriched tradition growing up in a Washington, DC suburb. Living in New York City for the past ten years, I’ve been to book signings and heard authors speak about their work which has enriched the reading experience to a great degree and, to my surprise, inspired me to buy books for the first time.
Certainly lots of awareness has been raised as people have gotten on Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution bandwagon.
PRO-ACTIVE NON-FICTION FOR KIDS
An article in the New York Times talks about educating kids about the workings of advertising. They’ve created a website, called Admongo (Admongo.gov). By playing a computer game with fictional products, it teaches them to understand advertising and identify the real messages behind the gloss and the hype.
The initiative seeks to educate children in grades four through six — tweens, in the parlance of marketing — about how advertising works so they can make better, more informed choices when they shop or when they ask parents to shop on their behalf. . . . The initiative is being sponsored by the Bureau of Consumer Protection of the Federal Trade Commission, which polices deceptive, fraudulent and unfair marketing and advertising practices. . . . The goal is generally “to help kids start to understand the commercial world they live in and to be alert to, and think critically, of advertising,” said David Vladeck, director of the bureau in Washington. The belief that youngsters ought to be given additional tools to assist them in deciphering sales pitches has been gaining support as the Internet, and social media in particular, are used more for marketing.
Well, bravo for that! Reaching out to the youngest consumers, targeted by every possible manufacturer – they even have kids shilling for over-the-counter drugs now – kids need the tools to asses the many commercial arrows aimed at them at an increasingly young age.
What are you reading that has enriched your eating life, helping to navigate the information out there in consumer world?
