Currently reading thread...

nihpuad · 23-01-10 00:10:25

ngaio wrote:

The book argues that the time saved for doing other "stuff", the maximising of energy intake from less food, basically gave us the ability to become what we are today. This is different from the "man the hunter" theory, as it suggests we relied on cooked food to become what we are, not meat.

Yah, I knew it wasn't a "man the hunter" argument -- in fact, if I recall the interview I heard correctly, cooking was a step away from hunter-gatherer life and toward food production -- but surely it was the need to cook meat, specifically, that made the development of cooking worth the effort in the first place? Most vegetable foods are both more nutritious and more storable if left raw, aren't they?

Regarding your choice to be vegetarian, good on ye' if it's right for you... but I'm afraid I'm unlikely to follow suit. I like meat... a lot... and while I try to be as environmentally sensitive as it's possible for a carnivore to be, I don't see myself giving up tasty critters anytime soon. Call me an intellectual coward, but I tend to avoid reading people like Foer and other food activists who want to change my mind. I do plenty to save the world in my own way; please don't take away my bacon cheeseburger.

But I will try to get around to reading How Cooking Made Us Human. I'm especially intrigued by the link to feminism you mentioned, which didn't come out in that interview.

ngaio · 25-01-10 01:09:57

Well raw vegetables etc may be more nutritious vitamin wise... but when they're cooked, they're softer so much quicker to eat, easier to digest and take energy from. I mean, have you ever tried to digest a raw potatoe?

In a society where food is readily avaliable and we live relatively sedantry lifestyles, we don't -need- all that energy and so we think of vitamins as more important... but imagine a different time and place where you are very physically active, where food is more scarce, and you need to use as much of it as you possibly can to turn into fat. What's more important then?

Also, vegetable stuff -can- be stored more easily than meat. Exactly! Then some of them cooked when they are needed. Grains, vegetables, roots... all of these, in most places, also tended to be more reliably cosistant food sources than meat. Meat was a very welcome food source, the most favoured, but perhaps not the thing that made us what we are today.

I apologise if I'm not explaining this too well. My brain is only somewhat functioning today.

nihpuad · 25-01-10 06:52:06

Obviously I need to read the book; otherwise, I'm about 90% talking out of my ass (arse?). Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be available on audio, which is how I do most of my "reading" these days (my commute, and my time on the treadmill at the gym, are about all the "free" time I have anymore). I'll keep looking.

ngaio · 15-03-10 03:17:44

Bugger! Good luck!

Just about to finish "Kafka on the Shore" by Haruki Murakami which is brave, surreal and suprising... totally awesome. Also just starting on "The Beauty Myth"by Naomi Wolf which I've been meaning to read in its entirety for years and years.

nihpuad · 16-03-10 23:04:35

I never remember to post here unless somebody else does! I've just finished the audiobook of T.C. Boyle's The Women, which is a novel about the 4 main women of Frank Lloyd Wright's life (3 wives and a mistress). Highly recommended. Next up is a biography of Lincoln. I also recently found a hardback copy of Tom Perotta's The Abstinence Teacher on a bargain table, but I don't know when I'll get around to reading it.

tchalla811 · 17-03-10 03:05:01

I just finished The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. DuBois and Spartan Gold by Clive Cussler. I started a mystery novel set in Victorian London novel titled The Shadow in the North.

ngaio · 29-04-10 01:47:13

Virgin, The Untouched History

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/ … tidiscb-20

It's proving to be a fascinating and revealing read.

hyperballad · 29-04-10 02:23:48

I'm totally engrossed in Terry Pratchett, Discworld series atm. I imagine I will stay that way for sometime... On the fourth book and quite simply put, enthralled.

ngaio · 08-06-10 08:50:11

Just read "The Windup Bird Chronicle" by Haruki Murakami. It was perfect reading material while I was holidaying in Japan and really made me realise how very Japanese Murakami's writing is. Fantastic book, though I found the ending a little weak.

Last edited by ngaio (08-06-10 08:50:34)

bibliotheque · 12-06-10 01:04:02

ngaio, you might like mishima. ‘after the banquet’ was really excellent as i recall.

as for me.. sigh.. i never feel i am reading as much as i want to be. but i get too engrossed and lose the world. which used to be lovely, but now makes me feel too “apart”, if that makes sense. so: right now, i’m working my way through ‘let the great world spin’, which is as great as it's been touted to be. i’ve just finished re-reading ‘the wasp factory’ (modern gothic-tinged horror-portrait.. for fans of ligotti i suppose?). somewhere around here is ‘the likeness’ because i enjoyed ‘into the woods’. (they are all taking an enormous amount of time to complete due to the aforementioned delicate balance of being enriched and being subsumed.)

viva · 15-06-10 02:36:08

i am afraid of this thread because its like a HUGE box of candy... i know i will fall in deep and get a stomachache. my local library will never hear the end of it. it even has a debate on VEGETARIANISM.... ooooo. (regardless of moral and political implications, i can reassure you - vegetarians taste great! ^.^ )

ngaio, have you read "norweigan wood"? that is my favorite murakami... such a funny mood, such a balance between this sometimes uncomfortably emmasculated, and yet utterly relatable, protaganist... yum.

i at the moment, in spirit of my current home, am exploring the wide world of australian fiction. currently immersed in a book called "the slap" by christos tsiolkas, a book with quite well-written, intensely masculine sex scenes (which i like, go figure), and which taught me the meanings of the words "wog" and "bogan". its interesting and well-paced but kind of a downer - lots of suburban anger and alcoholism, confused teenage sexuality, questions about child abuse and the like, so i would like to stick my nose into something else at the same time but my next book promises to be a whole commitment in and of itself - Summerland by michael chabon. oh how i love you mr. chabon.
~v

blissed · 15-06-10 23:24:25

This one looks interesting.

http://www.pornsaints.org/blog/pornucop … rs-anthony

.

viva · 16-06-10 01:22:23

OMG piers anthony... such a crude, outdated, boobs-and-long-hair concept of womanhood! ive read soooo many of his novels as a young bookworm obsessed with fantasy. remember the 'xanth' series anyone? great ideas, terrible writing, usually fun to read... has anyone read his other porno, "firefly"? my first dirty book. i read liked this when i was a 12 year old girl on account of the story of a girl my age seducing her middle-aged neighbour... now i look back and go "O.o... pedophilia..?" i guess anything goes in text and anime. i would love to read pronucopia just for the nostalgia facter... ~v

ngaio · 16-06-10 02:14:10

Biblio, cool! I'll check it out! Thanks, I love recommendations!

Viva, I am really getting into Murakami right now so I'll try that book out too, sounds great! Oh and I know what you mean about the box of candy thing... I can't walk into book stores without parting with money. It's a dirty, dirty habit of mine.

Oh and I can totally confirm with my own personal experience with my partner that since going vege, he's never tasted better! Ahem! That said, I've heard people say the opposite.

ngaio · 28-07-10 01:54:32

I was reading "Flat Earth News" by Nick Earls which is a good book but depressing as all heck to realise just how messed up the media is, so I had to put it down in favour of the much more light and enjoyable "Neverwhere" by Neil Gaiman, it was a very fun and easy read. Now I'm about to start on Margaret Atwood's "The Robber Bride", I used to love Atwood so am looking forward to it. I'm also going to finally sink my teeth into Dawkin's "The God Delusion" as soon as my partner is finished with it, I feel like I need to be a good little atheist and get to reading it!

Socrates505 · 13-08-10 00:35:13

I just read Miranda July's short story collection No One Belongs Here More Than You: Stories. It is amazing.

sonice · 13-08-10 02:14:16

'John Lennon The Life' by Philip Norman. What a trouble maker

nihpuad · 13-08-10 21:15:11

Will be purchasing the audiobook of Mary Roach's new book, Packing for Mars, as soon as I can get audible.com to admit I have a valid credit card!

Also reading (actually reading, not listening to) a book my daughter gave me about the building of the Eiffel Tower, and listening to (for the second time) Sarah Vowell's The Wordy Shipmates, about the Puritans and the founding of the Massachusetts Bay colony.

ngaio · 16-08-10 08:53:33

Audio books are awesome!

I'm currently reading "Freaks Talk Back, Tabloid Talk Shows and Sexual Nonconformity" it's an awesome book so far. Really relates to some of the things I think about and have researched in the past to inform the conceptual aspect of my art. Yep, I sound like a total wanker saying that!

I also got myself a copy of "Sex at Dawn" which I am super excited about sinking my teeth into next.

Socrates505 · 16-08-10 21:52:08

Did you get that idea from Dan Savage?

tchalla811 · 17-08-10 00:02:06

I recently read a book about the atomic bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima, Up from Slavery by Booker T. Washington, The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. Du Bois and I am now reading Blue Eyed Devil by Robert B. Parker and Liar's Game by Eric Jerome Dickey.

ngaio · 18-08-10 08:55:15

Socrates, haha, actually his podcast is where I first heard about the book when he conducted an interview with one of the writers! Plus, I'm in an open relationship so the book interested me for that reason.

Tchalla, I visited Hiroshima recently with my partner. We shecked out the peace museum, memorial park, A-Bomb dome, etc... it was intense to learn all about the bombing and such. I still have trouble articulating how I felt on that day.

nihpuad · 19-08-10 04:13:24

ngaio wrote:

Tchalla, I visited Hiroshima recently with my partner. We shecked out the peace museum, memorial park, A-Bomb dome, etc... it was intense to learn all about the bombing and such. I still have trouble articulating how I felt on that day.

My wife and I visited the Peace Park back in the 80s (when we were working in Korea, and took a brief vacation in Japan). We were there in the spring, and the park was full of middle school groups. The kids were delighted to see Americans, so they could practice their English: "What time is it, please?" "What is your name?" "How old are you?".... It was eerie to be so warmly received, as Americans, in that particular location.

Socrates505 · 20-08-10 04:37:16

Ngaio I heard that podcast too. I actually am very skeptical of evolutionary psychology but was interested in the book. Please let me know what you think of it!

ngaio · 23-08-10 01:30:17

Nihpaud, ahhh yes they still do that... we had schoolkids approach us to do the same thing, though it was certainly less odd for us - my partner being Australian and myself being from New Zealand.

Socrates, yeah I have similar sentiments. Will let ya know how it goes!

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