The DU Lounge
In reply to the discussion: how many du members read physical books in this day and age? [View all]betsuni
(25,495 posts)because I'm old with one foot in the grave, don't want to wait until the paperback comes out because might be dead. No reading or eating after you're dead.
I remember writer Jane Smiley saying how after she had a bestseller she could finally afford newly released hardback books and what a luxury. They're not even that expensive anymore, not much more than paperbacks if you just wait for mark-down on Amazon (don't live in the U.S., no library, favorite used book store here went out of business).
Right now reading a wonderful book, Edward Lee's "Buttermilk Graffiti: A Chef's Journey to Discover America's New Melting-Pot Cuisine." Guy who travels long distances for meals, never waste an appetite, will eat two chili dogs before eight o'clock in the morning, steals menus. I love him.
"Finally, I order the cafe's Lagman Soup. It has broad flour noodles in a rich meat broth with garlic, red bell pepper, celery, tomatoes, cabbage, and long beans. ... I don't like it -- not because it isn't delicious, but because my mind can't reconcile the flavors. ... Noodles in lamb broth -- a combination I've never tasted before. The aggressive flavor of wet earth and blood paralyses me. The broth from a typical Chinese cook is viscous but masked with spices and medicine. His hands work fast and light, like those of a piano player, and you can taste that fast work in his broth. This broth, however, is heavy and slow. There is more than just lamb in here. I can taste the ancient cutting board, the hammered tin pot, the heat, the bleating animal, the veined, arthritic hands of a cook moving with pain and tension."