A blog about food and cooking by Chris Norris

Kindle-izing Cooking

Kindle-izing Cooking

For Christmas this year, my lovely wife delivered into my hands a new Kindle!  If you don’t recognize the name, a ‘Kindle’ is an electronic reader for books manufactured by Amazon.  Basically, you buy a book from Amazon in electronic format, and it downloads via cell phone technology to the electronic reader.

I didn’t think an e-book reader would be my thing.  My list of complaints, without even thinking hard, are:

1. Yet another electronic gadget to worry about

2. Cost of e-books is almost the same as a real book, so why don’t I want a real book?  (note that this is also true of music on iTunes, which I adore)

3. I’ll always be dicking around keeping it charged.

4. It won’t “feel” the same as a real book so I won’t get the same level of satisfaction.

5. The books I like to read won’t be available in electronic format.

Need I continue?

After one week of use, I believe, as is typical for my ability to determine what’s a useful gadget and what isn’t, that I am wrong on nearly every point!  You can read your own reviews of the Kindle and decide if it’s right for you or not (however, it’s about the same size as moleskine notebook, e-books DO cost about the same as real books, it holds its charge forever and can be recharged from any USB plug, and it’s very comfortable for reading), but what I cared about the most is CAN I GET THE BOOKS *I* LIKE?!

As a test, I chose the most obscure food related book I could think of: “On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen” by Harold McGee.  If you’re not a foodie, you probably don’t know about this book.  If you are a foodie, it’s your bible!  Guess what? McGee’s book is available on the Kindle!  OK, so I’ll give up one run.  But how about “The Food Lover’s Companion” by Sharon Herbst, the second most important Foodie reference title every published?!  Damn, down by two.  It’s available on the Kindle too!

Having just come off watching “Julie and Julia” – a most excellent movie, btw – I upped the anty to “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” by Julia Child.  Ha!  It’s not there!  I knew this Kindle thing was overstated.  However, the books “Julie and Julia” by Julie Powell and “My Life in France” by Julia Child are both there waiting to be sucked in to your Kindle.  So maybe this is more of a “foul” than a “strike”.  Plus, Alton Brown’s “I’m Just Here for the Food” can be downloaded, so that sorta makes up for it a little bit…although it IS pricey…

Bottom line: I dare you to ask me the difference me a Pasilla Chile and an Anaheim Chile, or a ricer and a food mill, or how baking powder works *if* I have my Kindle in hand!  But first you’ll have to get my attention – I’m probably reading…

– Chris



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