I realize there might not be many posts here as lots of our time is consumed by listnening/watching media, but for those of you out there who pick up the written word, by all means, post away.

I just finished In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan. Basically, it's a crash course in the idea that the Western (read: American) diet is a failure, how singling out fat, cholesterol and carbohydrates as "bad" nutrients doesn't work, and that the industrialized agriculture has reduced the nutritional value of mass-produced fruits and vegetables to about 25% of what they were eighty years ago.

It's one of the more enlightening/distressing books I've read, and has caused me to eat differently...

This is a good one! Sounds like a good book Pooter. Of course people want to single out particular components of food, because then it makes them easier to control.

right now I am readin John Stuart Mill - On Liberty

Nietzsche - Genealogy of Morality. Both for classes, but good none the less.

Nietzsche... nice.

Hmm. We had a reading thread a while back but it's probably buried back some 30 pages or so.

stash reads more than any other person I know or have ever known. He can put away a 1000 page book within a couple of days. I'm sure it'll be a matter of time til he finds this thread.

I like to read too, but I am a slow reader because my brain goes into overdrive with mind imagery when my nose is in a book. Checked out Stephen King's The Stand (which stash got through reading for the millionth time last week) and I plan on tackling that - so thanks for the reminder. :)

The Defense of Food sounds like an interesting read. Are there mentions of the corn industry and how corn syrup is basically used in just about every processed food product? And people wonder why the US has such high obesity rates and such a crap diet overall...

i just spent a few days with (by marriage) relatives in harlem in new york... i was surpsrised that none of them eat sugar and they all eat his other stuff (maple syrup type stuff) instead cos sugar is deadly and unnecessary, none of 'em drank milk cos calcium blocks other nutrients getting in, dont use flouride from toothpaste cos its a bi-product from making aluminium and has no beneficial effects on yer pegs, we went ot the local shit in a tray shop in harlem and it was all gorgeous soya meat substitute and fresh organic veggies... very odd. don't believe the hype.

now reading oliver sachs "the man who mistake his wife for a hat" and bez' autobiography which is surprisingly well -written, full of descriptive passages and metaphors and funny...

Hey smax, welcome aboard. :) That's interesting what you said about your in-laws and their eating habits. I cut out over 90% of my sugar intake over 3 years ago and I noticed immediately at the time how much better I felt. I'm not positive that sugar is deadly then again I suppose it is if you are diabetic or consume too much of it. Unnecessary, yes - but damn. Sometimes it's so nice to have a gooey sugary treat. Just once in a while, just to taste! I'm more inclined to think that corn syrup worse. The corn industry is in cahoots with US government... What amazes me is how much corn syrup is in everything, even in products (such as flavored non-dairy creamer for example) that claim to be "sugar free".

(sorry for the derailment!)

No apology needed--I was hoping for a dialogue anyway. I thought Pollan had some good advice with the simple line: anything touting a health claim, e.g. "sugar-free," "fat free," etc., isn't going to make you healthier.

@smax - I'm not sure what hype you're referring to. There are many different types of hype when it comes to food.

Oh, Whirls--have you or Stash read Stephen King's book Cell?

cheers fer the nod 'hello', whirly.....and strite back atcha.

it is weird how at first when the rellies were talking i was thinking "these boys are full of sheeet", but it made sense, just a bit hard to get my head round, especially as they were also spouting kinda cold-war type BS about the US gov being able to track its populace and stuff which were all lies they told Russia in the cold war except now it's believed by their own population. odd, v odd.

I'll try to get a tally of my recent reads up here in a day or two. I've polished several books in the last couple months.

Just read:

Italo Calvino - If On a Winter's Night a Traveller - highly enjoyable metatextual commentary

Don DeLillo - Underworld - excellent portrait of the everyday events that underpin the world shakers

Cormac Mcarthy - Blood Meridian - a really well done examination of the mythologisation of the Wild West/Mexican frontier as well as doing a brilliant job of desensitizing the reader to violence!

Now reading:

Jacques Derrida - Of Grammatology

Don DeLillo - White Noise

Thomas Pynchon - Gravity's Rainbow (constantly being reread as it's my dissertation topic and I'm off to the International Pynchon Conference in Munich next month!)

now reading: South Of The Pumphouse

an excellent read written by one of my favorite musicians: Les Claypool.

A year of living Bibically by A.J. Jacobs

religions are funny...at times.....

Claypool wrote a book... Innnnteresting...

Now Reading? That's a great idea MadPooter!

I'm currently reading Oscar Wilde's "The Picture of Dorian Grey". I really loved reading the wonderful "Ubik" by Philip K. Dick about 6 months ago, the man was a visionary.

Damn--I'll have to check out Ubik. I've only read a minor section of P. K. Dick's work.

Yeah, I originally planned to read "A Scanner Darkly", but my college library only had "Ubik"; as soon as you read the first ten pages, it'll hook you. It's really a great book, don't let it pass if you have the chance.