I thought I’d give you a couple of days to enjoy the photos – and to justify the time it took to gather them up and post them! And it’s another review-free day (although there’s a little pile waiting for my attention) because, of course, we’re going to have a book, a link, and a blog post.
1.) The book – was mentioned to me by regular blog-reader Susan (I don’t think you have a blog, do you Susan? I’ll throw a link in later if you do!) It’s called Time Was Soft There: A Paris Sojourn at Shakespeare & Co. by Jeremy Mercer, published back in 2006. It’s about Mercer’s nine months living and working at the Shakespeare & Co. bookshop, and sounds wonderful.
Oo, I’ve just done a hunt and discovered that it’s the same as Books, Baguettes and Bedbugs, just under a different title. This is an instance of the American publisher coming up with a much nicer title than the English one, don’t you think? Time Was Soft There is much more evocative, AND, though both books have cats on the cover, it is more prominent on the American edition. Case settled.
2.) The link – comes courtesy of my fellow dove, Sarah. Here it is. Fancy living in a beautiful house which was once home to ‘tangled lives of the Bloomsbury set’? (oh, Telegraph, what a way you have with euphemism). Well, Sarah and I have pooled our resources, so we’re looking for another dozen or so people to help us take this place off the market…
3.) The blog post – is Hayley at Desperate Reader and her thoughts on the Flavour Thesaurus. Niki Segnit has done with flavours something akin to the colour circle – what goes with what etc., including some surprises. I’d seen a little review of it elsewhere, but they cited parsnips and banana as an example, which made me feel sick. This would be true of parsnips with (or, indeed, without) anything. But Hayley mentions that there is a section on lime, which is me sold.
Books, Baguettes and Bedbugs was on my wishlist but like you I prefer the American title and cover.
The Flavour Thesaurus appeals immensely to me; I love pairing ingredients to complement.
The Flavour Thesaurus sounds really good — anything to add variety in the kitchen always sounds good to me, though.
Glad that you found the Mercer book by its British name. That used to irritate me when I was hunting all over for an Agatha Christie title over here, only to find out that it was the British title (25 years ago without internet, it was a much more frustrating thing — what DID we do before the internet? Look it up in "Books in Print?").
And, no, I still don't have a blog yet — trust me, that's a good thing. I still haven't even learned how to get pictures from the camera to the computer – but my kids can do it, so the ignorance will stop with me! :)
Have a great weekend!
Only a dozen people to help you buy it Simon! They had better be 'well-heeled'!
It's a good good book Simon, I've been using it to make up possible ice cream flavours this afternoon.
The Flavour Thesaurus was reviewed in The Observer on Sunday –
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/jun/27/flavour-thesaurus-niki-segnit-review
It looks pretty good!