On Eating One’s Words
In seeking for bloggable items, I had never really considered the possibilities of an English TimesOnline review of the new Whole Foods store in London. But how shallow I was to overlook it! If I had persisted in such unwitting xenophobia, I would not have come across this…
I’ve been overwhelmed by your response to the thing I wrote about the catastrophically catastrophic threat that books pose to the delicately balanced balance of the global world. In case you missed it, I laid bare the horror of unrestrained international publishing, which is responsible for more eco-destruction than all the Chinese power stations built last Thursday. The literate do nothing except consume: crowds of shoppers in Waterstone’s, the cynically titled Amazon – consuming, consuming, consuming. And while we just sit there reading, books are destroying the world.
Some of you have written – on paper – to point out that you’re already starting cooperatives to recycle the dread tomes. The real answer to the dark, satanic book mountain is, of course, to eat them. I’ve been sent a lot of marvellously healthy recipes for books. I’m thinking of compiling a book-recipe recipe book.
From Megan in Pontypridd comes this: “Take one book (250 pages is enough for four people). Peel off the hard cover (don’t ever eat covers – they’re full of chemicals). Soak the pages in warm milk, then mash to dropping consistency. Add 2oz flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 4oz grated suet, a pinch of salt, two eggs, 4oz Fairtrade brown sugar and a handful of sultanas. Spoon into a buttered 2-pint pudding basin, cover and steam for 2 hours. Serve with warm jam.” Megan says her commune loves it. “We particularly like to add a couple of pages of Dylan Thomas. It gives a lovely local flavour.”
Glorious.
What other book recipes can you suggest?
