Amateur chefs, get this book!

Posted by Roy Tomeij | Filed under Book, Cooking

I’m (of course) talking about “Food” by Christian Teubner. But to start with the downside: it’s only available second hand. Amazon doesn’t feature it at all, and others seem to offer no new copies.

Although this post is categorized as “book” and “cooking”, it’s by no means a cookbook: the (well over-sized) 336 pages don’t have one single recipe on them. But as you probably know, you can’t cook a decent meal if you don’t know your ingredients. And that’s why this book covers probably all ingredients you will ever use, with full colour pictures and a short description for all of them. Read the rest of this entry »

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Read more | Comments (0) | February 3rd, 2009

The Island at the Center of the World

Posted by Roy Tomeij | Filed under Book

I wonder why I didn’t blog about this excellent book earlier. I read it in 2005 I think, and when I go to New York (never been there, but it’s on my list of places to go asap) this is what I will read during the flight.

Russell Shorto wrote “The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony That Shaped America” as a “non-fiction novel”; it’s a mixture of facts and imagination, but the latter never on the expense of the other. Some things are just unknown and the blanks need to be filled to be able to grasp the atmosphere of New Amsterdam (current day Manhattan) and New Netherland. This makes it a both educational and yet highly entertaining read, specially if you’re from The Netherlands like me. Daily, I come across the very spot Henry Hudson set sail from to discover Manhattan. I used to bike past the building where the “Dutch West India Company” decided to settle at the island, and therefor founded New York City.

Shorto provides a great story, based on well documented research, which makes you understand why New York City is the melting pot it is today (and as it turns out has always been). The atmosphere and liberal views in NYC can be traced back to the Dutch colonial days. Read the rest of this entry »

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Read more | Comments (0) | January 22nd, 2009

Good Pound Sterling exchange rates, buy books!

Posted by Roy Tomeij | Filed under Book

Edial brought to my attention that now is the time to order books from The Book Depository if you’re in mainland Europe (or The Netherlands at least). Because of the current exchange rates prices are roughly the same as Amazon.com, but with free shipping! I had some trouble with the website (which kept emptying my basket after some time), but eventually managed to order five books.

A smart thing the folks over at The Book Depository do: showing a link to the same product on Amazon.co.uk and the price of the item at said website (with and without shipping). This has a two-way effect. It’s easy to compare prices (which are lower at TBD of course), and when an item is sold out you’re tempted to check if it’s available at Amazon anyway. By following the link, your request includes TBD’s referral code, so they at least get a kickback for their out of stock products. I think it’s a great way to utilize Amazons API, which I have never seen used in this way before. Read the rest of this entry »

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Read more | Comments (1) | January 14th, 2009

Taking the subway

Posted by Roy Tomeij | Filed under Book

For some reason I’m quite intrigued by the subway (or the “Underground”, if you ride it in London) and stuff associated with it. I recently finished two books on the matter, with the first one focussing entirely on subway maps: “Transit Maps of the World“. The second one is about the people riding (and working in) the New York City Subway: “Subwayland: Adventures in the World Beneath New York“. Read the rest of this entry »

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Read more | Comments (0) | October 28th, 2008

Going insane

Posted by Roy Tomeij | Filed under Book

Some time ago I finished two great, but totally different books about two US mental institutions. One focuses mostly on the institution (and its patients and staff along the way), while the other is all about the people in such an institution. “Gracefully Insane: Life and Death Inside America’s Premier Mental Hospital” is about McLean’s hospital in Belmont, by design a place for the rich (and sometimes famous, like Ray Charles) insane to be cured or kept until death. Apart from housing the insane, it also proved to be a convenient place to put that nutty uncle Albert (or any other burdensome relative). Schizophrenia was most of the time diagnosed within the first few hours of admittance, so virtually anyone showing up at McLean’s was considered insane. There were little lobotomies at the hospital, despite being the way insanity was usually cured. The staff at McLean’s stuck to water treatment (hot, cold, ice, dripping, under high pressure, you name it). Over time McLean’s proved to be unable to keep up its own pants and needed to sell part of their grounds, admit people only for a short period of time and resolve to modern medicine (excessive use of drugs). The book covers over 150 years of history of a landmark institution.

“The Lives They Left Behind: Suitcases from a State Hospital Attic” focusses almost entirely on the patients of Willard State Hospital. When this state mental hospital was scheduled for demolition in 1995, researchers found a large amount of unopened suitcases in the attic. They belonged to the patients who were admitted to the hospital, but forgot to collect their belongings when they left, or simply died during their stay. The authors have conducted extended research on the contents of the suitcases and managed to write great stories about each of its owners, of course with pictures of said suitcase and owners (often taken on the day someone arrived and sometimes after 40 years on institutionalization). Read the rest of this entry »

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Read more | Comments (0) | October 27th, 2008

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