Around the Year in 52 Books discussion
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[2020] Voting for 14th Mini Poll
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Nadine wrote: "Jette wrote: "... There is even one about eggs, which I hope will answer the question about who first decided that eggs might be good to eat and was willing to try them. ..."I wonder that about ..."
I am so glad that I am not the only one up at night wondering these things lol
My food wonder has always been... who thought it would be a good idea to eat an artichoke... big ole thistle-y things. I love them.
Nadine wrote: "I wonder that about a lot of foods. Who first decided that shellfish would be a good eat? Or lobsters & crabs? Who figured out how to ferment vanilla pods? Who learned that rhubarb stalks are good eating, but the leaves are NOT? who figured out which mushrooms are safe to eat??? and so on"Desperation and a lot of village idiots!
Lizzy wrote: "My food wonder has always been... who thought it would be a good idea to eat an artichoke... big ole thistle-y things. I love them."yes! that artichoke really makes you work for the heart!! Who figured out that you can fight through all those thorns for the goodness? and do we eat any other flower stems (because that's basically what the artichoke heart is)? I don't think we do. We don't eat many flowers, in general.
Nadine wrote: "Lizzy wrote: "My food wonder has always been... who thought it would be a good idea to eat an artichoke... big ole thistle-y things. I love them."yes! that artichoke really makes you work for th..."
A banana is part of a flower
I’ve seen a tweet or something similar that reminded me of this, something like questioning who was the first person to see an egg come of out a chicken’s bum and say yep, gonna eat that!
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I think broccoli and cauliflowers are flowers? Some of my least favourite vegetables though!
Pansies, nostrumiums, milkweed and dandelion are all edible flowers.
I always have a good time imagining how foods like surströmming (fermented heering) came to be.
True, Johanne. And the smell, ouch - not something that will tempt you 😂
..And these people had to be really hungry to eat it the first time with that smell...
I suspect a lot of foods originally came about in famine with people desperately looking for *something* edible everywhere they could, which would explain things like artichoke (and also snails?). My guess on the mushrooms and other things that have poisonous look a likes would be watching which ones animals eat? I know in some cases animals have extra defenses against toxins, but I seem to recall from my teen survival reading phase that if you're ever not sure which wild plants are safe to eat, you can wait and see which ones the animals eat/avoid.
Jody wrote: "I’ve seen a tweet or something similar that reminded me of this, something like questioning who was the first person to see an egg come of out a chicken’s bum and say yep, gonna eat that!"That was my first thought and couldn't think of a polite way to phrase it. LOL
For the bargain books, I did not intend for that prompt to include books borrowed from the library. It is a book you "bought," not "borrowed." I get more than 95% of my books from library borrowing. I thought it would be part of the fun scavenger hunt of doing a reading challenge to scour the thrift stores, dollar stores, and yard sales to find a book on your TBR.
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this thread is making me paranoid!
I had a crush when I was little on a guy called Camus who of course I had no clue who it was so my textbooks were covered with "I love Kamoo."
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I love this prompt so much although I know it won't win cause so many people are against non-fiction. But there's so much interesting stuff around people they pay not much attention to and theres such interesting stuff to learn. I used to be a local museum director and you could dump me anywhere in town, I could start talking and people would be fascinated to learn about something in their daily lives.
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I want to know who looked at something like plantains which are poisonous but decided lets cook them and try again....
there's also a book about salt I've been wanting to read.
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Ick! I read Clan of the Cave Bear about 30 years ago, but I remember the sampling of the food to see if you could eat it was part of the book.
Ron wrote: "For the bargain books, I did not intend for that prompt to include books borrowed from the library. It is a book you "bought," not "borrowed." I get more than 95% of my books from library borrowing..."Would you accept the borrowing/gift interpretation of the prompt as a KIS option? I like the push to look for more used book sales, but I definitely used to live somewhere where books in my language just never got that cheap.
It’s a bit the same here, Marin. We don’t have dollar stores, I’ve never seen a secondhand bookstore here, and our version of thrift stores are still expensive (I can only speak from the ones I’ve been in but the cheapest book I’ve seen was about 3 CHF).
Marin wrote: "Ron wrote: "For the bargain books, I did not intend for that prompt to include books borrowed from the library. It is a book you "bought," not "borrowed." I get more than 95% of my books from libra..."I like the BIO/KIS option
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If the prompt wins in the poll, it will be with the current wording. We try to respect the original person suggesting the prompt (sorry for unapproved change, Ron!). But after prompts are on the final list, it’s up to individual members how they want to interpret and choose books.
Laura wrote: "Marin wrote: "Ron wrote: "For the bargain books, I did not intend for that prompt to include books borrowed from the library. It is a book you "bought," not "borrowed." I get more than 95% of my bo..."OK. I just want a badge. Plus I would like to force Swiss members to fly to Los Angeles where they can buy lots of bargain books.
I finally voted, and ended up using 8 up votes. There were only about 6 I *really* liked, and debated leaving it at that, but decided to throw in the last two votes for my remaining preferences. Now to wait and see how it all works out...
I had 8 upvotes. I went for: age-date-month, NASA mission name, pronunciation (if that wins I might look for an author with my same name spelling since there are a few ways to pronounce it), title without ATY, twins (I have no idea what I would read for this), nonfiction, title based on idiom, and book under $1. There are so many good prompts I'd like to do in a rejects challenge. Given how far behind I am this year with just the 52, that's probably not going to happen.
Marin wrote: "I had 8 upvotes. I went for: age-date-month, NASA mission name, pronunciation (if that wins I might look for an author with my same name spelling since there are a few ways to pronounce it), title ..."I actually had wondered how you pronounced your name, as when I was growing up I knew someone who had your same name, where the accent was on the first syllable. But now I live near Marin County in California, and that is always pronounced with accent on the 2nd syllable.
Lizzy wrote: "Marin wrote: "I had 8 upvotes. I went for: age-date-month, NASA mission name, pronunciation (if that wins I might look for an author with my same name spelling since there are a few ways to pronoun..."Mine is like the county, and that's always how I read it in my head too, so when I see it written down I have to remind myself that the pronunciation could go either way. Kind of excited to see what other Marins out there are writing!
Around the Year in 52 Books
Books mentioned in this topic
Gilead (other topics)The Gifted School (other topics)
Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language (other topics)
An Absolutely Remarkable Thing (other topics)
Skin Deep (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Riley Sager (other topics)Shobha Rao (other topics)
I wonder that about a lot of foods. Who first decided that shellfish would be a good eat? Or lobsters & crabs? Who figured out how to ferment vanilla pods? Who learned that rhubarb stalks are good eating, but the leaves are NOT? who figured out which mushrooms are safe to eat??? and so on ...