The Wandering Chicken

Catching up on some reading while I was away

I don’t read as much as I used to. Well, that’s not right exactly. More precisely, I don’t read as much for pleasure as I used to. I imagine I actually read more than I ever have only it tends to be generally work-related which is always useful, sometimes enlightening, and quite often dull. What free time I have that could otherwise be dedicated to reading more personal things - novels, non-fiction, essays and articles - is spent instead meandering about outside or sitting braindead on the couch in front of the television. It’s sad. I was an English major in college which by definition means I read fiction a great deal, some of which I actually enjoyed.

When I travel on business I try to dedicate the time sitting in airports and on board planes to catching up on good books left unread on the shelf and magazines I don’t subscribe to but should. I like to choose books that are somehow relevant to wherever I’m headed; if I find myself up in Monterey maybe Cannery Row. I like to mix it up between new books I’ve heard are good and old ones I should have read already.

As far as magazines go, I’m a fan of Esquire because it generally offers interesting articles by writers I admire - like Chuck Klosterman, for example. Plus a healthy portion of the magazine is given over to pictures of pretty women in various states of undress. Feels like a win-win. Atlantic Monthly is another; few magazines feature the kind of in-depth reporting this old codger manages each month, and none on such a wide-range of interesting topics. I also typically grab an issue of The Economist because just cracking one open on a flight makes me feel smart and elitist.

Anyway, on my recent trip East, I managed quite a lot of just this sort of thing. So here goes.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy by John Le Carre

Have you ever started reading a book, get a chapter or two or three in, and think to yourself, “Have I read this before?” That’s what happened with this book for me. Mind you, I don’t mind re-reading a good novel; in fact, I typically enjoy it and even have a few books I try to revisit every year or two. But I quickly grabbed Tinker Tailor from my brother’s bookshelf, thinking to myself, “I’ve always wanted to read that book.” And now I’m not sure I haven’t already read it. Everything about it feels familiar and yet I have no idea where it’s going. It’s an odd feeling, every sentence providing a sense of deja vu while revealing nothing in the subconscious about what comes next.

Anyway, I’m about half done, and the book is everything it’s supposed to be: a taut cold-war thriller and intriguing look into the world of British espionage by perhaps the greatest spy novelist of the 20th century. Perhaps I’ll have more on this later. But for now, no more. One can’t give impressions or write an honest review without having finished.

The Great Grocery Smackdown by Corby Kummer | Atlantic Monthly

The subtitle of this article is Will Walmart, not Whole Foods, save the small farm and make America healthy? I’m sure it’s meant to be controversial, but I’ve always been of the mind that changes in how we eat and how our food is produced will be determined on the demand side and by large markets like Walmart. Most people simply do not have the money, the time or the access to visit local farmer’s markets. But given the increasing demand for organic and locally-grown products, it seems only natural that Walmart would enter the game and in a major way.

What I did find interesting however was the company’s approach. Walmart’s Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food initiative is both surprising and heartening. According to the article:

The program, which Walmart calls Heritage Agriculture, will encourage farms within a day’s drive of one of its warehouses to grow crops that now take days to arrive in trucks from states like Florida and California. In many cases the crops once flourished in the places where Walmart is encouraging their revival, but vanished because of Big Agriculture competition.

This is to me a truly noble and ambitious effort, and one that really only Walmart has the wherewithal to make a reality. If the food system is going to move away from the corporate farming practices environmentalists and foodies alike despise, and back towards more local-oriented farming, only a major demand-side operation like Walmart really has the capacity to instigate the change. The Big Agriculture companies aren’t going to change of their own accord and the majority of the general public just can’t afford to demand change with their wallets. So good for Walmart; one hopes they continue to expand what is currently an experimental effort.

I am interested to see what the reaction will be among the environmental crowd. Most of them are conditioned to hate Walmart because it’s big and bad and, you know, a business. Part of the article was instructive on this score. The author organized a blind taste test of identical meals - one prepared with local/organic ingredients purchased at Walmart and the other with similar ingredients from Whole Foods. When the tasters were told that in some cases the courses they had glowingly reviewed and preferred were in fact made with Walmart products, well, the article again:

As I had been in my own kitchen, the tasters were surprised when the results were unblinded at the end of the meal and they learned that in a number of instances they had adamantly preferred Walmart produce. And they weren’t entirely happy.

“They weren’t entirely happy.” Yes, how horrible that they should learn that good produce of the variety they approve comes from Walmart, the place where the largest percentage of Americans buy their food. This, of course, should be applauded, but for so many that have made the food system their cause, Walmart is plain dirty. I guess it’s sentiments like these that make me resistant to aligning myself with the environmentalist cause even when so many of our goals coincide. Whether it’s energy or agriculture or whatever, I guess, I just expect that the major companies in these fields must ultimately be a vital part of the solution rather than consistent evils that must be destroyed wholesale.

Roger Ebert: The Essential Man by Chris Jones | Esquire

The other article that struck me was the poignant and heartfelt interview with film critic Roger Ebert, who as a result of his cancer has been transformed physically and lost the ability to speak. What he hasn’t lost is his keen mind and acerbic wit. It’s a must read, as is Ebert’s own follow-up to the story.

Incidentally, as is mentioned in the Esquire article, Ebert is pumping out wonderful work on a consistent basis on his blog and, to my mind, is an essential follow on Twitter. There he is unbelievably prolific and uses his 140-characters to great effect with nearly every post. Follow him @ebertchicago.