Weekly Peek

Bookworms in the Pantry

If you were a reader of The Perfect Pantry back in 2007, you'll remember our feature, Bookworms in the Pantry. Readers from all over the world helped compile this list of favorite food-related non-cookbooks.

We haven't updated the list since then, and I think it would be fun to do it!

More or less alphabetically, here's the entire list as of October 2007 (books mentioned more than once are indicated in parentheses).

A Cordiall Water, by MFK Fisher
A History of the World in Six Glasses, by Tom Standage
A Moveable Feast, by Ernest Hemingway
A Natural History of the Senses, by Diane Ackerman
Adventures on the Wine Route, by Kermit Lynch (2)
Alice Waters and Chez Panisse: the Romantic, Impractical, Often Eccentric, Ultimately Brilliant Making of a Food Revolution, by Thomas McNamee
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, by Lewis Carroll
American Diner Then and Now, by Richard J.S. Gutman
The Anatomy of Dessert, by Edward Bunyan
Anecdotes of Destiny and Ehrengard (includes "Babette's Feast), by Isak Dinesen
Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, by Barbara Kingsolver (2)
An Omelette and a Glass of Wine, by Elizabeth David
Aphrodite: A Memoir of the Senses, by Isabel Allende
The Apprentice: My Life in the Kitchen, by Jacques Pepin
Are You Really Going to Eat That? Reflections of a Culinary Thrill Seeker, by Robb Walsh
The Art of Eating, by MFK Fisher (2)
Back Story (and the Spenser mystery series), by Robert B. Parker
Becoming Whole: The Story of My Recovery from Breast Cancer, by Meg Wolff
The Belly of Paris, by Emile Zola
The Big Oyster, by Mark Kurlansky
Blessed Are the Cheesemakers, by Sarah-Kate Lynch
Blue Jelly: Love Lost and the Lessons of Canning, by Debby Bull
Blue Trout and Black Truffles, by Joseph Wechsberg
The Body in the Bouillon: A Faith Fairchild Mystery, by Katherine Hall Page
The Book of Salt, by Monique Truong
The Botany of Desire, by Michael Pollan
Bread Alone, by Judith R. Hendricks
Bread of Three Rivers: The Story of a French Loaf, by Susan Mansfield Taber
The Century in Food: America's Fads and Favorites, by Beverly Bundy
Chocolat, by Joanne Harris (2)
Cod, by Mark Kurlansky (2)
Comfort Me with Apples, by Ruth Reichl (2)
Coming Home to Eat: The Pleasure and Politics of Local Food, by Gary Naban
Consuming Passions: A Food-Obsessed Life, by Michael Lee West
Cooking for Mr. Latte, by Amanda Hesser
Crescent, by Diana Abu-Jabar
The Day Everything Tasted Like Broccoli (Maximum Boy #02), by Dan Greenburg
The Dead, by James Joyce
The Debt to Pleasure, by John Lanchester (2)
Devil in the Details: Scenes from an Obsessive Girlhood, by Jennifer Traig
The Devil's Larder, by Jim Crace
Dictionnaire Gastronomique, by Bernard Luce
Down and Out in Paris and London, by George Orwell
Eating Between the Lines: The Supermarket Shopper's Guide to the Truth Behind Food Labels, by Kimberly Lord Stewart
Extra Virgin, by Annie Hawes
Extremely Pale Rosé: A Very French Adventure, by Jamie Ivey
Fast Food Nation, by Eric Schlosser
Fat Land, by Greg Critser
Feeding a Yen, by Calvin Trillin (2)
Floyd in the Soup, by Keith Floyd
Food in History, by Reay Tannahill (2)
The Food of France, by Waverly Root
French Lessons, by Peter Mayle
From Here You Can't See Paris, by Michael S. Sanders
Garlic and Sapphires, by Ruth Reichl (4)
The Gastronomical Me, by MFK Fisher
The Girl with a Pearl Earring, by Tracy Chevalier
Gluten-free Girl, by Shauna James Ahern
Green Eggs and Ham, by Dr. Seuss
Havana Salsa, by Viviana Carballo
Heat: An Amateur's Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany, by Bill Buford
Her Fork in the Road, edited by Lisa Bach
The Hills of Tuscany, by Ferenc Mate
Home Cooking: A Writer in the Kitchen, by Laurie Colwin
How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World, by Marjorie Priceman
Hungry Planet, by Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluisio
In Search of Lost Time, by Marcel Proust
Interpreter of Maladies, by Jhumpa Lahiri
I Will Never Not Ever Eat a Tomato, by Lauren Child
Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen, by Julie Powell
Killer Calories (Savannah Reid Mysteries), by GA McKevett
Killer Pancake, by Diane Mott Davidson
Kitchen Confidential: Notes from the Culinary Underbelly, by Anthony Bourdain
The Kitchen Diaries, by Nigel Slater
La Cucina, by Lily Prior (2)
The Land was Everything, by Victor Davis Hanson
The Life of Hunger, by Amelie Nothomb
Like Water for Chocolate, by Laura Esquivel (2)
The Magic of Provence, by Yvonne Lenard
The Mammoth Cheese, by Sheri Holman
The Man Who Ate Everything, by Jeffrey Steingarten
The Measure of Her Powers: An MFK Fisher Reader, by MFK Fisher and Ruth Reich
The Mistress of Spices, by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni (2)
Monsieur Pamplemousse series, by Michael Bond
More Home Cooking: A Writer Returns to the Kitchen, by Laurie Colwin
The Mortdecai Trilogy, by Kyril Bonfiglioli
Mostly True, by Molly O'Neill
Murder Al Fresco, by Nadia Gordon
My Life in France, by Julia Child
The Nantucket Diet Murders (Eugenia Potter series), by Virginia Rich
The Nasty Bits, by Anthony Bourdain
The Omnivore's Dilemma, by Michael Pollan
On Food and Cooking, by Harold McGee
On Persephone's Island, by Mary Taylor Simeti
On Rue Tatin, by Susan Hermann Loomis
One More Day, by Mitch Alborn
The Oysters of Locmariaquer, by Eleanor Clark
Oranges, by John McPhee
Paula Deen: It Ain't All About the Cookin', by Paula Deen
The Physiology of Taste, or Meditations on Transcendental Gastronomy, by Brillat-Savarin
Pomegranate Soup: A Novel, by Marsha Mehran
Poet of the Appetites: The Lives and Loves of MFK Fisher, by Joan Reardon
Pot on the Fire, by John Thorne
Road Food, by Jane and Michael Stern
Salt, by Mark Kurlansky
Second Nature, by Michael Pollan (2)
The Secret Life of Lobsters, by Trevor Corson
The Seven Silly eaters, by Mary Ann Hoberman and Marla Frazee
The $64 Tomato, by William Alexander
The Short Stories of Saki, by HH Munro
The Soul of a Chef, by Michael Ruhlman
Spice: A History of Temptation, by Jack Turner
The Supper of the Lamb, by Robert Farrar Capon
Sweets: A History of Candy, by Tim Richardson
Take Big Bites, by Linda Ellerbee
Talking with My Mouth Full, by Bonny Wolf
Tender at the Bone, by Ruth Reichl (2)
The Tequila Worm, by Viola Canales
Thunder Cake, by Patricia Polacco
Titus Andronicus, by William Shakespeare
Toast, by Nigel Slater (2)
Tsukiji: The Fish Market at the Center of the World, by Theodore Bestor
The Tummy Trilogy, by Calvin Trillin
Typical American, by Gish Jen
Under the Jaguar Sun, by Italo Calvino
The Van, by Roddy Doyle
Vie de France, by James Haller
Vineyard Blues, by Philip R. Craig
Voice of the Violin (Inspector Montalbano Mysteries), by Andrea Camilleri and Stephen Sartarell
The Way Life Should Be, by Christina Baker Kline
The Whole World Over, by Julia Glass (2)
We Could Almost Eat Outside: An Appreciation of Life's Small Pleasures, by Philippe Delerm
Why We Eat What We Eat, by Raymond Sokolov
Women Who Eat: A New Generation on the Glory of Food, by Leslie Miller
The World is a Kitchen, edited by Susan Brady and Michele Anna Jordan
The Zen of Fish, by Trevor Corson

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