What: The subtitle of Margaret Visser's book is "The Origins, Evolution, Eccentricities, and Meaning of Table Manners." In her explanations for why we eat the ways we do, Visser crosses countries, cultures, and centuries. Open to a random page, and you could learn about elementary school lunch swapping culture, or French social fortresses in the eighteenth century, or how a Sherpa host organizes a dinner party via child messengers, or the social rules governing eating on airplanes. If you've ever taken (or wanted to take) a social anthropology class, you'll be interested. It starts with some thoughts on cannibalism!
Comparable to: A lot of the books I read in college for Anthropology classes.
Representative quote: "The main rules about eating are simple: If you do not eat you die; and no matter how large your dinner, you will soon be hungry again. [...] We have to keep eating, so we make eating the occasion for insisting on other things as well --- concepts and feelings which are vital for our well-being, but many of them complex, difficult to analyze or understand, and definitely not so easy to concentrate on as food is when we are hungry."
You might not like it if: You are nervous that Visser might have something to say about the special way you eat cheese.
How to get it: I suggest getting it from a library first to see whether you dig Visser's tone. If you do, it's a good book to have on hand so you can bring it out during dinner parties. We talk and write and think about food so much, and this is a great way to get a broader perspective.
Connection to previous Wreckage: If you'd like to further the kind of college education you wish you'd had, Rec. #28: Opening Skinner's Box will get you some psychology credits.
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