by Mark Kurlansky
Are you prepared for the excitement of reading a review about a book about fish? Well, strap yourselves in for a wild ride, folks!*Why write a book about cod? Why read it? Simple. Without you probably knowing it, cod has been one of the most important parts of our diets over the last thousand years....
Cod--not a favorite food. Mind you, salt-cod (bacalao) was a staple in my Puerto Rican family, but Americanized that I am, for me it was a reason to flee the family apartment until the smell was gone. This book on the fish was... moderately interesting. I didn't feel it was compelling in its narrati...
Super great. I live in Boston and have family from the Canadian maritimes, so it was awesome to learn more about the history of both these areas and how they developed in tandem with the fishing industry. I would like to read a solid history of Boston next, maybe. Or maybe just more early North Amer...
My full review of "Cod" is at Sleeping Hedgehog: http://sleepinghedgehog.com/books/mark-kurlansky-cod-a-biography-of-the-fish-that-changed-the-world-penguin-books-1998/
Rating: 3.75* of fiveVictorian scientists said that cod was the fish in the miracle of the loaves and fishes because there were so darn many of them....Yeah, late to the party yet again...13 years late. I read this book, I would swear, when it came out; I recognized a few of the anecdotes, and I rem...
There is no way you could ever get me to eat cod, despite my partial Norwegian background where they eat a variety of disgusting fish dishes, the most famous being lutefisk, a kind of rotten, spoiled gelatinous mess. But I loved this book. Kurlansky is another John McPhee, supplying all sorts of i...
I enjoyed this book thoroughly. Kurlansky has a clear and engaging style that imparts knowledge in an almost whimsical tone. That tone was a saving grace throughout the parts discussing the utter collapse of the cod fisheries. Very interesting historical data, and overall a compelling read.
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