This nicely food related metaphor seems appropriate. Miss Blair, my strict, kind, old fashioned English teacher, had us read the essays of Francis Bacon (16thC blogger!), and I remembered this quotation from 'On Studies' 1561 (I didn't remember the title or the date - had to look them up).
I tend to devour books, rather greedily. So by the end of the evening I have tasted both of my new books and have enjoyed the flavours. They both made me laugh in bits, which is great - I don't want to get way too serious about this 'simple' thing!
'Enough' by John Naish is subtitled 'Breaking Free from a World of Excess' and is described in the Guardian as 'A cheerfully likeable manifesto for lifestyle change'. Now this appeals to me: 'cheerfully likeable' are unusual words to use of a manifesto, and when talking about global warming, overconsumption and the end of the world as we know it - 'eco lite' perhaps? I just invented that. Gosh.
(Forgive me but the doom and gloom and pending apocalypse approach doesn't work for me, it only makes me depressed and hopeless, and what good are depressed and hopeless people to the planet?)
It is a thought provoking read, and the extreme and utterly ridiculous examples he uses would make you cry if they didn't make you laugh first
In the chapter Enough Food he describes All You Can Eat restaurants as 'face crammers' and points out that 20 years ago we spent an average of 33 minutes over our evening meal, but now that figure is 14 minutes and 27 seconds (my italics). Who measures these things, and how? Apparently the average time to eat a meal in McDonalds is 11 minutes.
Eat enough, dine only in small restaurants, keep good company, get more daylight and don't make your kitchen too attractive are some of his recommendations - each in a paragraph or two with some unusual and amusing justifications.
It is one of those 'studies show that.....' books, with references and notes should you want to know more.
It's a good word 'enough'. I shall use it more. And the book is worth tasting........