Hungry for a Good Read?

If you're anything like me, you are positively addicted to food writing. The arrival of your monthly mags sends you into rapturous throes of ecstasy. Your spouse or partner reports feeling scandalized -- and, frankly, betrayed -- by your arousal at the sight of "foodie porn." (The endearing epithet is my husband's, but they don't call 'em "cheesecake" shots for nothing!) You readily pass an evening thumbing through cookbooks like you're following a suspenseful narrative...and, after all, you are: you need to know what's on offer for dessert.

This strange orientation notwithstanding, a deeper kink undergirds your food lit fetishism -- your limitless love of language and interest in great writing. Have you found yourself salivating over a passage of literary fiction, then ditching the story mid-chapter in search of the popovers on page 32? Have you prepared curry every night it took to finish that South Asian coming-of-age novel? Have you planned an international vacation upon reading a journalist's fond reminiscence about one long-melted scoop of gelato? Do you ever think, "Booker, Schmooker -- give this gal a James Beard?" These habits are far more weighty than a madeleine, people...this is what makes you a Voracious Reader.

Coming up on this site...conversations about books and cooks, cravings incited and satisfied, and the connections between what comes out of our mouths and what goes in.