Monday, March 27, 2006

Reading Your Books and Eating Them Too

Fancy indulging in a spot of bibliophagy? (That's your word for the day and you somehow have to use it in this morning's board meeting.)

The history of eating books has a long and respectable tradition reports Blake Eskin in the New York Times (although of course your kids have always known that).

And apparently, the International Edible Book Festival is a yearly event that takes place on April 1 (the perfect day to play with words!) throughout the world, uniting "bibliophiles, book artists and food lovers to celebrate the ingestion of culture and its fulfilling nourishment".

This year countries from New Zealand from Brazil are taking part, using everything from nori to butter cream and jello to create their masterpieces. How sad that all the art gets consumed immediately after exhibition! But at least the amazing creativity of participants is captured in their gallery.

Of course, the event is a great excuse for everyone to get together and socialise over tea! I enjoyed these photos of the celebration at the Los Angeles Book Arts Centre.

(You know what I'm thinking without asking ...)

(Pictured above, Feed the World by students from Santa Monica and left The Book of Pi by Stephanie Krause-Robert Christie).

8 comments:

Chet said...

Back in school, I used to think rice paper would be good to write notes on so that I can eat the notes afterwards and that's how I would prepare for exams.

Anonymous said...

Ink can't be good for health though can it ? that would be the ultimate statement.. to spend your life writing a book that someone eats at the end of it.

Anonymous said...

And another thing.. for some reason a lot of readers here are either very old or very young, why is that ? where are the 25-35 yr old readers ? and why aren't there any celebrity writers here ? someone who looks great and can write won't hurt, more publicity for writing :)

bibliobibuli said...

square smiley - thanks for the link. the blog baghdad burning was one of the most famous ones because it gave a first hand view of the war - from the perspective of an ordinary iraqi. this is a blook i would love to buy as i read parts online but really do prefer to read from a printed book

Anonymous said...

Now that would be interesting.. provided of course that ordinary Iraqi is really an ordinary Iraqi.

lainieyeoh said...

looks like novelty food for sale in some starbucks in a bookstore.

Anonymous said...

Oh, that is too awesome.

Anonymous said...

Totally.. I might do that. A book that someone eats at the end of your life.. that's a good metaphor for the futility of life. In the end, you're just food.