Cooked by Michael Pollan

This week for Book Beginnings on Fridays and The Friday 56 I've selected Cooked by Michael Pollan.


Beginning:
"The divine scent of wood smoke and roasting pig finds you as soon as you make the turn onto South Lee Street, the main artery threading this faded little town, even though the GPS says its source is still half a mile away."

Mmmmmmmm a salivating start!



Page 56:"Cooking, according to the hypothesis, is not merely a metaphor for the creation of culture, as Levi-Strauss proposed; it is its evolutionary prerequisite and biological foundation."

I'm also curious how decisions are made about book covers.

I understand that different countries have different covers if a different publishing house gets the rights for the book.

The US cover provides consistency between Pollan's backlist - they all feature the white cover with a piece of food artistically arranged in the middle.

I'm not sure why we have a different cover in Australia.

Do eggs speak more to us culturally than pasta?
Are Allen Lane planning on re-releasing Pollan's backlist with new covers to match Cooked?
Why does the Australian cover give such prominence to the 'New York Times No 1 Bestseller' tag, but the US one doesn't mention it all?

I wonder....