Richard Barnett (1) (1980–)

I like reading books about specific things — the wackier the better. Previous favorites include: And a Bottle of Run by Wayne Curtis, The Phone Book by Ammon Shea, Attention All Shipping by Charlie Connelly, and so forth. My latest narrow topic book is The Book of Gin by Richard Barrett.

Beyond knowing how to make a gimlet, I went into this book knowing very little. The book offers a history of distillation as well as some theories behind the origin of gin (bot the spirit and its name).

Later sections deal with specific distillation techniques, the prohibition era, the rise and fall of cocktail parties, and finally the return of higher end gins. The most interesting take away from the final chapters was that we're drinking high quality gin than what our parents did.

The Book of Gin needed a similar hook to And a Bottle of Rum. If the historical points were tied to a drink recipe, I think the over all flow would have been more focused. The early chapters — the ones where the facts are less certain — tend to meander and the later ones really need fleshing out.… (plus d'informations)

A rather brilliant boxed set of books: one called "Sick City" which is a collection of essays on various aspects of the medical history of London, six pamphlets designed as tour guides for sights of medical-historical interest in and around London, and one larger full-city tour guide. I might add that the tour guides were of definite interest to me in spite of the fact that I've never been London and don't anticipate going there anytime soon. Any of the books/pamphlets could stand alone and be worth reading in and of itself; all of them together are quite a pleasure.… (plus d'informations)