In accordance with Holiday spirit and such, I am composing a list of eleven must have books for 2007. They may not have all been published in 2007, rather they have been essential and influential reads for me this past year. And why, with everyone else composing lists of ten for the holidays, have I chosen eleven?
I am inspired by the movie This is Spinal Tap. It is an old favorite and I was lucky enough to have my memory refreshed as I read the following dialog, excerpted from the movie, over at An Obsession With Food.
Nigel Tufnel: The numbers all go to eleven. Look, right across the board, eleven, eleven, eleven and...
Marty DiBergi: Oh, I see. And most amps go up to ten?
Nigel Tufnel: Exactly.
Marty DiBergi: Does that mean it's louder? Is it any louder?
Nigel Tufnel: Well, it's one louder, isn't it? It's not ten. You see,
most blokes, you know, will be playing at ten. You're on ten here, all
the way up, all the way up, all the way up, you're on ten on your
guitar. Where can you go from there? Where?
Marty DiBergi: I don't know.
Nigel Tufnel: Nowhere. Exactly. What we do is, if we need that extra push over the cliff, you know what we do?
Marty DiBergi: Put it up to eleven.
Nigel Tufnel: Eleven. Exactly. One louder.
Marty DiBergi: Why don't you just make ten louder and make ten be the top number and make that a little louder?
Nigel Tufnel: [pause] These go to eleven.
My List of Eleven
Pierre Gagnaire: Reinventing French Cuisine
Peace, Love and Barbecue
The Handbook of Hydrocolloids
The Zen of Creativity: Cultivating Your Artistic Life
Chocolates and Confections: formula, theory and technique for the artisan confectioner
