Salt

I finally finished reading Salt today and I have to say that it was not my favorite book I have read so far but it definitely was interesting. My overall problem is the author is throughout the book he constantly referred to how each culture made salt (there are two ways- solar evaporation of sea water or natural salt deposits that were drilled and purified. This is great information to know in detail once, however, I don't need 100 pages throughout the book repeating this process. It is amazing though how salt played a roll in numerous important events throughout history, including the American Revolution, the Civil War, Gandhi's passive resistance in India, and so many more world altering occurrences.

The one thing that I really noticed as I read this book is that while I have a problem finding food I eat and enjoy this day and age, I would NEVER have survived until recently. I don't eat fish, I don't eat seafood, I don't eat red meat, I barely eat veggies. Back prior to refrigeration all of these things were heavily salted or pickled and kept as a mainstay of anybodies diet. I definitely would not have lived very long.

Now that I am done reading Salt I think I am going to finish reading Stiff. I picked up Stiff close to a year ago and for some unknown reason I abandoned it. I was really enjoying this book about "The Curious Lives of Cadavers," so I am not sure why I put it down.

By the way the Ancient Egyptians salted their Cadavers as part of the mummification process!