Chew On This

Chew On This is the book that I am reading right now.  Well, it is one of a couple, but it is the one that is most interesting.  It is written by Eric Schlosser.  I'm sure you can tell a little bit about the book just from the cover.  I like how there is a modified poison symbol on the french fries.  The book is about the history of fast food, and how fast food has kind of taken over the American diet.  Right now I am still towards the beginning of the book.  It pertains to how fast food got its start with early drive-ins (like Sonic) and how they have changed to what we know of today with McDonald's, KFC, and all the rest.  The drive-in places were really popular for a while, but then they started to have problems because of the teenagers hanging out there.  Some of them caused so many problems (stealing glasses and silverware, giving the car hops a hard time) that two brothers decided to close their's and reopen with a new restaurant where people walked up to a window to order their food.  They were Dick and Mack McDonald and well you know how that turned out.  They were the first to make a "factory line" in their restaurant so that they didn't have to worry about one person knowing how to cook everything.  They also didn't have to pay them as much either.  McDonald's also was one of the first to get rid of real plates, silverware, and glasses.  They started wrapping their food in wax paper and it is what we are used to today.  It was funny to me that when they first opened, people didn't understand that they had to go order the food, and they would just wait in their cars until they figured it out.  Things have really changed.  Eventually, McDonald's became so popular that other people began to copy it.  (It wasn't franchised yet or anything.  There was just the one place.  That came later.)  Burger King, Taco Bell, KFC all opened based on this idea of a factory line.  It was interesting.  I have just gotten to the part that talks about how McD's became franchised by one man, who I don't think I respect very much.  I need to read a bit more about that though before I really make an opinion.  I am eager to get further because it is really interesting to see how something that we take for granted began.  I'll let you know if continues to be interesting.  I don't think fast food is something that you should never eat, I just think that sometimes Americans rely on it too much.  I think that it is fine in moderation.  I even eat it now and again, but I don't think it should be something that people eat everyday.

I started reading this book after I abandoned another book.  This was an adult book and I really wanted to like it.  A friend had let me borrow it and she really enjoyed it.  I read 107 pages and still didn't care about the characters or what happened to them so I decided to stop reading it.  Maybe it would have gotten better, but I don't like to slog through something that I am not enjoying when there are so many other books out there.  I am looking forward to you letters this week.  Keep up the good work!

-Ms. C