I mentioned at some point before my world got blasted to heck that I wanted to read more. Indeed, I have not been doing so. Mostly for lack of motivation, but also because my Kobo’s screen has been cracking apart more and more even though I’ve barely touched the damn thing in months. It’s very distracting.
Anyway, I bought a new Story Bundle and figured that I ought to at least start paging through a few books from previous bundles that I’ve purchased and subsequently ignored. My first choice was The Kosher Guide to Imaginary Animals.
While they are not strictly “imaginary” I’ve always been fascinated by cryptids. I own more than a couple paperback bestiaries of unseen animals, and of course I was interested in checking out another. I didn’t really expect that the title was exactly what the book is about: whether certain fantastical species would be okay for Jewish peoples to eat or not.
Yeah. See, I don’t really have “taste” in literature.
Anyway, it was a fairly good read. Very short, and not nearly comprehensive enough, but entertaining. Each beast is given a short (and often goofy) description and then there’s a little banter between the authors on why it’s kosher or not. It’s not hilarious by any stretch, but I chuckled a few times. It’s certainly not meant to be informative, either. There are a couple of monsters I’ve never heard of included in here, but the amount of background for any of them is very slim.
Of course, the point of the book is not to give you a detailed bio and history of each cryptid, but simply to let you know if you can be Jewish and eat them. Even on that note, it’s not entirely fulfilling, as more than a few verdicts are left with a question mark.
Anyhow, it’s not a bad book, and it’s not like it’ll even take you long to get through it if you’re not enjoying it. Pop over to the website and consider picking up a copy. I liked it, but I can’t guarantee that anyone who is not me would.
Oh hey, and it’s given me a blog post to file under “cryptozoology.” So that’s cool.