It's chapter and page count dear readers (can you handle this much excitement?) -
For the week:
CHAPTERS - 89
PAGES - 2,146
For the year:
CHAPTERS - 6,578
PAGES - 85,004
Today's book, "Hershey. The name means chocolate to America and the world, but, as Michael D'Antonio reveals, it also stands for an inspiring man and a uniquely successful experiment in community and capitalism that produced a business empire devoted to a higher purpose. One of the twentieth century's most eccentric and idealistic titans of industry, Milton S. Hershey brought affordable milk chocolate to America, creating and then satisfying the chocoholic urges of millions. He pioneered techniques of branding, mass production, and marketing and gained widespread fame as the Chocolate King."
Chocolatey thoughts:
- I made the same mistake while reading this book that I did when I read Chocolat, I started reading without having a chocolate supply on hand - very, very bad idea. Never read a book about chocolate without a chocolate supply in the house dear readers - it's a recipe for disaster. Other than the way the book taunted me with chocolate descriptions, it was a good book. It provided a fascinating glimpse into Milton Hershey's life and company, and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who wants to spend a cozy day reading about one of life's greatest joys, chocolate.
- My favorite passage came rather early in the book, "And that's before he stops, gets out of the car, and realizes that the air in this Willy Wonka place smells like sweet cocoa. Hershey always smells like this. On a humid summer day when there is no breeze it's so strong you can taste it." - Chocolate air, what a miracle. I'm trying to think of anything that could be better than that, but no I can't seem to manage it.
- And here's your fun fact for the day dear readers (or not so fun fact as the case may be): President Zachary Taylor's death in 1850 was likely due to a bowl of cherries that contained bad milk. - So first let's stop and explore this cherries and milk concept. Cherries and milk? Really? This does not sound like an appetizing snack. And what a shame that it turned out to be President Taylor's last meal, I mean if you're going to die because of food is should at least be something good like chocolate cake. And now on to the more pressing question of, what on earth does any of that have to do with Milton Hershey. Well, dear readers, I'm not really sure either. The author draws some tenuous connection between that and the carmels that Mr. Hershey improved by adding milk to them, but it ended up feeling like a long and winding trip down a dirt road to nowhere - and because I don't believe in suffering alone, I decided to drag you all along for the ride as well. But, the one upside to this long and rambling paragraph is that the next time you are eating a carmel and feeling guilty about the high sugar content, just tell yourself, Milk has calcium in it. It's all about the calcium. I'm doing this for my health.
