Eat This Book

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Eat This Book
Eat This Book.jpg
First edition cover
Author Ryan Nerz
Cover artistPhilip Pascuzzo
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Subject Competitive eating
Publisher St. Martin's Press
Publication date
April 2006
Media typePrint (Hardback & Paperback)
Pagesix, 308 pp
ISBN 0-312-33968-2
OCLC 62084428
641.01/3 22
LC Class TX631 .N47 2006

Eat This Book is a book by Ryan Nerz which explores the world of competitive eating. Published by St. Martin's Press in 2006, Eat This Book provides a firsthand look into this sometimes controversial sport. Nerz, who spent a year as an emcee for the International Federation of Competitive Eating, has firsthand insight into the competitive eating phenomenon.

Alfred Ryan Nerz is an American gonzo journalist from Columbus, Indiana. He is also an author of two books that were featured in The New York Times Book review and Entertainment Weekly.

Competitive eating

Competitive eating, or speed eating, is an activity in which participants compete against each other to consume large quantities of food, usually in a short time period. Contests are typically eight to ten minutes long, although some competitions can last up to thirty minutes, with the person consuming the most food being declared the winner. Competitive eating is most popular in the United States, Canada and Japan, where organized professional eating contests often offer prizes, including cash.

St. Martin's Press is a book publisher headquartered in the Flatiron Building in Manhattan, New York City. St. Martin's Press is considered one of the largest English-language publishers. Bringing to the public some 700 titles a year under eight imprints.

Reviews

Because Nerz's book was released in the same month as Jason Fagone's Horsemen of the Esophagus , and since both books cover the sport of competitive eating, a number of published reviews covered both books together and drew comparisons between them.

Jason Fagone is an American journalist and author. His work has appeared in GQ, Wired, Esquire, The Atlantic, New York, Grantland, The New York Times, and the Huffington Post Highline, among other outlets. In 2002, the Columbia Journalism Review named him one of "Ten Young Writers on the Rise".

<i>Horsemen of the Esophagus</i> book by Jason Fagone

Horsemen of the Esophagus by Jason Fagone is a nonfiction book about the sport of competitive eating and the outsized American appetite. Horsemen follows three American "gurgitators" during a year on the pro eating circuit: Ohio housepainter David "Coondog" O'Karma, South Jersey truck driver Bill "El Wingador" Simmons, and Manhattan day-trader Tim "Eater X" Janus. Horseman makes stops at 27 competitive eating contests around the world, including the Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest at Coney Island and includes an interview with Nathan's champion at the time, Takeru Kobayashi.

The strongest criticism levelled at Eat This Book in reviews is that Nerz uses prose that is more sensational than objective. Jay Jennings describes Nerz as "more mythifier than journalist", [1] and Booklist critiqued his book as "basically a book-length infomercial for the organization and its most famous athletes." [2]

<i>Booklist</i> magazine containing book reviews

Booklist is a publication of the American Library Association that provides critical reviews of books and audiovisual materials for all ages. Booklist’s primary audience consists of libraries, educators, and booksellers. The magazine is available to subscribers in print and online. Booklist is published 22 times per year, and reviews over 7,500 titles annually. The Booklist brand also offers a blog, various newsletters, and monthly webinars. The Booklist offices are located in the American Library Association headquarters in Chicago’s Gold Coast neighborhood.

An infomercial is a form of television commercial, which generally includes a toll-free telephone number or website. Most often used as a form of direct response television (DRTV), long-form infomercials are typically 28:30 or 58:30 minutes in length. Infomercials are also known as paid programming. This phenomenon started in the United States, where infomercials were typically shown overnight, outside peak prime time hours for commercial broadcasters. Some television stations chose to air infomercials as an alternative to the former practice of signing off. Some channels air infomercials 24 hours. By 2009, most infomercial spending in the U.S. occurred during the early morning, daytime and evening hours, or in the afternoon. Stations in most countries around the world have instituted similar media structures. The infomercial industry is worth over $200 billion.

Despite this negative criticism, other reviewers found the direct involvement by Nerz, and first-hand account of his own personal quest to become a competitive participant both absorbing and entertaining. [3] Jennings commends Nerz for presenting a broader cast of characters who participate in the sport, even though Nerz's book covers a narrower view of the sport than Fagone's Horsemen of the Esophagus. [1] Nerz was able to provide increased coverage of the competitors as a result of emceeing many contests, and therefore obtaining direct access to many competitors that Fagone did not have. The book's breadth of coverage, both in terms of contests arranged neatly by chapter and in terms of the number of competitors, was also noted positively in other reviews. [2]

The Publishers Weekly review of the book said that “Nerz chronicles his amusing adventures in the perverse, repellent, strangely heroic world of competitive eating…with glee and good humor.” The New York Times Book Review compared the author’s style to that of Grantland Rice, an early 20th-century American sportswriter known for his elegant prose. Calling the author “more mythifier than journalist,” the Times Book Review added that the competitive eaters he profiled “are indeed a colorful, varied bunch, even without the pro-wrestling-style personalities the IFOCE encourages.”

Nerz appeared on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart on April 18, 2006, to discuss the book.

Related Research Articles

References

  1. 1 2 Jay Jennings (2006-05-28). "Gluttons for Reward". The New York Times. Retrieved 2008-07-04.
  2. 1 2 "Eat This Book (Review)". Liz is working. April 4, 2006. Archived from the original on May 16, 2008. Retrieved 2008-07-04.
  3. "goodreads". February 20, 2007. Retrieved 2008-07-04.