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stephaniesteen73's review against another edition
4.0
One of the hardest books I've ever read - incredibly disturbing. I literally had to put it down at points because it was just too overwhelming and visceral. I found myself reading the book while my internal monologue (meat lover) was railing against it. By the end the internal monologue was quieted....I honestly don't know whether anyone who has truly read this book can go back to their pre-book reading meat habits.
It only gets 4 stars because I did find the book, while well-written in parts, to be fairly disjointed. It does work, though, because I think the disjointedness to be akin to the author's (and my own) struggle in fits and starts.
Pick it up and I'd love to discuss it (and your vegetarian recipes).
It only gets 4 stars because I did find the book, while well-written in parts, to be fairly disjointed. It does work, though, because I think the disjointedness to be akin to the author's (and my own) struggle in fits and starts.
Pick it up and I'd love to discuss it (and your vegetarian recipes).
brisingr's review against another edition
5.0
2nd read: 3-18 April 2023
1st read: 6-15 February 2020
"We eat as sons and daughters, as families, as communities, as generations, as nations, and increasingly as a globe. We can’t stop our eating from radiating influence even if we want to."
Absolutely brilliantly written research on how we now get the food that we eat, and the relations that we have with our food, and the excuses that we come up with when facing the ethical questions of farm practices. I think this book should be read by every single individual who claims to care about the world around them. I found out new things, and it just strenghtened my beliefs.
"But it doesn’t have to be this way. The best reason to think that there could be a better future is the fact that we know just how bad the future could be."
1st read: 6-15 February 2020
"We eat as sons and daughters, as families, as communities, as generations, as nations, and increasingly as a globe. We can’t stop our eating from radiating influence even if we want to."
Absolutely brilliantly written research on how we now get the food that we eat, and the relations that we have with our food, and the excuses that we come up with when facing the ethical questions of farm practices. I think this book should be read by every single individual who claims to care about the world around them. I found out new things, and it just strenghtened my beliefs.
"But it doesn’t have to be this way. The best reason to think that there could be a better future is the fact that we know just how bad the future could be."
amarettto's review against another edition
4.0
I wish we could make this book required reading. I’m a vegetarian who picked this book up out of curiosity to learn why a meat-eating culture exists and what the industry functions like, hoping to just be mildly put off but still understand why people choose to eat it.
There are a lot of paragraphs I could not read, and times I had to physically avert my eyes because my stomach flipped at some of the descriptions on how these creatures are treated. The fact that people can slaughter in such inhumane ways and not flinch at mutilating other living creatures make me think that the only explanation is that they are psychotic. There’s no way you can claim having a conscience and still do that.
More than anything, I find it surprising that people can get over how disgusting the conditions are, and still put pieces of flesh in their mouths calling it food. I would never bring something that had been so bathed in pathogens and disease close to me, no matter how much processing it goes through. In fact, that makes it worse.
I respect the author deeply, one for taking this subject and shedding so much light on it and still managing to not come off as preachy at all, and two for conducting such intensive research. I was surprised at the volume of facts and citations, and the number of pages dedicated to references alone. I will only gripe about the fact that the ‘statements’ by people he interviewed did not explicitly state who was saying them and often we had to figure out who it was, and on some occasions the book felt a little dry and repetitive. Understandable for a book of this nature, and the positives outweigh all of these things.
The most difficult thing about books like this no matter how eye opening they are, is that you cannot make someone who doesn’t want to see the truth pick it up. And that’s deeply unfortunate, because it’s the best way to show them how sick meat eating culture truly is. The decision to change their lifestyle after that would of course be up to them, but they can no longer deny or shrug off the problem at least, and that’s definitely a win.
There are a lot of paragraphs I could not read, and times I had to physically avert my eyes because my stomach flipped at some of the descriptions on how these creatures are treated. The fact that people can slaughter in such inhumane ways and not flinch at mutilating other living creatures make me think that the only explanation is that they are psychotic. There’s no way you can claim having a conscience and still do that.
More than anything, I find it surprising that people can get over how disgusting the conditions are, and still put pieces of flesh in their mouths calling it food. I would never bring something that had been so bathed in pathogens and disease close to me, no matter how much processing it goes through. In fact, that makes it worse.
I respect the author deeply, one for taking this subject and shedding so much light on it and still managing to not come off as preachy at all, and two for conducting such intensive research. I was surprised at the volume of facts and citations, and the number of pages dedicated to references alone. I will only gripe about the fact that the ‘statements’ by people he interviewed did not explicitly state who was saying them and often we had to figure out who it was, and on some occasions the book felt a little dry and repetitive. Understandable for a book of this nature, and the positives outweigh all of these things.
The most difficult thing about books like this no matter how eye opening they are, is that you cannot make someone who doesn’t want to see the truth pick it up. And that’s deeply unfortunate, because it’s the best way to show them how sick meat eating culture truly is. The decision to change their lifestyle after that would of course be up to them, but they can no longer deny or shrug off the problem at least, and that’s definitely a win.
gadicohen93's review against another edition
5.0
I finished this book a few hours ago. When I started it, and while gushing through the first hundred or so pages of it, I constantly asked myself, "Would this book have the power to convert me to vegetarianism?"
At this point in time, I think it has. Everything about its research and information and the way Foer presented it and found meaning in it made me want to stop whoring my body to the American standard of the factory farm system and start building within myself a (as clichéd as it sounds) better person, one that knows, and acts on this knowledge. And really, it’s not that I didn’t have access to some of these horrifying, horrifying facts or that I’ve never seen videos of chickens being smashed into walls and, even worse, videos/images of their lives in perpetual gridlock of unnaturally humongous bodies with shit all around them, etc.; it’s that those little facts and things came across as propaganda when not delivered in this book form.
Even before reading this book, I never eat at KFC, ever, ever, ever. Never at McDonald’s. It started when I led my own investigation into PETA videos and witnessed the kinds of attacks on these corporations that really made me conscious of my ability to choose what to eat. I might’ve flirted with pescatarianism or whatever, but veg is just so difficult-sounding. Until reading this book, however, I haven't realized how truly pathetic I am for convincing myself that I'm kinda for animal "rights" (possibly one of the biggest lies I've ever perpetuated ever.)
At times it felt like Foer was on his way to conclusions that were so safe as to sound almost banal: Stop eating meat. It hurt the writing, I think. But by the end those rough places all reached their conclusions by painting a powerfully original picture. Overall, I feel like I don’t ever want to eat animals again, whether it’s because I don’t want them to experience any kind of suffering, or because I want to make this world more sustainable so that living here on earth could still be a future possibility, or because I just don’t want to put corpses into my mouth.
More than anything else, though, this quote exemplifies the rewards I’d collect by skipping meat:
“What kind of world would we create if three times a day we activated our compassion and reason as we sat down to eat … ?” Taking those moments out of life to be compassionate is truly a goal I wish to strive for.
At this point in time, I think it has. Everything about its research and information and the way Foer presented it and found meaning in it made me want to stop whoring my body to the American standard of the factory farm system and start building within myself a (as clichéd as it sounds) better person, one that knows, and acts on this knowledge. And really, it’s not that I didn’t have access to some of these horrifying, horrifying facts or that I’ve never seen videos of chickens being smashed into walls and, even worse, videos/images of their lives in perpetual gridlock of unnaturally humongous bodies with shit all around them, etc.; it’s that those little facts and things came across as propaganda when not delivered in this book form.
Even before reading this book, I never eat at KFC, ever, ever, ever. Never at McDonald’s. It started when I led my own investigation into PETA videos and witnessed the kinds of attacks on these corporations that really made me conscious of my ability to choose what to eat. I might’ve flirted with pescatarianism or whatever, but veg is just so difficult-sounding. Until reading this book, however, I haven't realized how truly pathetic I am for convincing myself that I'm kinda for animal "rights" (possibly one of the biggest lies I've ever perpetuated ever.)
At times it felt like Foer was on his way to conclusions that were so safe as to sound almost banal: Stop eating meat. It hurt the writing, I think. But by the end those rough places all reached their conclusions by painting a powerfully original picture. Overall, I feel like I don’t ever want to eat animals again, whether it’s because I don’t want them to experience any kind of suffering, or because I want to make this world more sustainable so that living here on earth could still be a future possibility, or because I just don’t want to put corpses into my mouth.
More than anything else, though, this quote exemplifies the rewards I’d collect by skipping meat:
“What kind of world would we create if three times a day we activated our compassion and reason as we sat down to eat … ?” Taking those moments out of life to be compassionate is truly a goal I wish to strive for.
hopedihop's review against another edition
5.0
Wäre ich nicht schon Vegetarierin gewesen - nach der Lektüre dieses Buches wäre ich es spätestens.
Jeder, absolut jeder Mensch, der er sich leisten kann seine Ernährung auszuwählen, sollte dieses Buch lesen.
Es war der absolute Horror. Mir ist regelmäßig schlecht geworden, ich musste das Buch regelmäßig zur Seite lesen, weil ich so gezittert habe. Ich habe jede Seite gehasst.
Das liegt aber nicht an diesem Buch - ein Meisterwerk, ein absolutes wichtiges Buch - sondern an der Realität, die dieses beschreibt. Wir sind widerlich.
Jeder, absolut jeder Mensch, der er sich leisten kann seine Ernährung auszuwählen, sollte dieses Buch lesen.
Es war der absolute Horror. Mir ist regelmäßig schlecht geworden, ich musste das Buch regelmäßig zur Seite lesen, weil ich so gezittert habe. Ich habe jede Seite gehasst.
Das liegt aber nicht an diesem Buch - ein Meisterwerk, ein absolutes wichtiges Buch - sondern an der Realität, die dieses beschreibt. Wir sind widerlich.
basilbasil's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
informative
inspiring
fast-paced
5.0
saneyossarian's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.5