The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Modernist Bread is a new book

hreik's picture
hreik

Modernist Bread is a new book

reviewed today in the NYTimes.  I was curious after reading the write up.https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/02/dining/modernist-bread-book.html?ref=dining&_r=0 to see how much it cost.

I went to Smile.Amazon and to my horror and surprise I found a 5 volume work that was over $500.00 lol

https://smile.amazon.com/Modernist-Bread-Nathan-Myhrvold/dp/0982761058/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1507122454&sr=1-1&keywords=modernist+bread

I won't be buying it anytime soon, or anytime at all.  Lol

Hester

Lazy Loafer's picture
Lazy Loafer

Well, maybe if I win the lottery... It does sound like a very interesting read!

cardigan's picture
cardigan

And was highly intrigued... until I saw the price. I don't know too many libraries that can afford that price these days either, unfortunately. But then I was consoled by the fact that there's plenty of excellent, crowd-sourced info and images here at TFL, including a good bit of scientific insight. Cheers!

albacore's picture
albacore

And I thought Michel Suas's book was expensive!

I think they'll have to drop the price to shift many copies, otherwise it's only the British Library and its equivalent in other countries that will be buying it.

 

Lance

hreik's picture
hreik

is.  Totally agree with you.  Most libraries will not be able to purchase this. 

hester

cgap's picture
cgap

I’m the target audience.

It is a set of books that I am looking forward to reading, all 2500 pages, and yes, it is expensive but, if you shop around online then you can get it considerably cheaper than the listed price on Amazon, around 40% cheaper depending on where you live. Which in Aussie dollars works out roughly to about $83 per book, a price I consider to be fairly reasonable.

I have a fondness for “Modernist” food, also referred to as “Molecular Gastronomy”, and Nathan Myhrvold is an innovator in this.

New techniques, equipment and recipes should not be dismissed without any knowledge of what they are. Admittedly, not many people are going to have the resources and equipment that the authors have available but that does not detract from the information that will no doubt be available in this set of books.

I suspect that in a year or two we’ll see the “Modernist Bread At Home” version which will be much more affordable.

Arjon's picture
Arjon

I'd be interested to see and read it, but it would take an extremely unlikely combination of circumstances (e.g. winning a lottery) for me to view it as affordable. Essentially, I'm not part of the target audience because I don't have the personal values to self-select into it. 

One thing that's curious, to me at least, is that some people appear to feel the book should be aimed at everyone who bakes. What would the world be like if every product were designed and produced so as to aim at everyone? 

suave's picture
suave

Suas book is expensive in part because it has captive audience - students who use it as text and have no options.

Colin2's picture
Colin2

Myhrvold is worth over a half billion and earns millions annually as a patent troll, so it's not like he needs the money.

albacore's picture
albacore

Never heard of these before, but just had a quick read up; seems like a class of troll we could well do without (aren't they all?).

Maybe I won't buy the book after all.....

breadbreadbaby's picture
breadbreadbaby

The price seems a little outrageous no matter how great the content is. I'll be sticking with my Tartine Bread book.

suave's picture
suave

No one forces you to buy it.  I, for example, think that $25 for book that for all practical purposes only has one recipe is a tad too much, so I do not own a Tartine.