Amanda Shapiro on Cookbooks as Comfort Reading

April 27, 2020

Looking for your next great read? Try a cookbook. At Bon Appetit, Amanda Shapiro makes a case for reading cookbooks for more than just their recipes, especially during a quarantine. “Since How To Cook Everything became my panic-reduction strategy,” Shapiro writes, “I’ve found myself flipping through it, and even other cookbooks, in calmer moments too. It’s the kind of soft-focus activity that I think a lot of us are craving right now, like knitting, coloring, and looking at photos of Stanley Tucci. I’m still not reading cookbooks cover-to-cover and probably never will, but I am sorry for judging all you people who do.”

is a writer and illustrator. She is the author of two illustrated books, Last Night's Reading (Penguin Books, 2015) and Sanpaku (Archaia 2018).