I have been enjoying Anthony Bourdain’s hilariously candid and ranty Travel Channel blog:

…in the grip of a particularly powerful wave of self-loathing, I got the bright idea to return to Les Halles, the restaurant where I spent all my waking hours before the writing and the TV thing took over. I thought to myself: “There’s an idea for a special episode! I’ll go back to the same restaurant kitchen and challenge myself to work the same station as I used to six and a half years ago. In fact; I’ll go back and work my old Tuesday double shift - where I’d work the very busy, very difficult saute station both lunch and dinner. Start prep and set-up at eight AM. Twelve noon to twelve midnight service. Let’s see if the Old Guy can still do it after all these years - even at 51 years old. Even though I was beginning to lose it BEFORE “Kitchen Confidential” hit and I got my ticket out. Even though Les Halles has expanded since I left - nearly DOUBLING in size and seating … And I’ll do this smack in the middle of the Christmas season! The busiest time of the year!! THAT sounds like a great idea - in a self-validating, quasi-delusional, I’ve-Still-Got-It, last gasp kindofa way!

And it’ll make good television!”

And lo, over at the Powell’s blog, a review of Bourdain’s novel The Bobby Gold Stories:

If you’re at all familiar with Kitchen Confidential author Anthony Bourdain, you’ll probably expect a lot of food in The Bobby Gold Stories. And you’ll get it. But you’ll also get broken bones, heavy drinking, hardcore screwing, and more than a few dead bodies and flying bullets — which, come to think of it, fits Bourdain just as well.

Anybody read it? It sounds fun. Especially compared to this, which is currently anchoring my to-read pile.