Eat This Book!

If you haven’t yet heard about the Seattle Edible Book Festival, prepare to be delighted. This annual event scheduled for “around April 1” each year is our local chapter of the International Edible Book Festival — no, this is better — Le Festival International Du Livre Mangeable! Yes, there are people all over the world doing this: Australia, Brazil, Canada, England, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Mexico, Morocco, Netherlands, New Zealand, United States of America, Russia, and Hong Kong! Which is not all that surprising, considering this is that inspired intersection of two of the best things in existence: food and books!

The festival has several dimensions, from the artistry of beautiful cakes and pastries lovingly rendered to mimic books, such as The Giving Tree above, to less literal-minded literary concoctions served up on a platter of puns. Ezra Pound Cake. Grapefruit of Wrath. Unbearable Lightness of Bean. Alice in Wonderbread. Like that. Some are stunningly elaborate, while others have the feel of something dreamed up just under the wire. (Admission is free to participants). Can you figure out at first glance what this image of Jesus emerging from a bowl of snack food? Lord of the (Funyun) Rings, of course! Quick, before it is all gone, does this cake look a little familiar? Could those be A Million Little Reeces’s Pieces I spy? Groan worthy, but delicious!

This year’s festival is taking place on Saturday, April 4, at the Good Shepherd Center, and proceeds from the $10 admission fee (all you can read, all you can eat) go to the a very worth cause, The Seattle Center for the Book Arts, where they create books by hand that are a joy to hold and that look good enough to eat, though are, alas, largely inedible.