Details, Details

I've finally finished a couple of books I've been reading (fiction by Ridley Pearson and Richard North Patterson) and next up on the stack of books to read is "Finding Betty Crocker: The Secret Life of America's First Lady of Food" by Susan Marks.

I'm always interested in the details of the food companies and what goes on behind the scenes. Why else would I think food industry news is interesting? I love to read about grocery stores, food packaging, product branding, food trends and marketing.

It's all those details that they don't really mention in the consumer advertising that I find so fascinating.

I like to find out about the little things that nag at the back of my mind while I'm grocery shopping.

Why are they selling green ketchup and blue Jell-O? Why are my cracker choices suddenly limited to little dinosaur shapes? What's up with the proliferation of cup-holder food and individual-serving packages? What happened to my favorite cereal and why isn't there anything on the shelf for people who aren't interested in low-carb or low-fat?

I'll also admit that "Finding Betty Crocker" looks interesting to me because it's not really a "business" book and in flipping through the pages, it appears that it might actually be entertaining. So many details about the history of this fictitious woman and well-known American icon--all nicely laid out for me in the pages of a single book.

How convenient--just like the food that Betty's selling.