Booknote: Anthony Bourdain Remembered

Cable News Network (CNN), Anthony Bourdain Remembered. New York: Ecco Books, 2019.  ISBN: 978-0-06-295658-3.

Genre: art and photography
Subgenre: television, tributes, travel, food
Format: coffee table book
Source: Berea branch of the Madison County Public Library

This is a very nice photography book. It is a tribute volume from CNN to remember Bourdain. The photography is great; we get various photos of Bourdain traveling and being with people around the world. The photos are definitely the strength and best part of the book.

The text is made up of comments, remarks, and remembrances from people who knew and/or worked with Bourdain as well as just people in general who expressed themselves in social media. To be honest, the regular fan comments are excessive for this book. After a while, they tend to get repetitive, and as a reader, you get tired of them. Somewhere halfway into the book you just look at the pictures, skim to find the substantial comments (i.e. mainly ones from people who actually knew him and/or worked with him), and skip the rest. I think if they had added some stories, anecdotes from work and his life, and seriously cut back on the social media stuff, this book would have been much better and maybe even something fans could buy as a keepsake. As it is now, it is very nice to look at, but unless you are a real hardcore Bourdain fan, this is just a nice book to borrow, look at, then go watch one of his old shows to remember his humble greatness.

4 out of 5 stars (for the photography).