I know I’m not alone in my nosiness when it comes to other people’s routines. Especially with what people eat.
So I had to share these great illustrations by Wendy Macnaughton who did a piece for The New York Times on what fuel writers have relied on whilst working.
Walt Whitman began the day with oysters and meat, while Gustave Flaubert started off with what passed for a light breakfast in his day: eggs, vegetables, cheese or fruit, and a cup of cold chocolate. The novelist Vendela Vida told me she swears by pistachios, and Mark Kurlansky, the author of “Salt” and “Cod,” likes to write under the influence of espresso, “as black as possible.” For some writers, less is more. Lord Byron, a pioneer in fad diets as well as poetry, sipped vinegar to keep his weight down. Julia Scheeres, the author of the memoir “Jesus Land,” aims for more temporary deprivation. “When in the thick of writing I minimize food intake as much as possible,” she told me. “I find I work better when I’m a little starved.”
I don’t really snack whilst I work, if I do it’s probably roasted and salted almonds and I do drink a LOT of tea – how about you, do you need something to nibble on or drink whilst you work?
