Editor's Favorite Food Books

If you are looking for a gift for a food-loving, literary hound, call off the hunt.

The third time is just as lucky as the first two for Frances Mayes, author of Under the Tuscan Sun.

Price: $25

Shop: Random House

Think of Food Journeys of a Lifetime as 500 places to see and taste before you die. Full of the take-you-there photography for which National Geographic is famous, the book covers every conceivable gustatory delight--from fabled chefs' fare to humble street foods.

Price: $40

Shop: National Geographic Books

Michael Pollan, the high priest of eating well, distills collective wisdom into 64 commonsense food rules. Our favorite: "Don't eat cereal that changes the color of the milk."

Price: $11

Shop: Penguin

This coffee-table book-cum-kitchen reference covers edibles familiar (morels, truffles) and wildly exotic (ethereal Mexican Indigo Milkcaps, curious Wood Cauliflowers). It includes those not to eat, as well. Life-size photos capture every fascinating fungal detail.

Price: $55

Shop: University of Chicago Press

Paul Greenberg--the reporter who helped get Chilean sea bass off many menus--brings his insight as a passionate sport fisher to this unsettling account of four species (salmon, cod, bass, and tuna) we may be fishing to extinction.

Price: $26

Shop: Amazon.com

Ben Hewitt chronicles the "agrepreneurs"—farmers, cheesemakers, bakers, who built a local economy around small-scale food production, and helped reinvigorate a Vermont town.

Price: $25

Shop: Rodale