As you'll very likely recall, in April book critic John Sutherland solemnly pledged that if Salman Rushdie's The Enchantress of Florence did not win the 2008 Man Booker prize, he would "curry [his] proof copy and eat it." Then Enchantress failed to make the short list. So, Sutherland reneged and, to this day, his ARC remains uncurried and uneaten. What's up with that? We ran into Rushdie at last week's Vacheron Constantin benefit for the Afghanistan World Foundation and asked him the very same question. "I don't want him to eat my book," he told us. "But I thought it was a little chickenshit." We agreed. "He could dice it, curry it," Rushdie continued. "It could be quite nice." How did he know, we inquired — was he speaking from personal book-eating experience? "No, I don't eat books," he clarified.

Earlier: John Sutherland Chickens Out, Will Not Eat His Copy of ‘The Enchantress of Florence’!