The wisdom of Anthony Bourdain

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke to Hans Weyandt from Milkweed Books in Minneapolis.What wisdom does your favorite cultural icon have to impart to you?Chances are you can find it in Melville House’s Last Interview series. The publishing house compiles interviews with influential figures over the course of their careers and makes them available in one volume. You can read through the interviews of everyone from Ernest Hemingway to Billie Holiday to Ursula K. LeGuin.Bookseller Hans Weyandt recommends picking up “Anthony Bourdain: The Last Interview,” which was published in August. The influential chef and author died last summer.“It was, for me, a really nice way to armchair travel, and just really look at his whole career and how he really remained the same person from beginning to end,” Weyandt said. “He was charming — he was intentionally not charming — but he was always interested in people and places that he was visiting, and I think he was always a great advocate for people of all kinds from all places.”“The book kicks off with an interview that was published in Rain Taxi, which I guess was one of his first in-print interview, so it’s fun to see that … And then it kind of goes through time and spans his career, and throughout he just remains the same charming, belligerent, interesting traveler.”