Progress Blog
I started writing Table of Gods in June 2019. After launching this website in November 2022, I shared my progress each month until the book was printed in September 2026. If you're curious about how it all came together, follow the journey below.
Design, Design, Design. Over the years, I’ve looked at more book covers than I can count. I’ve ordered dozens of art books to study the buying process, the shipping time, the unboxing experience, a...
Praise from beta readers. In mid-December, I sent parts of the manuscript to over 300 beta readers. Reading through their feedback has been one of my best experiences of 2024. “This beautiful chapt...
Signed with a designer. Since 2020, I’ve worked with two designers. Both of whom I ended the partnership with. Not because they weren’t good, but because they weren’t great. A few months back, I de...
Book launch in The British Museum? In mid-October I went to the British Museum for two reasons. 1. I wanted to show my five-year-old son, Sargon, what his ancestors accomplished. And boy, he loved ...
Received the manuscript. Last week, my story editor sent back my manuscript with hundreds of suggestions. I was terrified at first but after going through the notes, relieved to see that most were ...
Design Hunt. I’ve been working on Table of Gods since 2019. Together with my family, scholars, photographers, food stylists, editors, hundreds of recipe testers, and hundreds of (soon to be) beta r...
I’m Done with the Manuscript. After writing almost daily for five years, I’ve now completed the manuscript. It’s a huge storytelling piece about food and history that will be mingled with beautiful...
Scholars Reviewing My Work. From the left, Dr. Brad Hafford, Dr. Salvatore Gaspa, and Dr. Simo Parpola. Table of Gods is not an academic book. I wouldn’t even call it a history book. But it is a bo...
Pausing Social Media and YouTube. In early May, I began feeling stressed. Partly due to my self-imposed deadlines to complete the book in 2024, but also because of the many roles I have in this pro...
284 Recipe Testers From All Over the World. Just like many other things in this project, I had no experience with recipe testers. I didn’t know if people would cook the recipes or if their feedback...
Last Chance to Be a Recipe Tester. After five years of researching, cooking, and editing, the recipes in Table of Gods are done. To make every recipe 100 percent waterproof, my goal is to have five...
Do you want to be a recipe tester? My goal is to have each recipe in Table of Gods tested by at least three people. With one recipe allocated per tester, I need 180 testers. Currently, I have just ...
Photo shoot. Almost three years have passed since the first photo shoot. The same team gathered again (my parents, sister, a food stylist, and a photographer). Since every recipe in Table of Gods s...
65 recipes completed. We’ve now made 65 recipes for the book, which is twice as many as I initially planned for. A recipe editor will go through all recipes in January. At the start of February, th...
Pricing – latest updates. Last month I mentioned that Table of Gods could cost up to 200 USD per copy. What’s driving the cost is the coffee table format with 350-400 pages of premium art paper, a ...
Self-edited six chapters. In October, I self-edited six chapters of Table of Gods. With all nine chapters now edited, I’m adding two more: The Sumerian city of Nippur and the Assyrian city of Dur-S...
Documentary about Ashurbanipal. Seven people contributed as voice actors (all quotes in the documentary are in Assyrian), and three individuals reviewed the script in advance. It's the only documen...
Five New Recipes. We completed five new recipes this month: garlic beer, mackerel, tuna, siqqu (fish sauce), and kebabu (meat skewers). We still have about 20 recipes left before we're completely d...
