I’m late joining the Three Book Diet, but that’s because I was late stumbling onto it. It’s Chris Brogan’s brainchild, and essentially, you choose three books to read, reread and implement through Nov. 1, 2013. If you care to tweet about it, use #3BD.

I took a couple of days to ponder my choices, but I pretty much knew one would be about food and one would be about art. The third I knew instantly: Stanley Karnow’s Vietnam: A History, which I bought many years ago and never read.

I was born in 1964 so I had some exposure of Vietnam during the era, but it was glancing and sketchy, like huge headlines in the Louisville Courier-Journal about POWs, or my best friend Dee Dee being very worried in second grade about her dad, who was in this far-off place called Saigon.

To not know more about this war/police action seems shameful, and I aim to correct that this year.

The other two books will be part reading but part action.

Tom Colicchio’s Think Like a Chef is a marvel. I was drawn to it because I imagined it would teach me how to think about ingredients and what I could do with them, not just how to follow recipes. It does that, with chapters devoted to single ingredients or trilogies, but what really sold me were the technique chapters. Braising! Finally this mysterious technique would be unlocked. As we use less expensive meats and traditionally challenging ones such as venison, this is something I need to master.

I also chose one of two anatomy guides for artists that I own. I settled on Gyorgy Feher’s Cyclopedia Anatomicae because it covers not only humans but also several animals — although sadly, not elephants.

If you’re following the Three Book Diet or decide to do so now, drop me a line and let me know your choices.