In “The Pot and How to Use It: The Mystery and Romance of the Rice Cooker” (Andrews McMeel, $14.00), movie critic Roger Ebert brags about how he took his rice cooker to movie festivals, goes on rants about salt, and says he doesn’t need a cookbook to make something that tastes good.

That’s about it.

Here’s what you get for your $14.99, which would probably be better spent on a rice cooker:

• Ebert’s advice on how to make soup: “Assemble your ingredients. Throw them in the pot. Add enough water to make it soup.” Oh yes, he adds that if you want any flavor in that soup, add bouillon or instant stock mix.

• A handful of so-so recipes.

• An entire chapter that is nothing but comments people made about rice cookers on Ebert’s blog.

• A chart with metric conversions and equivalents, including oven temperatures. Why would you need an oven if the whole point of the book is that you can make anything (except souffles, as Ebert points out) in your rice cooker?

I have always loved Roger Ebert’s movie reviews. But this book seems like it was thrown together by some cynical publisher who was looking for a way to make a quick buck.

And yes, because this book was so bad, I’m going for the cheap shot: Two thumbs down. Way down.