Pollan: The Botany of Desire - Revision history

BNEditor at 01:05, 15 April 2009

BNEditor — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 01:05:11 GMT

← Older revision		Revision as of 01:05, 15 April 2009
Line 12:		Line 12:

	[[Category: Book Notes]][[Category: Top-Rated Books]]		[[Category: Book Notes]][[Category: Top-Rated Books]]
		+	[[Category: MKI]]

BNEditor at 21:53, 22 January 2009

BNEditor — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 21:53:36 GMT

← Older revision		Revision as of 21:53, 22 January 2009
Line 11:		Line 11:
	{{Notesby\|MKI}}		{{Notesby\|MKI}}

-	[[Category: Book Notes]]	+	[[Category: Book Notes]][[Category: Top-Rated Books]]

BNEditor at 21:26, 21 May 2008

BNEditor — Wed, 21 May 2008 21:26:44 GMT

← Older revision		Revision as of 21:26, 21 May 2008
Line 9:		Line 9:
	Overall, an easy read that will keep you thinking long afterward.		Overall, an easy read that will keep you thinking long afterward.

-	{{Notesby\|~~Melanie~~}}	+	{{Notesby\|MKI}}

	[[Category: Book Notes]]		[[Category: Book Notes]]

BNEditor at 18:32, 13 February 2008

BNEditor — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 18:32:42 GMT

New page

{{BNR-table|scienticity=4|readability=5|hermeneutics=4|charisma=5|recommendation=5}}
Michael Pollan, ''The Botany of Desire : A Plant’s Eye View of the World''. New York : Random House, 2002. 304 pages with bibliographic references and index.

This book is about the complex relationship between people and plants. The premise is that plants please us so that we do what they want us to do. Easy example: humans cut down trees to plant crops,
helping the food plants expand their territory. Pollan discusses four examples: apples, tulips, marijuana and potatoes. Each of these plants evolved in such a way that people become their promoters. We've taken them thousands of miles from their points of origin; we've devoted art to them; we've been inspired by them.

There's plenty of plant science but also history (American settlement, witchcraft, Irish potato famine), biochemistry (brain chemistry) and even philosophy (the conflict of our Dionysian and Apollonian impulses). There is a lot packed into just 300 pages. The chapters on apples and potatoes are especially critical of our modern food ways as both are unsustainable monocultures and have caused a shrinking of the gene pool for each of those plants.

Overall, an easy read that will keep you thinking long afterward.

{{Notesby|Melanie}}

[[Category: Book Notes]]