Michael Pollan
Paperback | Pages: 297 pages Rating: 4.06 | 45470 Users | 3240 Reviews
Itemize Regarding Books The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World
| Title | : | The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World |
| Author | : | Michael Pollan |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | First Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 297 pages |
| Published | : | May 28th 2002 by Random House Trade Paperbacks (first published May 8th 2001) |
| Categories | : | Nonfiction. Science. Food and Drink. Food. Environment. Nature. History. Biology |
Chronicle As Books The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World
Every schoolchild learns about the mutually beneficial dance of honeybees and flowers: The bee collects nectar and pollen to make honey and, in the process, spreads the flowers’ genes far and wide. In The Botany of Desire, Michael Pollan ingeniously demonstrates how people and domesticated plants have formed a similarly reciprocal relationship. He masterfully links four fundamental human desires—sweetness, beauty, intoxication, and control—with the plants that satisfy them: the apple, the tulip, marijuana, and the potato. In telling the stories of four familiar species, Pollan illustrates how the plants have evolved to satisfy humankind’s most basic yearnings. And just as we’ve benefited from these plants, we have also done well by them. So who is really domesticating whom?Declare Books In Favor Of The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World
| Original Title: | The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World |
| ISBN: | 0375760393 (ISBN13: 9780375760396) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Literary Awards: | Borders Original Voices Award for Nonfiction (2001) |
Rating Regarding Books The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World
Ratings: 4.06 From 45470 Users | 3240 ReviewsJudge Regarding Books The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World
Reminded me of A History of the World in 6 Glasses with the introduction, except it was even worse. Very long, repetitious, & kept wandering into pseudoscientific philosophy. As well as Scott Brick read this, it was incredibly boring listening to the same points for half an hour, so I quit. Yes, it is interesting to contemplate whether we domesticated a plant or it domesticated us. The evolutionary imperative of any organism is to spread copies of its DNA. Yuval Noah Harari mentioned it inI've wanted to read this book ever since it came out, but, so far, I've been pretty deeply disappointed by it. From the jacket copy and reviews I'd read, I'd come to expect a poetic lay-science book about the entwined destinies of plants and humans. Hell, that's what the author's introduction led me to expect, too.I did not expect, nor want, most of the chapter on the apple to be more concerned about the historical realities of Johnny Appleseed than with the apple itself. I didn't want the
In East Asian cultures according to my increasingly Japanese daughters the number four brings bad luck. This is because it sounds a bit like the word for death. Clearly the number four has no such associations for Michael Pollan. The Omnivores Dilemma is based around four meals and this one is based around four plants. Ive done more than just enjoy these two books, they have completely enchanted me whilst also informing me and keeping me greatly amused.Now, desire sounds like a strong word to
Pollan's The Botany of Desire is by far one of the best books I have ever read, and it is one of those books that has changed my world view for the better. Pollan takes his readers on an odyssey through the natural histories of four plants that have been important to the course of human history, and relates them to a certain form of desire that he believes to be inherent in each and every person. He chronicles the potato (sustenance), the tulip (beauty), cannabis (pleasure), and the apple
What a wonderful book!Desire. There are many forms of it. It can be a food craving, it can be sexual between two of the same species, it can be the need to possess something, But what does all that have to do with botany? Well, humans arent the only ones wanting something. Plants, like any other life form on this planet, have desires too. The desire to spread and multiply for example.Not to mention that beings can use anothers desire for their own advantage.We have lived with plants for a long
I read this a few days after "The Omnivore's Dilemma", and began it the day after picking up "In Defense of Food". I loved the former, thought the latter was thin and a resaying of what he'd already said. This book was a beautiful book, though not the tome that O.D was, it's beautifully written. It also sets the stage nicely for O.D.Here, using apples (with their amazing capacity to evolve based on seeds that don't grow true to the parent), tuplips, cannabis and potatoes Pollan sets out plainly
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