13th out of 468 books
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975 voters
The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World
The book that helped make Michael Pollan,theNew York Timesbestselling author ofCookedandThe Omnivore’s Dilemma,one of the most trusted food experts in America
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 De...more
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 De...more
Paperback, 297 pages
Published
May 28th 2002
by Random House Trade Paperbacks
(first published 2001)
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I love books that open my eyes, teach me something, and even go so far as to re-educate me on the fallacies foisted upon me by ill-informed grammar school teachers. To that last end, I found the chapter on Johnny Appleseed very enlightening as well as highly entertaining. Pollan is more humorous and, let's just say, more adventurous than one might expect from a botanist (see his passages on hallucinogenic plants.) Farmers on any scale will enjoy and find use in The Botany of Desire. For myself,...more
Okay, okay, books by Michael Pollan are clearly a fad right now, but I have bought into it whole-heartedly. He is an amazing, amazing writer: he makes me want to plant a garden, to tour his garden (his bedroom? what?), to only eat organic food, and to find out the story and origin of every morsel of food I put in my body. But he does it in a way that isn't overly preachy or agenda-driven. Instead, he lets you get what he is saying while at the same time telling an engaging, well-researched story...more
just as a warning, the below is not really about the book by pollan at all (which is great, btw!), but is mostly some really juvenile hatin' on thoreau. so if you read it, shut up, i warned you; i needed to get some trash-talking out of my system before going on w/ my day.
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so i cannot, for the life of me, read thoreau. & this may not be entirely his fault. it may not just be that i find him frustratingly ignorant, pompous, rambling, lacking cohesion & coherence, more irritatingly...more
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so i cannot, for the life of me, read thoreau. & this may not be entirely his fault. it may not just be that i find him frustratingly ignorant, pompous, rambling, lacking cohesion & coherence, more irritatingly...more
Pollan represents one of my favorite types of writers: modern polymaths who can bring scientific, historic and literary knowledge to bear on whatever they're writing about. When it's done well, I don't care what the question is; for instance, tulips aren't really my thing, despite their presence on my dining room table right now. The conversation between history, literature and science really interests me, though, which is why nearly all of the books I read fall into one of those categories.
(Tha...more
(Tha...more
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 Omnivore’s Dilemma is based around four meals and this one is based around four plants. I’ve 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...more
Now, desire sounds like a strong word...more
I'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 autho...more
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 autho...more
Four common plants and I didn't know they each held such a rich history. Well, I was kind of familiar with marijuana's development (not from personal toking, honest Asian, but from being surrounded by tokers - hey, it was Oregon) and that it was completely villified in the "just say no" era of drug awareness education. The chapters on the apple, tulip, and potato offer cautionary evidence on the danger of destroying diversity in the name of commerce. Dratted industry and their shipping lives, ap...more
Wonderful, wonderful book, full of fantastic info and insights. My main critique is Pollan's main conceit, and the language used to express it: plant species have domesticated humanity just as much as humanity has domesticated them. My problem is his constant insertion of agency into the process of evolution and mixing metaphors of individuals and of species. Flowers are not individually clever, and neither are species of flowers. Flowers do not manipulate bees in the same way that a botanist ma...more
Jan 20, 2008
Don
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Jason, Dad, Jono
Recommended to Don by:
Scott Abbott
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...more
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...more
I actually found this book a couple of years before Omnivore's Dilemma, and was impressed with the writing style: part essay, part research, part memoir, and all so well edited that there doesn't seem to be one wasted word. Not nearly as long as Omnivore, you can see how this book was the necessary first step for Pollan toward thinking about the relationship - and he does mean relationship, give and take - between what we treat as food or consumables, and human beings. The four consumables he lo...more
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 (sweet...more
Aug 11, 2007
Lisa Vegan
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
everyone, unless they loathe all non-fiction
I really enjoyed this book (and enjoyed the lecture I attended when the author talked about the book and answered questions.) He talks about 4 crops: apples, potatoes, tulips and marijuana, and the interactions between them and humans: history, culture, human psychology, and science, etc. I knew nothing much about botany and have never been particularly interested in that branch of science, but this book was a very easy read and I found it extremely fascinating. Gave it as a gift on a couple of...more
I was going on an airplane so I wanted to bring lots of different books for the different kinds of grumpy I get when I am in transit for a long time: I brought Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center, Asking For It, The Great Perhaps- all of which were mine- and I raided my girlfriend's bookcase for this one, expecting this would be the last thing I'd pick up. I mean, I want to know about Michael Pollan, he is huge and important, right? And everybody in Berkeley wants him to be Obama's Secretary...more
A brief but compelling history of four plants whose genetic destiny has been markedly altered by man – the apple, the tulip, cannabis, and the potato. Pollan’s argument is that, though we see domestication as a strictly top-down, subject-to-object process, there really may also be some co-evolutionary force at work. Johnny Appleseed’s efforts were to the overwhelming advantage of apple genetic proliferation, and the science of mass potato farming means more seeds are planted every year. But we’l...more
If the science books I have read reveal science writers, then Pollan is among the top three! Here is Pollan cleverly asking the reader to think of plants not as any vegetative material that we gulp down, kick off the ground, and cut down daily, but as species - just like us. The question he asks is this - if a human and a plant were JUST two species in the Darwinian world of struggle for survival, then didn't the Potato do a better job at being fruitful and multiply, or perhaps outright world do...more
Sep 04, 2011
Dolly
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
fans of non-fiction
After reading The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, I was determined to read more by Michael Pollan. It took me three years to get around to reading this book, but I'm glad I finally did. It's a bit more metaphysical than the other books I've read by him, but still very informative and interesting. I was fascinated by his exploration of the four different kinds of plants and the human desires sated by each. And I was amused by his continual revisitation of the Dionysus/Apollo...more
This is quite an interesting book. Pollan chooses four different plants and associates them with four different human desires, and then he presents a fascinating account of each plant-desire duo. There’s a host of good and interesting information in the book not only on human nature and botany, but history as well. What moved this book from three to four stars for me was the writing. There are passages in the book that are quite a joy to read if you don’t really care that much for the subject ma...more
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This was a really great read, and I've never really liked Botany or had much of a green thumb. Pollan covers botany well, but he also brings in history, philosophy, neuroscience, economics and many other fields of interest in this study of 4 plants: apples, tulips, marijuana, and potatoes. As far as non-fiction books go, I can't imagine it being any better.
Many other reviewers have complained that he did not stick to his argument that plants, by catering to human desires, actually manipulate hum...more
Many other reviewers have complained that he did not stick to his argument that plants, by catering to human desires, actually manipulate hum...more
Dec 09, 2007
Elfscribe
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
anyone who likes history, natural science
In highly readable prose, Michael Pollan explores the ways four different plants have influenced human culture and history and in turn been influenced by human manipulation. These plants are the apple tree, the tulip, marijuana, and the potato. In four different essays,he defines our relationship with these plants in terms of how they fulfill a human desire: apples = sweetness, tulip = beauty, marijuana = intoxication, and potato = control. The stories of these plants are absolutely fascinating...more
i enjoyed this book, but i didn't find it as interesting as _the omnivore's dilemma_. but then, you can't win 'em all, can you? as with _the OD_, the last chapter (potatoes) was the most fascinating, making me feel like i really never want to eat potatoes again, unless i know their origin.
this is a little off the subject, but the more i read the more i want to leave the united states. what is wrong with us here? seriously. i mean, we let corporations like monsanto use us as guinea pigs so that...more
this is a little off the subject, but the more i read the more i want to leave the united states. what is wrong with us here? seriously. i mean, we let corporations like monsanto use us as guinea pigs so that...more
Michael Pollan constantly forces me to rethink my relationship with nature and society. He writes without ever feeling dogmatic, yet is able to shed some harsh light on aspects of our relationship with nature and each other that we shouldn't ignore.
The book is broken up into four different plants and an associated human desire that helped shape them; the apple:sweetness, the tulip: beauty, marijuana: intoxication, and the potato: control.
Of course, none of these plants were truly shaped by one...more
The book is broken up into four different plants and an associated human desire that helped shape them; the apple:sweetness, the tulip: beauty, marijuana: intoxication, and the potato: control.
Of course, none of these plants were truly shaped by one...more
In a kind of a meandering, relaxed writing style, Michael Pollan tells the tale of apples, tulips, cannabis, and potatoes and their co-evolution with human desire. Although I agree somewhat with his premise---that plants also influence human desires, not just vice versa---I never found that he fully developed a convincing proof of it. Rather, he just gently threads a tangential narrative about his subjects, as if he were having a conversation with you in his study while looking out the window a...more
Really interesting (if at times stretched to fit) hypothesis that plants have exerted their own influence on humans to propagate the species.
The book was uneven at times, and the best chapters in my mind were the apple (sweetness) and the potato (control). Who knew that all modern apple trees are descendants of a single tree of their type, grafted an infinite number of times – that if planted from seed each apple tree would produce its own distinct variety? The chapter on the potato was terrify...more
The book was uneven at times, and the best chapters in my mind were the apple (sweetness) and the potato (control). Who knew that all modern apple trees are descendants of a single tree of their type, grafted an infinite number of times – that if planted from seed each apple tree would produce its own distinct variety? The chapter on the potato was terrify...more
The Botany of Desire was written in language that made it obvious that Michael Pollan likes to hear himself write. His ideas were interesting, following four plants, the potato, cannabis, the apple, and the tulip through their journey with mankind. I like how he approaches the topic, observing not only what people have done to the plants to develop them to our own use, but also how the plants have in some ways used us for their own ends. It is true that we, while we think we are masters of our o...more
This book was incredibly thought provoking - you'll think about our (human) relationship with food and plants in a whole new way. The first chapter of the book that dealt with apples and the desire for sweetness was too much about Jonny Appleseed in my opinion. Yes, he was an important figure, but I got bored and wanted to know more about the worldwide history and appeal of the apple. The rest of the sections were much better, my favorite being the potato (the tulip was fabulous as well). If you...more
I found this book very interesting. I don't normally like reading nonfiction, but The Botany of Desire blends history, memoir, and science with an easy conversational tone. I never felt like I was being talked down to (my complaint for other popular science/nonfiction books); instead, it was as though author Michael Pollan had sat down to talk with me and had really cool things to say. The book associates four plants with their abilities to satisfy human desires and impulses -- the apple with s...more
Jun 15, 2007
Drew Larson
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
people with an interest in history, food, and plants.
Shelves:
relaxingnon-fiction
I am a big fan of Michael Pollan, and would recommend his works to any friend who enjoys a mix of history, politics, food, and the natural world. This is not his best work, but it is still pretty good. The book follows four plants and discusses how they reflect human desires, and vice versa. The plants/desire combinations, if I remember them correctly, included: beauty/tulip, sweetness/apple, intoxication/marijuana, and control/potato.
While some of Mr. Pollan's arguments occasionally require a...more
While some of Mr. Pollan's arguments occasionally require a...more
The author adds a wrinkle to our thoughts about domestication by arguing that plants have selected for a preference for their qualities in humans, leading to their cultivation, ensuring their survival. Rather than us manipulating the traits of our crops, we've been manipulated by them!
Though I disagree with this premise (you can never determine an evolutionary reason for something, and it's hardly parsimonious to think of organisms acting as agents of selection on our perceptions of them (and ho...more
Though I disagree with this premise (you can never determine an evolutionary reason for something, and it's hardly parsimonious to think of organisms acting as agents of selection on our perceptions of them (and ho...more
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Michael Pollan is an American author, journalist, activist, and professor of journalism at the University of California, Berkeley, where he is also the director of the Knight Program in Science and Environmental Journalism.
Excerpted from Wikipedia.
More about Michael Pollan...
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“For it is only by forgetting that we ever really drop the thread of time and approach the experience of living in the present moment, so elusive in ordinary hours.”
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14 people liked it
“Sooner or later your fingers close on that one moist-cold spud that the spade has accidentally sliced clean through, shining wetly white and giving off the most unearthly of earthly aromas. It's the smell of fresh soil in the spring, but fresh soil somehow distilled or improved upon, as if that wild, primordial scene has been refined and bottled: eau de pomme de terre. You can smell the cold inhuman earth in it, but there's the cozy kitchen to, for the smell of potatoes is, at least by now, to us, the smell of comfort itself, a smell as blankly welcoming as spud flesh, a whiteness that takes up memories and sentiments as easily as flavors. To smell a raw potato is to stand on the very threshold of the domestic and the wild. (241)”
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12 people liked it
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Aug 23, 2009 08:39am