The Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan
From amazon:
Apples, tulips, marijuana, and potatoes. This sounds, perhaps, like a Dutch shopping list, but it's really a quick index to the subjects of Pollan's new book. One day, while working in his garden, the author began to wonder how his role as a sower of seeds differed from that of the bumblebee that was pollinating a nearby apple tree; his musings inspired these tales of botanical transformation. Pollan explores the ways in which four common crops have enjoyed and suffered the very best and worst of human intentions: how apples spread westward with American settlers, how the stock of tulips has soared and crashed, how the potency of marijuana has been exalted even as the plants have been miniaturized, and how potatoes have been turned into a cog in the genetic-industrial complex.
I've wanted to read this book for quite a long time, since I saw it sitting on the shelf in the Wilmette library's book club section. On the whole, I found it interesting and enjoyed reading it. I like science stuff, of course, and scientific history is usually a winner with me. Mr. Pollan did tend to anthropomorphize the plants he wrote about, which I didn't love. He also took a lot (!) of liberties with his descriptions of evolution. I had to grit my teeth through those passages! But it won't bother everybody. It is certainly worth reading.
5
Apples, tulips, marijuana, and potatoes. This sounds, perhaps, like a Dutch shopping list, but it's really a quick index to the subjects of Pollan's new book. One day, while working in his garden, the author began to wonder how his role as a sower of seeds differed from that of the bumblebee that was pollinating a nearby apple tree; his musings inspired these tales of botanical transformation. Pollan explores the ways in which four common crops have enjoyed and suffered the very best and worst of human intentions: how apples spread westward with American settlers, how the stock of tulips has soared and crashed, how the potency of marijuana has been exalted even as the plants have been miniaturized, and how potatoes have been turned into a cog in the genetic-industrial complex.
I've wanted to read this book for quite a long time, since I saw it sitting on the shelf in the Wilmette library's book club section. On the whole, I found it interesting and enjoyed reading it. I like science stuff, of course, and scientific history is usually a winner with me. Mr. Pollan did tend to anthropomorphize the plants he wrote about, which I didn't love. He also took a lot (!) of liberties with his descriptions of evolution. I had to grit my teeth through those passages! But it won't bother everybody. It is certainly worth reading.
5