Book #15: The Botany of Desire

Title: The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World


Author: Michael Pollan


I'm not quite sure what it is with me lately, but I've been on quite a non-fiction kick, which may explain why I'm running a little bit behind to hit 50 books by the end of the year (my amped-up tv habit and a baby who nurses 6 or 7 times a day might help explain it a little bit too). Anyway, I'm not as adventurous with non-fiction-- I tend to stick with authors who I've read and enjoyed before, and since I read Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma a few months ago and enjoyed it so much, it seemed natural that I'd enjoy The Botany of Desire too (and once again, I bought it for Eddie for a holiday-- this time for Valentine's Day).


Unlike Erik Larson's Thunderstruck, I found that I liked The Botany of Desire even better than I liked The Omnivore's Dilemma--which is saying quite a lot since I've talked about TOD with everyone over the last few months who would give me more than five minutes of their time. Once again, Pollan breaks his book into four parts, in this case four plants which represent different desires in our culture (apples=sweetness, tulips=beauty, cannabis=intoxication and potatoes=control). I'm not much of a naturalist, but reading Pollan made me want to go out and plant a garden and watch the bees. In the last chapters of BOD you can also see how the seeds (get it?) are planted for TOD. It's also a short read, which is good in my mind too.


--originally published 5/7/07