The Botany of Desire: A Plant’s-Eye View of the World
- ISBN13: 9780375760396
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description Every schoolchild learns about the mutually beneficial dance of the bees and flowers: The bee collects nectar and pollen to make honey, and in the process, the flowers’ genes spread 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 combines four basic human desires-sweetness, beauty, intoxication, and control with the plants… More>>
I got three months to read this book, and every time I picked it up I threw it in disgust. Between the none-stop Johnny Appleseed referances the Collegian’s Guide to Growing Pot, it’s amazing, I got through it. I am convinced that he was once a Colombian drug lord. Rating: 5.1
It is written the opposite of good. It is so familiar, so conversational, so unturgid, and so padded with soft material, it is not readable. Even worse than I thought it would. Well, now I wonder after all these years. Rating: 5.1
In view of the many reviews already there, I need not add much. I read my way through the Apple chapter that was readable, but very easy to facts (difficult to wordy prose). I tried to read the Tulip Chapter, but soon felt uncomfortable. On page 69 I met: “To induce flies in his inner sanctuary (there will be digested by enzymes expected), the plant has a jug of striated weirdly Maroon-and-white flower development …”. It is hard to imagine that this is the result of mere ignorance, and misinform not with the actual intention of the people on plants (botany and suspect)? Maybe some time I’ll try the chapter on marijuana, which should be mostly about the history its use and so secure in the hands of (even) read Michael Pollan? Rating: 5.1
Pollan’s prose was simply boring, and his points were predictable. On the whole, I found that the book lacked originality. Would I buy the book again? To be honest, no, it came short of my expectations. Rating: 5.1
When I saw this book rated as good, I decided to check it out. As someone who has read a lot of reflective garden books, I was weak and lacking in prose, Pollan much real service. He wrote nothing new, nothing that surprised me. I would not buy this book again or recommend it to others. Rating: 5.1