The Botany of Desire

The first book up (admittly some three weeks later than I had planned), is The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World by Michael Pollan. The book comes in at around 250 pages depending upon the edition you have purchased - as low as about $2 on Amazon - and contains an introduction, four chapters, and an epilogue.

Pollan's approach to enlightening his audience about the intermingling of man and nature is to distill human desire down to four primary components and identify them with a plant - sweetness to the apple, beauty to the tulip, intoxication to marijuana, and control to the potato.  For each of these he then delivers a historical origin, rise to dominance, his own experiences, and the potential or actual pitfalls that exist.  To his credit, he does appear to have travelled quite a bit in the process of researching his topics and incorporated his adventures well with the flow of the book.

The main body of the book starts out with the right plant - the apple.  This was the most intriguing chapter if one's instert is piqued by such things as how apple trees are really grown, the true Johnny Appleseed's agenda when it came to planting apple seeds, and how the apple's tumultuous history has dragged it from being a founding part of civilized life to the enemy of society and back again. 

Personally, I found the second chapter on tulips to have a series of highs and lows when it comes to level of interest, but not so much so that one would want to abandon the book.  Yes, there were some interesting pieces of history to be found, but it seems lacking when compared to the others.  It should also be noted that the reader is often presented with moments of deja vu due to small facts that seem to be repeated more often than is necessary.

Pollan's discussion of marijuana was quite revealing, though that may have more to do with my inexperience than with thoroughness.  The legal history from the chapter alone made it worthwhile to read, but the anecdotes of Pollan's growing experiences and research in Amsterdam made for a fun experience.

The final plant and desire to close the book was the potato with its control.  Although I believe that what Pollan has to say about organic growing and the genetically altered NewLeaf potatoes to be relivant to the health of people, it just did not phase me enough to question my french fries at the next fast food visit.

Overall, The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World is well written, packed with history and facts, and rooted in old-fashioned research.  It incorporates modern achievements of human agriculture as well as many of the past's long time successful methods.  I'd recommend this read for anyone who is interested in the science and history of the plants we encounter every day.

Check back soon for the next book, The Invention of Air: A Story Of Science, Faith, Revolution, And The Birth Of America!  Follow the link to find out more and to pick up a copy for yourself.