Rating: 
Summary: from hard science to soft
Review: michael pollan is the man i want my son to follow. he has singlehandedly for me turned science back into the direction of biology and away from math and technology. if that sounds oxymoronic it is perhaps because we so easily associated math and technology directly with hardware and the entire skew the cold war has had on american science. when i grew up, thinking about science and brains meant thinking about rockets, space, nuclear engergy, electrical, civil and mechanical engineering. the holy grail of understanding stood at the level of maxwells equations and the high priests of all were the theoretical physicists. other scientific minds like watson, crick and darwin were lesser lights whose duty was to inspire elementary-level battle against religious fundamentalists. but there was no way that studying plants could rival studying steel. pollan introduces the possibility for 4H to become more popular than the computer club, the botany of desire is the manifesto.over the past ten years, computer geeks like me have only stopped to turn our heads toward the natural world for the occasional publication. jared diamond's guns germs and steel has been about as far as most of us have been willing to follow that path. but 'the botany of desire' has ignited a curiousity about the natural world i haven't felt since the first time i followed jacques and his sons out on the calypso. talking with dolphins and chimps has only generated a vocabulary of a few hundred words with a few dozen researchers at most, but pollan illumniates a dialog between plants and humans that goes back dozens of generations in hundreds of ways around the world. distilling it down to tulips, apples, cannibis and potatoes, pollans smoothly scientific and philosophical narrative has generated a kernel of interest that could easily go in dozens of directions. each has gotten me eager to get my hands dirty. as i look back, i find it is pollan who has singly nabbed me in this regard. i can still recall the fascination i had with his april 1997 article in harper's magazine 'opium made easy'. as well, his recent new york time's magazine article 'this steer's life' grabbed me out of complacency. for me, he has become the james glick of the natural world. yet everything he speaks of is so much more personal. it's easy to speculate about what cellular technology might do, and so much of our admiration of scientific discovery has much to do with futurism. pollan, however uses scientific discipline to investigate what already is, which forces us to apply our minds to problems and opportunities that already exist rather than to the accelleration of anticipation on what might be if only. yes, bluetooth wireless might allow me to do x y and z in tomorrows world, but there are potatoes and apples in the market today which represent an extraordinarily complex mix (or lack thereof) of genetic science. that i can exercise intellectual judgement over this matter today excites me much more that the possibility that i might be a smart consumer tomorrow. even better, that i might become a gardener today and that there is a fight over 'open source' seeds today is far more appealing than parallel matters in software. i am what i think but even more what i eat. pollan give me so many new ways to think about what i eat. the botany of desire is delightfully entangled in human emotions as the title suggests. there is more than science here to contemplate. there is an entire cognitive history to contemplate. in this regard, pollan becomes a medium after borges as he introduces the reader into the contingent memesphere of plants whose influence changes human destiny - a hidden world suddenly made visible. how is any boy observing a flower bound to act in the flower's interest like a bee? the flower makes us feel. the flower makes us think. the flower makes us pick it. suddenly i understand the conflict i have when my daughter picks the random dandelion to blow its seeds. it's a weed i say, but who can resist it? and in the end i let her blow. i pluck daisys and check the fidelity of my love, i cannot resist looking for the lucky clover. we have coevolved to do so and our present is the the result of the irresistable attractions of humans and plants. there is much more than an engrossing read here. for me, a world has been offered and i eagerly anticipate engagement. by the way, the bibliography points to multiple dimensions of new knowledge. do not miss this book. it is crucial.
Rating: 
Summary: Irresponsibly metaphorical
Review: Exploiting irresponsible metaphor, Pollan writes his book from the plant's point of view. He questions the division of the world into subjects and objects and asks, "What if the grammar is all wrong?" Sure, it just might be overstated to strictly describe human beings as if they reign over artificial selection. However, to try to flip-flop the perspective is the wrong approach (just as two wrongs don't make a right). To think such a perspective will enlighten or say something even heuristically useful about plants by employing a personified metaphor is patently absurd. For example, Pollan states that plants "have been inventing new strategies for survival" and asks "Why should plants bother to devise the recipies for so many complex molecules and then expend the energy needed to manufacture them?" The fact is that evolution is a blind purely physical force with no teleology. Though biology may include some teleological language, it usually does so in reference to "Nature's plan." It never ascribes evolutionary stratagems to individual organisms and rarely to types of organisms. Types of organisms have no plan, as the continuation of the species is not an evolutionary end of individuals nor groups - only individual genetic propagation is. Though Pollan devotes one paragraph of disclaimer to show he allegedly understands this, it's as if he flushes that knowledge from his mind and goes on some Mr. Toad's wild ride of fancy where he personifies the potato and friends - who knows, maybe the marijuana played a bigger role than the pages would indicate in writing his book. Egregious and careless misdescriptions go beyond his beyond-negligent mischaracterization of evolution. He states, "Naturally we value abilities such as consciousness" and later "while we were nailing down consciousness." What does he take "consciousness" to be? Consciousness is an ability??? If he means, by "consciousness", rationality, problem-solving, complex thinking, he should say so. But as far as "consciousness" goes, it's a phenomena that not even leading cognitive scientists can reconcile with evolution - it rather seems an unnecessary free-rider on what could be done w/o this extra "awareness." In the very least, his flimsy statements need support or much qualification. Also, a ticky-tack criticism: contrary to what he states in the introduction, wolves don't exemplify "self-reliance" but are, in fact, "interdependent" -- they are social animals who hunt in packs. Lastly, Pollan just free-forms his metaphor to the ridiculous. Even if we condoned his abuse of metaphor, he asserts it to psychedelic proportions. He offers that, "...intoxication is a human desire we might never have cultivated had it not been for a handful of plants that manage to manufacture chemicals with the precise molecular key needed to unlock the mechanisms in our brain governing pleasure, memory, and maybe even transcendence." Transcendence? Eh? He later describes plants with the "astounding power to alter consciousness - even to plant dreams in the brains of awake humans." What? Do these plants devise dreams and then shove them in the subconscious of humans? This is far too much teleological, fantastical, poetic [junk]. By trying to make human beings the object, and plants the subject, Pollan has ended up making ridiculous assertions and descriptions. But it goes beyond silliness; with being a scientist of any type comes responsibility not to let your excitement twist the facts into some intriguing poem that calls a rose by any other name besides a rose. But other than being severely scientifically misleading, it's a readable book w/ some interesting facts and explanations.
Rating:
Summary: Terrific Details
Review: The information contained in the "apple" section is alone worth the price of this book. The section is as much a history of westward expansion, homesteading, and early American life as it is about why the apple has flourished in our country. The author develops a wonderful new perspective on the human relationship with the plants of this book. I enjoyed reading it.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent read
Review: This book is not just informative but it's also very readable. The first chapter, which focused on apples, was my favorite. Along with other tidbits that make you say, "Really?" this book explains the myth and reality behind the Johnny Appleseed legend and why witches are said to "ride" on brooms. Very interesting!
Rating: 
Summary: Unconventional and entertaining
Review: This is a rather unusual premise to base a book on, but Pollan carries it off quite well. I found it an entertaining and enjoyable read. Pollan writes with a light, breezy style. This is not some turgid, preachy textbook trying to inflict some insufferable fools' grand theory of the universe on the hapless reader. Rather, reading this book feels like having a conversation over a beer with a somewhat quirky, very erudite fellow, who is eager to tell you the interesting things he's learned in an engaging and entertaining way.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome book on Botany
Review: Pollan's book is a mixture of history, personal memoir, and botany that relates aspects of the relationship of four domesticated plant species to human life. These plants--the apple, the tulip, marijuana, and the potato--are linked with four human fundamental desires--sweetness, beauty, intoxication, and control. Although the book suggests a "plant's-eye" view, the stories are related through the eyes, recollection, and study of the author, a science writer. The storytelling is engaging, and the author does make the reader stop and think about who is "doing the domesticating" in the evolution of people-plant relationships. Some of the scientific facts have been interpreted for the reader, and there may be differing opinions about these interpretations; however, the book is interesting and should appeal to general readers.
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Summary: A Different Kind of Read, but a Great One Nonetheless!
Review: I wasn't sure I'd like this book, to be honest, as I don't usually read this genre, but being an avid gardener, I was interested, and boy, am I glad I took the plunge. A very interesting and edifying read - ranging from tulips to potatoes to apples to marijuana and how they interact with the human race and we with them. Try it!
Rating:
Summary: A Passion For Plants
Review: Interesting parallel articles about different plants and how human passions drove plant cultivation, from apple cultivars in the United States, through Tulipmania in old Holland, up through the giddily entertaining article on our old friend Mr. Weed. Readable for the armchair scientist. I look forward to his next book about livestock...
Rating: 
Summary: I desired more botany
Review: I can't say I didn't enjoy this book; there were many moments when I was engrossed by it. For instance, I found fascinating the discussion of how marijuana has changed since the 70s, the description of an organic potato farm in comparison to a conventional one, and the tale of how the apple traveled from Kazakhstan to America. Yet as interesting as some of these stories were, there were many others that fell flat, like the longwinded comparisons between Johnny Appleseed and the Greek god Dionysus. Surely, the distinction between what is or is not interesting is drawn partly by individual preference. But I also think the structure of the book has a good deal of blame to share. BOTANY OF DESIRE is divided into four parts (apple, tulip, marijuana, potato) each focusing on how these plants developed, through evolution, distinctive methods of appealing to our desires (for sweetness, beauty, intoxication, and control respectively). The idea is that plants use us as much as we think we use them. It's a good premise, but he doesn't stick to it in any structured way. He never strays too far from the theme, but neither does he have much of a methodical argument. Instead he tells stories, but at the risk of telling various, disparate ones that often ramble. This is less a book to deepen your understanding of nature or botany and more a way to increase your store of food lore (in the guise of an argument about evolution). So if that's what interests you and you like books such as Margaret Visser's MUCH DEPENDS ON DINNER, then I'd recommend this book. It's not that great as a book on science or evolution. But though I'm being a little hard on the book, I must admit that Pollan has made me want to start a garden.
Rating:
Summary: YES, you really SHOULD read this book RIGHT AWAY.
Review: This book languished on my shelf for far too long, until one of the dozen or so people who've recommended it to me finally threatened to summarize it in detail if i didn't take the plunge. I'm exceedingly glad that i did. The book is breathtaking, and at 245 pages it reads like a breezy 15. Granted, an editor might have trimmed it here and there, but as it stands it's as close to perfect as books get these days. And considering how ripe and firm and sweet and tart and purely delicious it is, the juice running down my chin by the end is really only a pleasure. For one thing, these four topic plants - apple, tulip, cannabis, potato - are arranged in a surprisingly delightful order. Going into the book with only the barest knowledge of its particulars, i was at first seduced by Pollan's lucid pastoralism, then increasingly riveted through the remainder of the book. Really, it just gets better and better as you go along. But while his discussions of the topic plants are crucial to its success, most of all this is a book about power - who or what has power, how power works, and whether our wills will even allow us to address these questions. I think those who call this work "natural history" or "gardening" are at least partly missing the point. It's a brilliant study of the Apollonian-Dionysian dialectic - a fundamental dynamic thoroughly denied by our culture, but absolutely essential to even the most basic understanding of it. And it's poetry - beautiful, frightening, invigorating, fluid, challenging, mind-expanding, and dangerous. Happy reading!
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