Friday, March 20, 2009

Weekend Reading: Second Nature by Michael Pollan

It’s been a while since I’ve posted my weekend reading. This weekend in honor of the official start of Spring I’m reading Second Nature: A Gardener’s Education by Michael Pollan. This is one of Pollan’s older books; he’s since gone on to Best-Sellerdom with The Botany of Desire, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, and now In Defense of Food. Second Nature seems to be more about gardening, whereas the other books are more about the food industry, and the ethics of agriculture.

First of all, Pollan is a tremendously gifted, engaging writer. If he were writing phone books, then phone books would be one of my favorite genres. He’s one of those writers who takes a subject that seems boring or one sided, and he just researches the hell out of it and then gives it back to you like an expose so you walk away thinking wow, this is obviously the single most important issue today and I need to do something about it. (Michael Lewis is another).

I can honestly say The Omnivore’s Dilemma changed my life, and if you haven’t read it yet, you should go do so right now (I’ll even lend you my copy). But with Second Nature I’m just looking for a little food porn. I want to read about bunnies and deer, and the first lettuces of spring. And so far that is exactly what I’m getting.

Happy reading!

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