What readers think of The Botany of Desire, plus links to write your own review.

I have to admit I'm truly dismayed by some of the other reviews of this book posted here at Bookbrowse. While everyone is entitled to their opinion, I think perhaps Botany of Desire requires a certain curiosity about that world that many of us develop later in life, and that it may simply be above the maturity level of many who have been required to read it. The book itself is both entertaining and informative. It's well-written, and I found that I was able to just breeze through it. It was a recent selection of my book club, and all ten of us enjoyed it immensely. I did find Pollan's thesis -- that plants evolved to appeal to human senses -- interesting but not terribly well backed up. Nevertheless, there's a lot of good stuff here, and I found it was definitely worth my time.

My class had to read this book for our English Comp 101 course. out of 26 students 23 of us found that this book was very hard to follow, a good book to read if you wish to fall asleep. Not only does Pollan jump from subject to subject and then back to the main event. But we, in our opinions, found that one had to be intoxicated themselves to understand the book.

The book was stupid dry boring filled with dumb and hopelessly random information that does not flow at all. Not only that but most of the information was pointless, idiotic conclusions were drawn from it. It felt like I was poring lava in my brain. There was no argument and the guy must have been on what he was writing about, to put down what he put down. This book should be burned

This guy cant write! I can't even iagine who his audience is suposed to be. Sounds like he's just talking to him self a lot. The book is boring, filled with wrong info and mostly his view of the world not the plants! The only reason it is a best seller is that many schools require it for english. And that is probably because Pollen teaches at Berkeley and has some contacts with other school education officials. If you dont belive me read the book.

I think the book was very informative - it's quite interesting to see how plants have played a crucial hand in the development of culture as we know it and how they were manipulated to create the varieties of species we see in gardens and markets all around the world. A real eye opener - you'll never look at a flower or a fruit or vegetable the same way again!

Great book with excellent points. Very well written and easy to follow, especially for a student.

This book is completely random. It doesn't flow at all. Plus the man has to be an atheist to write some of the things he does. It is extremely hard to get into, very dry.

As a student of horticulture, this book opened up a new window on the world of plants, and allowed me to see them in a new light, not as the children of my garden, but as equals or possibly even above me, able to mold me to their needs and desires. His style of writting allows the most difficult of his lines to be easily understood, whether it be the complex chemical workings of marijuana, or the almost unrivaled beauty of the tulip. Although his book deals with plants, it is easily understood by the non-botanical person. He has added layers to my understanding of the history and workings of the plants around me. Please read this book.