The Botany of Desire is full of fun facts! Especially the apple part of the book. There are also potato, marijuana, and tulip parts, but I enjoyed the apple part the most. Did you know that growing apple trees from seed is a complete crapshoot, and you don't know what kind of apple you'll get because they don't grow "true" from seed? Did you know that there wasn't any honey in the U.S. before European settlers brought honeybees along with them? Did you know that before refrigeration was developed, there was no such thing as non-alcoholic cider? All cider was hard cider. These are fun facts!
Pollan's central premise is that plants trick or manipulate humans into propagating them by providing sweet (exemplified by the apple), nourishing (potato), intoxicating (weed), or beautiful (tulip) vegetation or fruits. I think I buy that, although the cases for each and my level of interest in each varied widely. It's a pretty good book overall, and I feel like I learned a lot.
This was the September selection for the Boneshaker Science Book Club, and we had a good discussion.
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