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Publisher Description
“One of the distinguished gardening books of our time,” from the #1 New York Times–bestselling author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma (USA Today).
Chosen by the American Horticultural Society as one of the 75 greatest books ever written about gardening
After Michael Pollan bought an old Connecticut dairy farm, he planted a garden and attempted to follow Thoreau’s example: do not impose your will upon the wilderness, the woodchucks, or the weeds. That ethic did not, of course, work. But neither did pesticides or firebombing the woodchuck burrow. So Michael Pollan began to think about the troubled borders between nature and contemporary life.
The result is a funny, profound, and beautifully written book in the finest tradition of American nature writing. It inspires thoughts on the war of the roses; sex and class conflict in the garden; virtuous composting; the American lawn; seed catalogs, and the politics of planting a tree. A blend of meditation, autobiography, and social history, Second Nature, from the renowned author of The Botany of Desire, In Defense of Food, and other bestsellers, is “as delicious a meditation on one man’s relationship with the Earth as any you are likely to come upon” (The New York Times Book Review).
“Usually when Americans have wanted to explore their relationship to nature they’ve gone to the wilderness, or the woods. Michael Pollan went to the garden instead . . . and he’s returned with a quirky and pleasing book.” —Annie Dillard
“A joy to read.” —Los Angeles Times
Chosen by the American Horticultural Society as one of the 75 greatest books ever written about gardening
After Michael Pollan bought an old Connecticut dairy farm, he planted a garden and attempted to follow Thoreau’s example: do not impose your will upon the wilderness, the woodchucks, or the weeds. That ethic did not, of course, work. But neither did pesticides or firebombing the woodchuck burrow. So Michael Pollan began to think about the troubled borders between nature and contemporary life.
The result is a funny, profound, and beautifully written book in the finest tradition of American nature writing. It inspires thoughts on the war of the roses; sex and class conflict in the garden; virtuous composting; the American lawn; seed catalogs, and the politics of planting a tree. A blend of meditation, autobiography, and social history, Second Nature, from the renowned author of The Botany of Desire, In Defense of Food, and other bestsellers, is “as delicious a meditation on one man’s relationship with the Earth as any you are likely to come upon” (The New York Times Book Review).
“Usually when Americans have wanted to explore their relationship to nature they’ve gone to the wilderness, or the woods. Michael Pollan went to the garden instead . . . and he’s returned with a quirky and pleasing book.” —Annie Dillard
“A joy to read.” —Los Angeles Times
117 Reviews
3.5
rvresi01
Created 4 months agoShare
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“Amusing in places, but not enough to keep my interest - a poor man's https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7.Bill_Bryson . I also felt that much of the subject matter was repeated - the chapter on roses and the catalogs had much of the same information, which was dulling.
I WAS going to buy a copy of this for my dad, thinking he might be more of the reader for this than I was, but then I read the chapter on roses and realized that this could never be. And I will never look at roses the same way again.”
HiddenGinger
Created 5 months agoShare
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Staci Brunner
Created 7 months agoShare
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n.b.Carney
Created 8 months agoShare
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Noah Oliver
Created 8 months agoShare
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About Michael Pollan
Michael Pollan is the author of The Botany of Desire and the prize-winning A Place of My Own: The Education of an Amateur Builder. In 1991, he received the QPB New Visions prize for Second Nature, which was also chosen by the American Horticultural Society as one of the seventy-five greatest books ever written about gardening. He is currently the editor of Modern Library’s gardening series and a contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine.
Other books by Michael Pollan
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