Second Nature: A Gardener's Education
by Michael Pollan
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Book Summary Information
Author: Michael PollanEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2003-08-12
ISBN: 0802140114
Number of pages: 320
Publisher: Grove Press
Book Reviews of Second Nature: A Gardener's Education
Book Review: From Napalm to Seed Catalogs
Summary: 5 Stars
SECOND NATURE is not your normal gardening book. There aren't a lot of "how to" instructions here for planting, nurturing and harvesting. There are, however, innumerable more important things here.
Pollan takes his reader on a journey of discovery, asking cogent questions about man's relationship to nature, about the proper way to conserve wilderness, about the social strata of contemporary seed catalogs, about the best way to design a garden to achieve our spiritual goals (although his way of expressing it isn't nearly as hokey-sounding as my wording), about the sexual metaphors of roses, about the quasi-religious movement of composting, and about the historical evolution in the way we have looked at trees.
His writing is often humorous as well as something most of us can relate to in our own experiences. In his early battles with garden-eating rodents, his ill-considered attempt to napalm a woodchuck makes for absolutely hilarious reading, and the story of his father's rebellion against the neighbors' edict that he mow his lawn is exhilarating. Throughout much of the book, we do, however, come to learn a serious lesson. The realistic gardener does not attempt to subdue nature nor to surrender to it, but to work with nature as a part of it, to be realistic in determining what can and cannot be accomplished, and to influence rather than conquer (especially since conquering is not really possible after all).
For both the neophyte and the experienced gardener, SECOND NATURE is probably more important and useful than a "how to" book for it will reveal the overarching philosophy that drives the gardener's actions. For the suburbanite whose gardening is pretty much limited to manicuring his portion of The Great American Lawn and planting a few decorative shrubs here and there, it is utterly indispensable for it will reveal the shallow artificiality of such kowtowing to social "propriety."
Pollan's lessons are painless. He never preaches. He never rants. He never proselytizes. His writing is both humorous and instructive. It unveils historical trends in man's relationship toward gardens, wildlands, and lawns that most readers, with our limited visions of life in the 17th and 18th centuries, never suspected. Most importantly, the reader finishes his book with a genuinely new appreciation of man's place in nature, with an understanding that it is okay to make his mark upon nature (because he is part of it), and with the knowledge of how to make that mark positive, non-destructive, and productive.
I heartedly recommend SECOND NATRURE to everyone who has ever planted a garden (productively or otherwise), who has ever thought about planting a garden, who has ever mowed a lawn, who has ever wondered about the best methods of protecting wilderness areas, who has ever written a letter in support of or opposition to environmental activists, or who, though city-bound and surrounded by asphalt, has ever wondered about man's proper place on the earth. SECOND NATURE has, if not universal, then at least very widespread appeal to all sorts of readers.
Summary of Second Nature: A Gardener's Education
In his articles and in best-selling books such as The Botany of Desire, Michael Pollan has established himself as one of our most important and beloved writers on modern man's place in the natural world. A new literary classic, Second Nature has become a manifesto not just for gardeners but for environmentalists everywhere. Chosen by the American Horticultural Society as one of the seventy-five greatest books ever written about gardening, Second Nature captures the rhythms of our everyday engagement with the outdoors in all its glory and exasperation. With chapters ranging from a reconsideration of the Great American Lawn, a dispatch from one man's war with a woodchuck, to an essay about the sexual politics of roses, Pollan has created a passionate and eloquent argument for reconceiving our relationship with nature.Gardening & Horticulture Books
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