This post starts the top ten countdown with the second division:
10. The Reluctant Mr. Darwin by David Quammen. Quammen is one of the best science writers we have, but how much new can you say about a life as thoroughly examined as Darwin’s?
9. In Defense of Food, by Michael Pollan. A longer version of his NY Times Magazine cover piece and a more detailed argument for a natural food system.
8. The Gathering, by Anne Enright. A novel of estrangement and acceptance in a large, dysfunctional Irish family. I would have found it compelling even if I hadn’t read it on an Aer Lingus flight.
7. What Are People For? by Wendell Berry. How had I neglected Berry for so long? More quotable than Mark Twain, but his nostalgia for times past weakens his plea for a new future of respect for the land, the people on the land and the food we eat.
6. The World Without Us by Alan Weisman. Weisman uses a perilous conceit – what would happen to the artifacts of civilization if humanity suddenly disappeared? Perilous because it could be so deadly and dull. He makes it urgent and frightening. If you read nothing else, his chapter on plastic will scare whatever bejesus you still have left clear out of you!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I'm interested to see that In Defense of Food is on your list. I've only read parts of it, but it didn't pull me in the way the Ominvore's Dilemma did. What did you like about it?
I was thinking back to when I first read it in essay form in the NYTimes magazine. The good thing was it was very prescriptive, not just theoretical. I'll admit the book didn't add a lot beyond the magazine piece, but it did hold together as a basis for action, whereas Omnivore's Dilemma was a call to awareness. Maybe I just didn't read very many good books in 2008.
Post a Comment