Re: 3 Better Books
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Re: 3 Better Books
A response to Variablast 3 much better reads than your selections =) LIGHT ON YOGA(BKS Iyengar) - appropriately called The bible of modern yoga, I believe that this book if only solely for the purpose of physical and mental personal growth, regardless of spirituality, would trump your referenced bible and produce a happy and healthier humanity. Anyone interested in strength, flexibility, balance, and control either physically or psychologically through mastery of breathing, focus, position of each limb and which muscles to focus on are all covered thoroughly in these lessons which implicit within the yoga practice can be understood to develop a deep and continuous concentration over your own mental and physical limits. BOTANY OF DESIRE (Michael Pollan)- A fascinating account of four everyday plants and their coevolution with human society that challenges traditional views about humans and nature. "The Botany of Desire" is divided into four parts, each focused on a different facet of human desire and its exploitation of and by domesticated plants: sweetness and apples; beauty and tulips; intoxication and cannabis; control and potatoes. Using the histories of apples, tulips, potatoes and cannabis the book weaves fascinating anecdotes and accessible science into gorgeous prose and illustrates the complex, reciprocal relationship between humans and the natural world. A HISTORY OF THE WORLD IN 6 GLASSES(Tom Standage)- I had previously read another unique historical brief called the "the Turk", also by Standage, as well as some of his work in the Economist. The structure of "the World in 6 Glasses" is similar to Polan's "the Botany of Desire", where the subjects are framed in a fresh way with views from an historical, scientific and cultural perspective. It reads like an effortless jounalistic narative and is very accesible. I particularly enjoyed the section about beer that described how during the neolithic revolution beer and bread were synonymous, interchangeable partners in the rise of early civilizations. Also, the section on coffee was pleasantly reminiscent of an historical fiction book I read last year by David Liss called "the Coffee Trader", detailing the beginings of the global market buzz of coffee. The final section on the advent of Coca-Cola from its humble, curative quackery roots to the epitome of ubiquitous, brand imaged, global corporatism, imbibes the reader to an enlightened pause when sipping any of these 6 of our most common daily beverages.
YouTube | January 24, 2008
