It all started with Botany of Desire by Michael Pollen. The premise of this book is to look at the world from a plants-eye view. It sounds strange but it's really intriguing! The typical way humans look at the world is basically that we are in control, we plant the food or plants and water them and care for them and manipulate them to suit our needs. But think about how plants might see this relationship, what are they doing to get us to cater to them the way we do. Pollen says that the goal of any species (not the individuals) is to duplicate itself. So somehow these plants have figured out how to get us to provide them with what they need to duplicate. It's a give and take relationship - we give them what they need, they give us what we desire. To demonstrate this he uses 4 common plants and explains how each of them have fulfilled our desires, which in turn fulfills their needs. The plants along with our associated desire are: apples/sweetness, tulip/beauty, marijuana/intoxication, and potato/control. It's a really interesting take on the world. Very educational too. I highly recommend this book.
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