My new year’s resolution for this year is to read a book every two weeks. I thought a good way to keep me on track is to blog my book reviews. The first book of this year is The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan.
Pollan writes in the same genre as Thomas Friedman and Eric Schloss. The narrative is part editorial, part journalism, and part evangelism. It’s a surprisingly easy read, but often find the switch between preaching and teaching not so smooth. As a journalist Pollan wants you to believe that he’s a neutral observer, but at the same time he also wants to advocate a change in society, and at some times his narrative gets a little too Berkeley-ivory-tower idealistic. The sentimentalism gets to be a bit much especially in the third and fourth parts of his book. The first and second parts of the book are very good though, and I would recommend everyone read the first half of the book.
(more…)