[Conrad]

Now that I am out of school for the summer I can actually read some. This thread will be reviews of the books I read. So far I have a little catching up to do but I should be able to get them all in. If you are in the "Private" book club, please post your comments there since I want that to be a better discussion of the books.

Join along and fill out some reviews. Put the word Spoiler if there is any info that might wreck the book for none readers. Feel free to comment on a book in here and give what you thought.

Here is a list of books we review in this thread. If there is a sugnifficant review on a book I will list it here. There are other books in here but I only have time to list the ones I give a review and discuss. I hope to read books suggested on here so to give a voice to most books on here.

Revied and discussed:

-The Ominvore's Dilemma by Micheal Pollan
-Atlas By Teddy Atlas
-Demons and Angels By Dan Brown
-Hello, I'am Special by Hal Niedzviecki
-Velocity by Dean Koontz
-Hary Potter by J.K. Rowling

The Ominvore's Dilemma
By Micheal Pollan
Non-Fiction
March 2006

The Ominvore's Dilemma is a book that looks at what Western culture(Mainly americans) eat and how they come to that conclution. The book breaks into four major sections. The first section looks at the amount of corn that is consumed by americans. He talks about how the government subsidizes farmers so that the price of corn never goes up and farmers need to grow more just to make ends meet. Looks on how this effects the economics of food and how animals like cows and fish are being breed to eat corn becuase its cheap and easy to get. Looks into how this affects the animals and the food industry. The most sufnificant infromation from this section is just how much corn is used in almost everything that is mass produced.Over half of the menu at Mcdonals has some sort of corn. Uner a mass spectrometer %100 of pop carbons are from corn, 65% of the salad carbons are from corn, %56 of the chicken nugget comes from corn, and 52% of the carbons in a cheesburger from Mcdonalds, comes from corn.

The next section is about "Big" organic and how it is an oximoron. I am a vegitarian so I do shop organic from time to time so it was intersting to hear about the waste in patroluam industrial organic is. Industrial organic is things like Cascade Farms and other major labels you tend to find in Chain Co-ops and organic grocerystores. Went into how Free range chickens have a yard about 5 feet in diameter which they never use due to being killed a few weeks after they are born. Big organic stays organic but does so at a huge cost in gas and other resoures.

The third section went into a sustainable farm where the cycles of grass is depended apon and is the major thing that keeps the farm running. Very intersting to hear about all the work that goes into this farm and how farming, when done correctly, actaully adds to the land and does not strip it. Goes into how farms like this are always threatened by the USDA(For the animal killing) and what kind of profits and area the thing covers.


The last section is how the author hunts and gathers his own meal. He tells stories of getting mushrooms, minerals(salt), hunts for pig never being a hunter before, and how he makes a big dinner.




I found this book to be worth my time. I was getting bored near the end since I grow up doing what he was doing and I thought his observations on hunting and gathering were boring. But, the first half and problably 2/3s were really intersting. He has alot of good infromation and observations all backed up by pretty legit sources and experinces. The book follows clear paths depending on what section you are on. You know where he is going and he tells these intersting stories on the way. All the book info he does, is back up by his own experinces like going to a sluaghter house and what not. This book has appeared on ABC and I think on the Cobert Report. It is making alot of noise and I reccomend anyone that likes this sort of information finding process that he does and anyone that like "Information Hunting" type of nonfiction. Had a few times where I was bored but overall, a good read.