I cannot lie - this was a tough one for me to get through. It did suck me in eventually and I'm pleased with the journey I took through this quite strange and obsessive plant-people world. If you like true-crime, read it. ( )

When my pharmacist caught sight of this book, he asked if it was a thriller. That is one thing this book is not. It is, however, a slew of other things. Though it began more or less as Orlean's interest in the trial of one John Laroche, a Florida man caught poaching ghost orchids off park land with a trio of Seminole Indians, it rapidly blossomed into a full-scale investigation of the orchid-loving life. Evidently people go mad for these plants, sort of a "gotta catch 'em all" attitude for the floraphile set. And considering there are tens of thousands of orchid breeds, many costing hundreds or even thousands of dollars and meticulous care, it can become quite the costly and timely pursuit. Sound boring? Surprisingly, it isn't. Perhaps the most fascinating part for me was not the unexpectedly vehement passions of orchid enthusiasts, but rather Orlean's bald-faced judgementalism. It said a lot about her attitudes, and rather than being an impartial observer, she was clearly flabbergasted by the entire orchid culture - indeed, about any passion of that magnitude for anything. Without that air of "OMG look how weird this is" permeating throughout the story, this would have been rather dull. I didn't know the orchid world was so cutthroat, but after you've spent time with sports fanatics and anime fanboys, you realize that there are many things in this world that interest people far more than they do you, and nothing is too unusual to obsess over. ( )

Several years ago a movie was made from this book. Of course, it bears little or no resemblance to what the author wrote about, but I'm grateful for it because otherwise I probably would never have picked up this volume to read.

The book is an expansion of an article the author wrote for The New Yorker about John Laroche an extremely smart and eccentric Floridian who was arrested for stealing rare and endangered orchid from the Fakahatchee State Wildlife Preserve. His theory was that since he was using Seminole Indians to do the actual stealing, and he presumed that they were exempt from state and Federal laws, that the arrest would not hold up in court. He was incorrect in that assumption and the tale might have ended there if Orlean herself had not become fascinated by both Laroche and the strange culture that surrounds plant collectors in general and orchid collectors in particular.

The book is a rambling history of the state of Florida and its development as well as the history of orchids and the lengths that collectors will go to procure a new specimen. If you have ever read Carl Hiassem's thrillers, you'll recognize the models for a bunch of his characters in this book. Florida must truly be populated with eccentrics of all stripes.

This book is a fascinating read. ( )

A book about passion, of which I share similar experience with the author. (In other words, I have never felt the passion that some people feel towards things, such as orchids, but enjoy observing and contemplating people who do have such passions.)

I was introduced to this book through my favorite movie, "Adaptation". This is not the type of book I would normally be caught glancing at in a bookstore, much less actually reading. I couldn't be more glad that I did, though!

"The Orchid Thief" is a thoroughly strange and intriguing tale, with interesting characters and interesting metaphors. Additionally, the facts and statistics and history regarding the incredible passions of certain orchid collectors is an interesting look into the queer and curious mind of humans. The psychological implications of this story had me enraptured, and I marveled at the strange habits and actions of people who share genes nearly identical to my own. Orlean admitted to an astonishment and desire which I can relate to.

She is a master with words, and I felt that hardly a sentence in the entire book couldn't have been described as "beautiful".

I have, in fact, read this book twice now; and I plan to read it a third time in the near future. Although "Adaptation" was a pretty far cry from the story in this book, I can see how cleverly Charlie Kaufman dissected various nuances in the story to create his own twisted version of what may, or may not, have really happened during the author's escapades in the Florida swampland, as she follows John Laroche in his quirky, criminal, and oftentimes genius ways of life. ( )

Very nice prose and a truckload of fascinating facts about orchids (and the crazy peoples who love them) and the state of Florida. Infortunately, the book kind of peter out instead of truly reaching a conclusion. ( )