Christmas gift ideas are here with our Louisville holiday gift guide
Check out our holiday gift guide for local Louisville businesses.
Instead of specific titles, the author suggests categories of books for gardeners to read over the holidays.Re-reading an old favorite, like the author does with Darwin’s “The Origin of Species,” can lead to new discoveries.Reading multiple books by the same author can create a more immersive, conversational experience.Gardeners can benefit from a “deep dive” into a specific topic by reading an in-depth book on the subject.
When our son was about 12 years old, I asked him what he thought he might like to do for a living in the future. His answer, after only the briefest of pauses was, “I’d love to get a job where I get paid to think all day.”
Now that could easily be the perfect lead in to an entire volume dedicated to life philosophy, but the fact that he is now a PhD theoretical particle astrophysicist should be evidence enough that he got his wish.
My own capacity for deep and focused thinking is somewhat less ambitious. If that same question was put to me, I think my answer would be slightly different — I’d like a job where I get paid to read all day.
You should not take that to mean that I profess to be the world’s greatest reader. Far from it. I have forlorn-looking piles of to-be-read books sitting all around the house.
Nor should you make the mistake of thinking that since my personal library numbers something north of 5,000 volumes that my days and nights are full of deep, literary exploration. I have, unfortunately, reached the point in my life where evening reading consists of picking up a book, reading a few pages, dozing off, waking up and re-reading those same few pages, lather, rinse, repeat.
For the most part, serious and fulfilling reading is restricted to summer vacations, international flights, and year-end holiday times, when extended reading, prior to nap time, allows what’s left of my brain to read, and to think.
This would be the spot in the column where I would typically list off my favorite garden books of the year — the list of books you should run right out and purchase so you have something to read while hiding in the upstairs coat closest when holiday company gets a little too much or too close for comfort.
But rather than specific titles, following are a few categories I recommend for the gardener’s holiday reading.
What ‘old’ book should you read over Christmas?
Many years ago I decided to purchase a copy of Charles Darwin’s “The Origin of Species.” I had read excerpts here and there over the years — a college class assignment or quoted section in another volume. But I had never read it cover to cover. So, I read it. And when I finished, I read it again. Totally fascinated. So much more between the covers than I could have imagined. That was more than 40 years ago.
I now include “Origin of Species” in a constantly changing loop of periodic re-reads. About every five years, I pull out the very same volume, pencil notes in the margins and all, and read it again. Each time I find something new. Sometimes I end up spending a bunch of time trying to figure out why I wrote that weird little note at the bottom of the page — or even what I wrote at the bottom of the page.
So this holiday season, pick a book you’ve read in the past, dig it up and give it another read. I guarantee you’ll learn something new.
Read a new book series this holiday
Reading a great book written by a talented author is a wonderful experience. Reading a second book by that same writer always seems to create a bit of synergy. I find familiarity of voice, meter, sense of humor and structure make each subsequent read more interesting. I feel like those subsequent books are read more as a conversation between author and reader than the first read ever could be.
For me, one of those authors is the late nature and science writer Stephen Jay Gould. Over the years, as I’ve gotten more and more familiar with his work, I find myself having a conversation in my head, “OK, where’s going with this? Is he doing what he did in that other book where he led you down a path only to, etc.”
This is one of those things that creates what so many avid readers search for — that truly immersive reading experience.
Learn something new with a topic ‘deep dive’
As gardeners, most of us are scientists in some form. We constantly experiment with new things, note the results, tweak our next efforts based on those observations. But the part we often miss is going to the vast store of existing literature to gain understanding that goes beyond the “oh, well … that didn’t work very well.”
The kick-back time surrounding the year-end holidays is a great time to dive deep into a topic. Finally decided you’re going to figure out how to grow rhododendrons in your garden? I’m looking across my office to the four-volume “Rhododendron Species” set by H. H. Davidian that has your name all over it.
OK, maybe all 1,400 pages of not-even-in-cultivation species is a bit much.
There’s the more manageable “The Genus Primula in Cultivation and in the Wild” for the would-be primrose gardener. Then there’s Gertrude Jekyll’s much more readable classic, “Lilies for English Gardens.”
The point is not to run out and buy all the above so you can read what Cappiello reads. The point is to pick out a book that covers a topic about which you know just a little, a book written by someone who may have spent the better part of their adult life investigating that topic or group of plants, and go deep. You certainly won’t absorb it all. And if non-gardening holiday visitors see it sitting on your coffee table, they might cast you a bit of a concerned, sideways look.
But it matters not. By diving deep, you will gain a greater appreciation for one of Mother Nature’s wonders, you’ll hold on to a few fabulous nuggets of wisdom, and at your next meet-up with garden geek friends you can earn all kinds of garden geek points.
Lastly, all three of the above categories provide an excellent chance to do something else during holiday season. Rather than sitting on the couch with your phone and ordering a bunch of books online, take a walk down the street to your neighborhood bookstore. There, you can browse the shelves in peace and quiet until something jumps off the shelves and into your basket. There’s nothing quite like discovering something you never knew existed and scurrying it home like you just found Aladdin’s lamp sitting on a deserted beach.
Happy reading!
Paul Cappiello is the executive director at Yew Dell Botanical Gardens, 6220 Old Lagrange Road, yewdellgardens.org.
Comments are closed.