If you're a gardener with a scientific bent, or a fan of science with a botanic bent, this is a great book.

Chamovitz breaks down the current science of botany and makes it interesting and comprehensible to the average armchair enthusiast by using our own senses as a basis for what a plant...knows.  Do plants 'see'?  Do plants 'feel'?  So plants have a sense of 'smell'?  The answers might surprise a few people.  The author is very clear that these comparisons are very loose and plants are not, of course, thinking or sentient.  But as a starting point for understanding how plants do thrive and survive, our senses make for an excellent starting point.

This is a fast read; I was able to complete it in one day, and there was nothing dense about the writing or the research.  Chamovitz provides suggestions for links in the footnotes, a very thorough Notes section and an excellent index.  There wasn't a wealth of practical knowledge (although I do now know how to force short-day plants to bloom at will), but all of it was interesting and I learned a lot.

Highly recommended for the greenies.  ;-)

Buying other people books as Christmas presents is just dangerous.  Especially when local publishers have 45% off sales.  Apparently a book reading slump does not translate into a book buying slump.

So these all arrived in the mail this week.  I'm particularly excited about The Haunted Grange Of Goresthorpe by Arthur Conan Doyle  and Bookshops by Jorge Carrión; translated by Peter Bush.  Oh, and Lady Cop Makes Trouble by Amy Stewart!

I also bought one more book - it's not up on top because it's a book I already have, and a small splurge, but I think at least BrokenTune, if nobody else, will understand why.  I bought an uncorrected bound proof of The Eyre Affair.  Not because of the book itself, but because of what came with it:

It's a black and white photo that Jasper Fforde did in a giveaway at some point, 105 of them in total given away.  (http://www.jasperfforde.com/giveaway/tea002.html if anyone is curious).  The book was less than a new paperback edition and I couldn't resist - I love Pickwick!