While I was home on leave I swung through Barnes and Noble (my favoritest of book stores) and, as usual, checked out the tables laden with books on sale, books on a subject, favorite books of the employees, etc. On one such table laid a book that caught my eye for no apparent reason at all... The $64 Tomato.
It's an unusual tale of battle, zen and finding one's self in the garden. Or more specifically, one man's tale of the trials and tribulations of gardening in a VERY entertaining package. First, let me say that I am not a gardener. While I've occasionally grown my own hot peppers, I tend to have a brown thumb and personally find greater inner peace slaughtering my foes in Halo than picking weeds out of a garden. However, William Alexander certainly delivers all of his fruits and frustrations in a way that simultaneously makes me glad I am not a gardener (by hobby or trade) and makes me want to go buy a hoe and try my hand at growing my own herbs and veggies.
The book is fully titled "The $64 Tomato: How One Man Nearly Lost His Sanity, Spent a Fortune, and Endured an Existential Crisis in the Quest for the Perfect Garden" and it's pretty accurate. For roughly
$12 at B&N I highly recommend reading it just to bring some much needed, post-holiday levity to your life (I mean, you can't possibly have time to read books DURING the holiday season, right?).
SUMMARY OF REVIEW: It's a book ABOUT gardening, but is definitely NOT a gardening book.