Would you like to participate in our book club?

Sure! Sounds like fun!
60%
3
No! I actually have a life!
40%
2
 
Total votes: 5
The Helpful Gardener
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New Book Club Book?

Well it's about time to look for a new book club book...

Suggestions?

I suggest One Straw Revolution...

cynthia_h
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Fukuoka-sensei's book is very difficult to find, and there are controversies about *which* translation is definitive.

I was able to get a copy only via interlibrary loan, in Fall 2008. :(

Maybe something more easily available, and now also obtainable used (I.e., "affordable"), like Michael Pollan's Botany of Desire? I'm not wedded to this suggestion, but think that a slightly older book (3 or so years) might be widely available in used book stores and on the net w/o paying full or even "discounted from full retail" price.

Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9

We've brought Vergil back from the Slough of Despond; he has about three functioning legs now (two complete and two halves). Almost back to where he was the weekend of June 12 and 13...

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Fukuoka-sensei's book has been reissued in 2009 in the Larry Korn translation (Larry lived and studied with F-sensei, who actually oversaw his translation) by the New York Review of Books. That's where my copy came from, and I have had the pleasure of discussing the book with Larry, who was both insightful and still committed to F-sensei's work many decades later... (hoping we might get him to log in some if we decide to go this route).

Available quite easily from the usual online sources... NYRB is committed to preserving lapsed classics in print and this was one of their best calls ever. Add a new foreward by Francis Moore Lappe to the original foreward by Wendell Berry to add a cherry to the finest sundae ever...

Botany is a good call too; I loved the book, but quite the same impact as TOSR

HG

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I haven't participated in the HG book club yet, but I've been wanting to read One Straw Revolution and I would enjoy discussing it with other HG members.

cynthia_h
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I'm not sure where One Straw is widely available. I went to Amazon, where the *least* expensive used copy is asking $75.99 ([url=https://www.amazon.com/One-Straw-Revolution-Introduction-Natural-Farming/dp/0878572201/?_encoding=UTF8&tag=thehelpfulgar-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=9325]https://www.amazon.com/One-Straw-Revolution-Introduction-Natural-Farming/dp/0878572201/[/url]). The other hits on my search were for OOP copyright waivers, whereupon the library in charge would send you some form of the publication.

NYRB's site wasn't that easy to navigate; do they have a shopping page???

Cynthia, brain *finally* giving way after five? weeks of non-stop dog care & work...

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Hmmm... possibly right about your poor brain, Cynthia... I think you were looking at the new compilation of all his books under one cover (which does look yummy).

[url=https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1590173139/?ie=UTF8&tag=thehelpfulgar-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=9325]Here's the link to One Straw Revolution...[/url]

Not absolutely married to this one but it would be fun, spirited, and not too long (the reading anyway; the discussions could go on for ever...)

HG

cynthia_h
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Yes, ≥$8.94 is much better! :D Thank you.

Today has been a series of "huh??" moments like that one. Tomorrow will be five weeks to the day since Vergil's knee surgery, and then there was the setback almost two weeks ago with the infected left carpus/wrist that knocked him down to two functioning legs...

Yeah, I think I've finally run out of spare brain cells....

Cynthia

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Wow, The One-Straw Revolution looks like an interesting read, and at only 200 pages, I should be able to keep up by reading a chapter a day while at the gym. :lol:

[quote]Trained as a scientist, Fukuoka rejected both modern agribusiness and centuries of agricultural practice, deciding instead that the best forms of cultivation mirror nature’s own laws. Over the next three decades he perfected his so-called “do-nothingâ€

The Helpful Gardener
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WM, I have been reading and rereading this book steadily for some months now. I cannot put it down. It informs my gardening, my eating, and the way I look at the planet. It may be short in pages, but it is beyond reckoning in scope... it is the kind of book that can change your life...

You are right about the length being something you can read quickly. But it is written in a very Japanese style that hides encyclopedic volumes in short sentences... 8) Absorb at your own chosen pace. Like I said I am still rereading and rereading...

for $8.95... we could do WAY worse...

HG

cynthia_h
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Elsewhere on the forum, I may have seen mention of Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations, by David R. Montgomery, published by the UC Berkeley Press. Here's the publisher's page on it:

https://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520258068

Just to keep more suggestions in one thread....

Cynthia

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Yep, I had asked RBG to post up with that one as I had forgotten the title, but that would be a good read as well. I had recently read a study saying that soils were the base key to biodiversity, and thought that might tie in to the title. Not as gardening focused, but soil is certainly the central thought in both the book and organics...

HG

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I'd like to see BRINGING NATURE HOME -- How Native Plants Sustain Wildlife in Our Gardens by Douglas Tallamy on the list, though it doesn't have to be the next one.

The Helpful Gardener
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While I haven't met Doug yet, I have some mutual friends and have been following his work for years (since he was doing his first insect assays on invasives in the Delware Water Gap, lo, many years ago).

The premise of the book reflects his work aof many years; non-native plants decrease biodiversity, native plants increase it. When we choose to garden native, we are using our land in the same fashion that Nature would; increasing biodiversity to move the natural succesion towards forest. Humans can bring an interesting curve to this natural succession by creating ecotones that actually allow us to increase the biodiversity BEYOND the natural capacity, IF we are thoughtful about how we do it. And Doug is thought provoking if nothing else...

An excellent suggestion to be sure! They all are so far! I'd read any one of them (and have read several). Keep 'em coming...

HG

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I would like to read One Straw Revolution. I know most here have already read it, but I have not and it certainly seems as if it would be an excellent book to spark conversation and friendly arguments.
My vote for the next book after OSR though would definiatly be Dirt the erosion of civilizations. It sounds quite thought provoking.
On another note entirely, I am rather offended by the poll :P Just because I make time to read and discuss a book should not imply I have no life! I just like my life to include as much gardening related stuff as possible :D

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Sorry Dix; I put that up but as an inveterate reader I felt that the non-reading culture shold be represented here as well; this is after all the medium that is killing books (and the ability to grasp a thought for more than thirty seconds... :twisted: )

I think the mods will be making a decision on this soon; any last suggestions?

HG

cynthia_h
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The Helpful Gardener wrote:any last suggestions?

HG
Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate. --Dante Alighieri, Commedia Divina (Inferno, 9th Canto)

Cynthia

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Very funny, Cyn... :roll:

For those whose archaic Italian might not be fresh to mind, this is the line Milton stole (along with most of the concept) for his Pilgrim's Progress...

"Abandon all hope, ye who enter here"

A cheery thought for our book club... :lol:

HG

Dixana
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IMPATIENT IMPATIENT IMPATIENT!!!!! I wanna know what book to order :( Maybe I should should just order them all considering knowing me I'll have them read in a week :D

Dixana
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:-() :-() :-() :-() :-() :-() :-() :-() :-()

*trying sooooo hard to be patient*



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