>I finished reading and browsing Square Foot Gardening, and my review stands. There are good points, and I’ll apply them. I especially like the appendices with planting charts and at-a-glance references.

Next, I’m looking through Edward Smith’s Vegetable Gardener’s Bible. Smith balances his advice better than Bartholomew’s text; he shows how wide rows can work without insisting on a perfectly “authentic” square grid. So far, and I’ve only read a little, the advice is solid and his enthusiasm is contagious. I liked the section , “The Joy of Tools.” I have several trowels, at least two purchased with gift cards from students who recognized my gardening interests.

I’m catching up on several weeks of Time magazine. I’m old-fashioned in this way; I like getting the print version. Sure, I go online for more, but there’s nothing quite like getting the new issue in the mail and browsing the headlines, then reading the details from cover to cover.

I just finished Hope McIntyre’s How to Seduce a Ghost and How to Marry a Ghost. Nothing supernatural here; the “ghost” in question is a ghostwriter. These books were purely pleasure: not professional journals, not garden related (although those are a pleasure, too), not news. I read light chick lit and more intense novels to let me forget the world around me. I read them to relax. Thank goodness for paperbackswap.com and my local bookstore; my busy schedule makes library deadlines difficult to meet sometimes. I like my library better in the summer when I have more time to read.

Awaiting my opinion (for review) is a young readers’ edition of Obama: the Historic Journey published by The New York Times. This looks fascinating already. I know my students will love it – when I’m done, that is!

Another resident of my chairside table is The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. It’s short stories, so I’ll read one or two and then set it aside. It’s fascinating; some humorous, some serious, but all well-written and interesting.

What’s on your To Be Read pile or table? Books, journals, magazines? Make a suggestion: I might pick up the titles and read them in June when I (finally) have more time!