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32nd out of 75 books
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Beautiful Madness
by
James Dodson
A horticultural fanatics yearlong journey to the worlds greatest garden spots
When James Dodson fell for gardening, he fell hardso hard that he soon found himself on a whirlwind tour of the globe, feeding his horticultural obsession at gardening shows in London and Philadelphia, smuggling cuttings from the estate of Thomas Jefferson, and eventually hanging off a cliff
...morePaperback, 304 pages
Published
January 30th 2007
by Plume
(first published March 2nd 2006)
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Beautiful Madness, by James Dodson (Dutton 2006) is a true freebie - I picked it up from the discard bin at our local used book store. It was one of the books that the store declined to buy; there's a bin placed outside the shop where most folks toss any books that even the used book stores assigns no value. Anyway, it's a journal of a year in which a passionate non-professional gardener toured the recommended gardens of other passionate gardeners both in the U.S. and in England. The author w...more
Bob Mcwhirter
is currently reading it
I'd read Flower Confidential and a variety of Michael Pollan titles and was starting to enjoy the genre of horticultural non-technical non-fiction.
With a title like Beautiful Madness I truly expected more. Instead of really explaining any madness, I felt like it was simply a romp through a few months of name-dropping.
Perhaps someone was mad for gardening, but I really did not get a sense for it. I got that author repeated explaining his own gardenlust, or waxing lyr...more
With a title like Beautiful Madness I truly expected more. Instead of really explaining any madness, I felt like it was simply a romp through a few months of name-dropping.
Perhaps someone was mad for gardening, but I really did not get a sense for it. I got that author repeated explaining his own gardenlust, or waxing lyr...more
The book was moderately entertaining, while being rather irritating to me. I felt that the author had a greedy and disrespectful attitude toward plants. The portion of the book about the Philadelphia Flower Show and the colorful people involved, was interesting.
Just started, but interesting bits about gardening, my personal passion. A year of indulging in the gardening quests most of us gardeners can only dream about. Lots of gossip about the movers and shakers in the field of horticulture. Fun.
Author was irritating (repeating phrases incessantly, agrandising himself), writing was below average, but I was interested in the subject matter: gardens, garden shows (Philadelphia, Chelsea) and most of all, exploring and photographing plants in South Africa and meeting interesting people there.
I think I would have enjoyed this more as a series of articles, read over time. I found a lot of the stories interesting enough to make me want to keep reading, but I also just wanted to be done with the book so I could read something else (I'm not so good at reading several books at once).
The number of typos in this book was downright frustrating. I almost wanted to mark it up and send it in... but (1) it was a library book, and (2) I wouldn't actually do that :)
The number of typos in this book was downright frustrating. I almost wanted to mark it up and send it in... but (1) it was a library book, and (2) I wouldn't actually do that :)
Dodson, a golf writer and amateur gardener, makes an exploration of gardening, commercial growers, and professional horticulture. As well as a descriptive narrative, it's a very personal narrative of his emotional involvement with gardening and those who garden.
Please recognize that this review comes from someone who suffers from gardening mania and is therefore biased! I really enjoyed this book and think that anyone with an interest in horticulture will enjoy it, too.
Books like this draw me in terribly. I am a sucker for travel memoirs. I had to chuckle to myself when I started it, thinking here I go again, someone is going to get me obsessed with yet another thing.
Recommended by Pat. It was so, so.
Too boring to finish.
Diana
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Kathy Stilwell
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James Dodson is the author of seven books, including Final Rounds and Ben Hogan: An American Life. He lives with his family in Southern Pines, North Carolina."
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