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Elogio Delle Erbacce (2010)

by Richard Mabey(Favorite Author)

3.71 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

8862202938 (ISBN13: 9788862202930)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Ponte alle Grazie

review 1: I read this one for Book Club, and I can honestly say that I might not have finished it except for that reason. It's not that it's a terrible book - it's that it's very dry. I enjoyed the sections on weeds in Shakespeare's writing and the poppies of Europe after WWI. I also liked the discussion of the medicinal and cultural value of the weeds. But, without illustrations or maps, it was difficult to imagine the diversity (and to see why some people's weeds are others' enjoyment).Overall, the author's discussion was valuable. I probably do come away from the book with a more positive feeling about weeds than when I began. In the end, I might have weeded out a few sections of the book that made it just a shade too long.
review 2: I loved this book -- Mabey has al... morel kinds of interesting information about various weeds -- things we now consider weeds, plants that used to be considered weeds, how weed traits and behaviors make them so successful in disturbed ground. I know, it sounds terribly boring, but Mabey makes it all interesting! In one chapeter, he gives us the longest popular weed name he has come accross (for a weed that tends to grow in the crevices of a roof or in rain gutters): "Welcome Home My Husband Though Never So Drunk." He doesn't give us the story behind this long name--probably unknowable--but what a fun detail! To imagine some 18th century English housewife inventing such a name for a weed clinging to her house... and that it would become wide-spread enough to still exist... I find it delightful! Mabey's description of how weeds took over the bombed-out spaces of London or how weeds overtook an abandoned housing development are also fascinating... with echos of "The World Without Us" (to which he even makes reference). I'm so glad I picked this book up! less

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