So last year we bought a bookstore – Eureka Books. I was surprised to find out that when you own a bookstore, people bring you books. I thought it would work the other way around—I was sort of hoping that people would take books with them when they left. But this works, too.
The other day a customer brought me a battered copy of The Roots of Evil: Weird Stories of Supernatural Plants, edited by Michel Parry and published in 1976. It’s an anthology of evil plant tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne, H.G. Wells, and others. I know Hawthorne’s story, but some of the others are new to me, so I’m looking forward to checking it out.
I also just finished Algonquin’s latest smash hit A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick, a dark tale of poison and intrigue that had me shouting to the murderous wife, “Try hemlock! Feed him monkshood!” It is a dark and gothic story which, for some reason, makes it the perfect summer vacation read.
And then there’s this book called Angel of Darkness by Caleb Carr. We had a damaged copy in the discard pile at the bookstore. I had been inspired by the work of Mary Ellen Long, an ‘altered book’ artist who leaves books in the forest and lets them decompose, then puts their worm-eaten remains on exhibit. (You can see her work in Gabe Cyr’s New Directions in Altered Books, but do take note: library patrons, please do not try this at home.) So I got the idea to start burying books in this poison garden I’ve planted outside my kitchen door.
I took Angel of Darkness home, opened it to a random page, and dug a hole so that I could bury it open, with just a few pages coming out of the ground. Of course, I was reading as I dug-and guess what? I had opened it to a page in which a woman is accused of murdering someone with foxglove, one of the plants in my poison garden. I actually managed to frighten myself in my own poison garden. But now, of course, I have to read the book. Since our copy was damaged-and is now covered in mud-I just went and checked it out from the library. Looks like a good airplane novel for the next leg of the book tour.
Amy’s blog and website can be found at www.amystewart.com, and she is also one of the co-founders of www.gardenrant.com, where she blogs about all things horticultural with a group of “highly opinionated gardeners.”
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