Books: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

 I love books. I love books with brilliant photographs in them. I love holding them and thumbing through them. When I was a kid, I played library and glued little paper pockets in the back of my books and made cards for each book with my own Dewey Decimal System for cataloging them. I went to the library all the time, checking out the maximum number of books allowed. Curiously though, by some quirk of my personality I rarely read the books that I checked out. Equally odd, I was always late bringing them back. I think the late charge was just pennies per book way back then, but that wasn't a deterrence even though they were my pennies. I think I must have always believed that in a few more days I would read the books… but I never did. Perhaps someone can offer some free psychoanalysis for me in this area.



Not only do I love books, I also love buying books and I love bargains. So several years ago I was delighted to find the website, half.com. A few years later it was purchased by Ebay. I’m sure that was because it was such a prosperous company.




I buy on half.com, and I sell on half.com, but it’s been a while since I’ve had the time to list for sale books that are gathering dust on my shelves. Today was the day, because Florida has been beset with truly frigid temps, way too frigid for me to go outside today. Yesterday I was silly enough to spend a couple of hours outside in the brilliant sunshine under the sapphire sky taking photos of the garden in 40 degrees and 15 mph winds that must have dropped the wind chill under 30. I haven’t been that cold in decades. Inside it’s warm and toasty under my fuzzy blankie on the sofa.

So today I was loading a couple of dozen ISBNs into my Sell My Stuff  page to list the books I’m done with for sale. For a wacky side note it’s a bummer and a shock when the ISBN is not there or brings up the wrong book. I guess I must have some bootleg books. I’ve also got duplicates! Back in my rose-book-buying frenzy, I think I was buying every book that was 75 cents with the word roses in the title, and since my memory isn’t what it used to be…
 




Yes, you heard me right. Seventy-five cents! For books in excellent condition. Plus $3.99 shipping, but if you buy multiple books from the same seller, shipping on the 2nd, 3rd, etc. books is discounted by the seller. Of course, sellers can price their books (and DVDs, CDs, textbooks, video games and audiobooks) at whatever price will move the item (the website guarantees that prices are no more than half of the list price), so there are many books priced higher, but finding a book that will interest you for cheap is very easy. Real easy! Too easy? When I dove into rose gardening with zero background on the subject, half.com was my library since the local one was sadly deficient in gardening books, let alone books on roses and books on soil and organic gardening and garden design. Half.com was a lifesaver for my bank balance as well as my garden. Without half.com the following photos taken yesterday would not have been possible.

(Left) 'Marchesa Bocella' and (right) 'Polonaise'

(Left) 'Souvenir de la Malmaison' and (right) 'Le Vesuve' 

(Left) 'Lauren' and (right) 'Gruss an Aachen'

(Left) 'Madame Abel Chatenay', (center) 'Clotilde Soupert', (right) 'White Maman Cochet'

(Left) 'Reve d'Or, (center) 'Borderer', (right) 'Rita Sammons'

'Pinkie, Climbing'

I did mention the freeze, right? Don’t worry, the roses are fine except for tender flower buds and new growth that are now hanging limp on the bush. The hardest hit plants in my garden were the hydrangeas. Flowers from my recent blooming purchases and leaves on several older bushes that hadn’t realized it was winter are mush. The smell of rotting greenery hung in the air this morning. The saddest damage is on ‘Penny Mac’ and  Hydrangea Variegated that for some odd reason were both budding out. New growth was sprouting all over the place. In fact, I was about to post on the GardenWeb Hydrangea Forum about this unseasonable new growth. Now my post will be to ask these questions, will these frozen leaf buds rebud in the spring or will I need to prune them hard below these buds? Freezes are so cruel in Florida. Here in Ocala we get more that our zip code should allow. Apparently, it got down to 20 last night. Winter is so unkind. These photos are all that's left of the hope of these hydrangeas. They are no more.

(left) Hydrangea 'Shooting Star' and (right) Hydrangea 'Penny Mac'

Hydrangea 'Variegata'