A Road Less Travelled

Up until very recently I would have told you that my geekness had reached its zenith. My geek cred had risen to a point and then begun to fall as I surrounded myself with people far geekier than I. I used to consider myself a top-notch geek, but then I met some others and discovered myself to be merely a middle of the road geek. No matter, I told myself, surely there is more to life than being a geek.

Indeed there is, but just as I am realizing this I have giving my falling geekness a shot in the arm of equal parts Red Bull and coffee. I have just finished reading a book about compost.

Now, this word ‘read’ can be understood so many different ways. There’s read as in “I had to read War and Peace over the summer.” Then there’s “I would have finished the book sooner, but this annoying thing called sleep was required.” I meant the latter. I read this little book on compost enthusiastically, avidly, excitedly and like several other adverbs, I’m sure. And while I read the book I would periodically run to Crystal to tell her all the nifty things I was learning.

The book is a really friendly little book. It’s called Mike McGrath’s Book of Compost and is written by, shocking I know, Mike McGrath. He is the former editor-in-chief of Organic Gardening and hosts a radio show called You Bet Your Garden which is kinda like Car Talk, but with gardening instead of cars. He has been composting roughly as long as I’ve been alive and is a really funny guy. The book is full of funny little asides, the illustrations made me chuckle and he always refers to the round, soft vegetables that are most common in gardens as “tamatas”. There is just enough science in the book so that one can figure out the principles of composting, but not so much that he lost me. And I am easy to lose when it comes to science stuff. Also, as he goes along he gives directions for more resources including websites, studies that were done by various universities and how to find contact information for your county cooperative agricultural extension service.

The book is divided up into two parts the first being the basics and the second being more advanced information that gets into the nitty gritty of making good compost. I read both parts. And was fascinated the entire time. I now know more about composting than I ever expected to.

Sadly, I had things to do yesterday so I can’t say I read the whole book in one day. It was a short book (194 pages) so the geek cred coming off that statement wouldn’t be much, but I could have phrased it in such a way. Like, “Yeah, and I’m such a geek I read an entire book about compost in one day.” But, as I said, it was not to be. I finished the book this morning while I ate breakfast, but reading a book in two days doesn’t give nearly the same status. So I’m hoping that just having read the book will be enough to raise me in the geek ranks.