Biblio Files Month 19
Books Reviewed:5
Total Books Reviewed:367
Days Blogged/Days In Period:5/30
New Members:none
Active Members:2
Number of Hits This Month:175
Total Number of Hits:3728-3903
Features Added: On comments, I have activated blogger's backlink feature and word verification feature.
The Earth Moved
On the Remarkable Acheivements of Earthworms
by Amy Stewart Worm castings contain nutrients and bacteria. Different types of bacteria benefit from different types of worms. Sometimes those bacteria are helpful to the growth of plants; sometimes they are not. The presence of European earthworms can have major benefits for farmers. Earthworm castings can improve the health of plants, and earthworms themselves can change the populations of bacteria. Organically grown food, enriched by earthworms rather than chemicals, is not only richer in nutrients, it grows better. The spread of earthworms into areas where they are not native can damage the original ecosystem.
This book is written from a gardener's perspective and is aimed primarily at gardeners. Stewart talks about worms' effects on different types of plants, and how to deal with the various forms of life to be found in gardens. She also talks about the history of the study of worms and their effects on things other than gardens. Unfortunately, she spends much space on idyllic stories about Darwin. Stewart makes a compelling argument for organic gardening and farming. Also interesting is an aside about the decomposition of human waste by earthworms.
Organic reading.
God at the Edge
Searching for the Divine in Uncomfortable and Unexpected Places
by Niles Elliot Goldstein On impulse and anger, Goldstein ripped a urinal out of the wall. Although he did not serve jail time beyond his initial detention, the memory of that short time spurred him to seek God. In his search for God, Goldstein goes to the extremes of society. Interspersed with his own travels, Goldstein retells stories, some mostly legend and some mostly history, of Jewish and Christian religious figures who also left the comfort zone of society to find God. Goldstein is a Reform rabbi.
In the conclusion, Goldstein writes that he fears that this book may be mere rationalization of his own ascetic urges, his own disposition. Much of this book does sound like a rationalization of the ascetic urge. But that doesn't make the book needless or its arguments false. Some of the ways in which Goldstein describes God appear contradictory. The intention of the pieces is to show ways in which God may be approached, and approaches to the One Above do not all have to come from the same direction.
Prickly reading.
