This week’s prompt is “Summer Freebie,” so I have decided to write about gardening, nature and animal-related media I’ve been enjoying – books, podcasts, and TV shows – as well as some books I’d like to read soon. I have cycles of interest throughout the year. In the autumn and winter I enjoy crocheting, baking and making a cosy home. Then spring comes around, and all of a sudden I drop everything and all I want to do is get out in the garden and grow things, watch the pollinators, listen to the birds, and think about how interconnected life is. I love feeling like I’m part of that complex web of life, and I also love contributing to it. So at this time of year my reading interests also change. I pull out my gardening books, I start looking for new ones from the library, and I also look for related books to listen to and read – books about animals, books about how nature affects mental health, the science of gardening and just generally books about living things. Even better if they bring a few different types of living things together. So here are some of the books I love and have read recently about nature and life in the garden!
Recently Read
Raising Hare by Chloe Dalton
Eat What You Grow by Alys Fowler
The Complete Gardener by Monty Don
First-Time Gardener by Frances Tophill
Currently Reading
The Garden Against Time by Olivia Laing
Listening To
Why Women Grow Podcast by Alice Vincent
BBC Gardeners’ World Podcast
Watching
BBC Gardeners’ World
The Edible Garden
The Instant Gardener
Love Your Garden
TBR
Down to Earth by Monty Don
Why Women Grow by Alice Vincent
Peatlands by Alice Fowler
In Kiltumper by Niall Williams with Christine Breen
A Wilder Way by Poppy Okotcha
The Light Eaters by Zoë Schlanger
Grounding by Lulah Ellender
Skymeadow by Charlie Hart
There are plenty more I could include – we are lucky that these days there seems to be an endless supply of sources to find out more about the natural world around us! But these are some of my favourites and some I’m really excited to get to!
What about you guys? Anyone else dive into nature-related reading, listening and watching at this time of year? Have you enjoyed any of the ones on my list this week? Any others you’d recommend?
Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly link-up feature created by The Broke and the Bookish and hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. Every week TTT has a different topic, and everyone who links up has to create a link of ten items that fit that topic. To see past and upcoming topics, go here.
It’s interesting to hear how your book/media consumption changes with the seasons. Mine really doesn’t. The same kind of books that appeal to me in the summer still appeal to me in the winter with the exception of holiday books. It’s always fun for me to compare/contrast my habits with other bloggers’, so thanks for sharing!
Happy TTT!
Susan
http://www.blogginboutbooks.com
It’s a bit of a mix for me – when this time of year hits and I’m finally back in the garden, I get this intense desire to soak up everything about gardening and nature. It does even out over the summer, though, and I will still read a mix of books. I just feel more of a pull to nature books at this point, and will indulge that for a little while! But just watch, I bet I’m reading murders and random non-fiction books about social issues as well by the end of the month! Lol
What a great idea! Gardening is so much fun. Love how you incorporated podcasts and shows.
Thanks! Yes, it’s a lovely way to regulate and take a moment! I’m really enjoying my podcasts at the moment, and always love my gardening shows, so it felt like missing something important not to include them! 🙂
While I enjoy opening the windows and hearing the birds sing, my reading never seems to follow the seasons.
Pam @ Read! Bake! Create!
https://readbakecreate.com/books-with-bright-covers-pick-a-color/
That is so interesting! I don’t think mine really used to either, but now that I garden I feel drawn to books about gardening and nature when I’m able to get back out there. I suspect, though, that by the end of the summer my reading will have moved on!
Skymeadow has a lovely cover!
I think that’s one of the things that made it jump out at me! 🙂
Nice share!
Thanks!
I love nature reads!! I recommend Meadowlands by John Lewis-Stempel, The Nature Fix if you haven’t read it. Hmm. Braiding Sweetgrass too.
Raising Hare is on my list! It is one I want to buy so those always take me longer to get to.
I am also very seasonal, and my interests change with the season too. 🙂
Me too!!! I find them so rewarding and inspiring. I’m reading The Light Eaters now, and enjoying it so far. Thank you for the recommendations! The Nature Fix is in my Audible Plus, so I’ve added it my library, and ordered Meadowland! Looking forward to giving them a try! I get that about Raising Hare – and I would say it’s worth getting. I suspect I will return to it multiple times in the future! Interesting. I wonder how common that is to change interests through the year? I mean, reading is always there but I take breaks, so it’s not entirely seasonal, but some interests have to be (like gardening) and I think then there just isn’t time for the other ones as well!
I just started listening to The Light Eaters last night, and I’m glad I put it on my summer list—I’m just a few chapters in, but I’m enjoying ideas about nature and its power to revitalize us.
I just started it this morning! I’m on Chapter 2 I think, and I feel the same. I’m enjoying the way it is challenging me to think about nature and the plants around us – and I like that! I wish we learned about nature this way in school, because it’s making me feel a strong sense of connection and gratitude to the magic of plants!