I think any avid gardener needs the basic reference books, such as Dirr, but my favorite garden books to read are those in which the authors talks about their own gardens--how they made them, failures and successes, wonderful word pictures and so on. These I read over and over again. We are lucky in New England to have had a number of such books published thru the years. I have learned a tremendous amount from them, in the most pleasant possible manner. Some I love, in no order: The Country Garden--Josephine Nuese anything by Helen Van Pelt Wilson The Perennial Gardener--Frederick McGourty A Proper Garden--Elisabeth Sheldon (actually upstate NY) Making Things Grow Outdoors--Thalassa Cruso Old Time Gardens--Alice Morse Earle A Patchwork Garden--Sydney Eddison My Garden Comes of Age--Julia Cummins (upstate NY) There are lots more but these are among my favorites. Many are out of print but are easily gotten thru the library or online at bookfinders.com. Would love to hear more recommendations.

I think this warning about the same/similar books under different titles is important, especially in the electronic age. Let me mention Phillips-Rix books as another example. I have their "Best Rose Guide" published in the US (Firefly Books) in 2004 which was simultaneously published in England by Macmillan as "The Ultimate Guide to Roses". I believe that both are a somewhat expanded version of their earlier book on roses (see Vaporvac's collection above) published in the Random House Guide series as "Rose". Their ISBNs are all different though they are practically identical, especially their dual editions from 2004. While these would not be the problem in the old pre-WWW days and it's not uncommon to have the same books sold under different titles on different continents, I think that it's quite different now. They can all be purchased in the same country through online sales, even from the same vendor, which can easily lead to the confusion that these might be different books if the previews are not available. On Amazon, for example, there is no notification that the two books from 2004 are identical but published under different titles for different markets.

The most favorite read in our house is a series of books by Clive Cussler. Note that as his book career advanced, other authors entered his fold. In some of the later books, he has lent his name to the title and cover, when it may have been written by another author. Many of his subjects are on a grand scale affecting large geographical areas, sometimes the entire world. His tales could be classed as science fiction, however, his ideas hold the potential of real possibility, rather than 'pipe dreams'. A reoccurring theme in some of his stories involves his son borrowing one of his collector cars for a date and then he gets chased by some baddies and the pristine car gets beat up.

Onward and Upward in the Garden by Katherine S. White. It’s the series from the New Yorker magazine of her garden musings. She was the editor there for many years and her take on garden catalogs are SPECTACULAR. She blasts the catalogs for not describing the rose scents. She thinks double dahlias are an abomination. She delights in descriptions of colors. It’s an excellent book. The collection was published in the 1970’s from her writings in the magazine from 1958 and on. Highly recommend.