I used to own a ton of gardening and plant books but the wealth of info instantly available on the internet unfortunately, sadly, renders them virtually useless although I do still enjoy browsing them occasionally. If you have a deep love for a specific type of plant, I would consider that an excellent reason to purchase a book, but would otherwise save my money for plants. A book about variegated foliage landscape plants is one I still consult often. Also find myself revisiting 2 books I have about lawns often, for many various reasons. They also keep changing the names of plants, so older books will have different groups and names than something much newer. Finding any one store with a great selection of plants one might find in such a book as you describe would be extremely unlikely for anyone not in/near a large city. One's location really does matter. Although zones/hardiness isn't a consideration, latitude is a huge factor that is often completely ignored regarding indoor potted plants. Anyone who has never made a drastic latitude change can't appreciate this. They can intellectually know it, but until you see it, it doesn't hit home. Plants that used to die every time I tried to keep them inside for winter thrive here, blooming where applicable. Plants that used to go in the sunniest window in OH can look great here by a north window. So a book written by someone in New England or Seattle might be useless to me. Someone writing in FL would have little relevance to someone in Chicago. Seeing that you're in Denmark, I would encourage you to put plants in a lot more light than most of the advice you find. I would also like to say that potted plants are much more similar than they are different, IMHO/E. The key is finding a combination of soil mix and watering regime that is pleasing to the plants and their keeper. Then it's just a matter of light exposure, and avoiding those plants that are too particular about uncontrollable factors, like those that just can't abide whatever humidity or temperature situation one has available, or that have light requirements one can't meet. Soliciting advice here has been all I've needed. Within a week, one can get anecdotes and advice from people all over the globe. When you consider their locations and collective info, it's very helpful, and up to the reader to apply the info to their situation. Feel free to ask about any tiny, weird detail here. "They" will have something to say. I see that you've been registered with GW for years but didn't recognize your name. Hope you'll come around the house plant forum more often! What plants do you have so far? I'd love to hear about them. What instantly came to mind when I read your post was Mr. Subjunctive's blog. There are amusing and detailed articles about a long list of plants. That might keep you set for reading material for a while, while you search for books you like/want.

L2Read - funny I read this thread today. It was on our local news that the guy who played James Bond (can't remember his name and I'm awful about movies/stars) is the lead in the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (american version). The lead role (Lizbeth)- who plays that role - will make or break the movie, IMHO. I'm not sure who I could see playing that role. I enjoy reading, but don't have/make alot of time for it. This time of year there are so many outdoor activities. I do so enjoy taking a book when we are out on the boat and in spring/fall when we camp, I always have something on hand to read then. Too many activities and not enough hours in the day most of the time! In the last year, I have made time to read all 3 of the Dragon series. I will agree the first one, the sexual brutality kept me from ordering the second book for a while. It stuck with me and I wasn't sure I wanted to continue the series. Thankfully, books 2 and 3 had much less sexual violence. I don't know that I could watch a movie with that scene. The local newscaster (female) was talking about the swedish version after announcing who would play the male lead in the US version and she also said the swedish version was great and very true to the book. I hate subtitles, etc. so I won't be watching that one, but maybe the american version. I did just recently read Janet Evonovich's latest. I love her books - very light fiction, they always make me LOL. It will probably be fall before I read anything else, but I'm making a list of some of the suggestions here! tina

Has anyone read "Waltzing at the Piggly Wiggly" by Ron Dolby? I just ordered it for .20 on Amazon, a hardcover. He has three more Piggly Wiggly books and if I like waltzing I will order the rest. Obviously, it doesn't depend on the cost. (lol) I also ordered "She flew the Coop" and "Consuming Passions" both by Michael Lee West". I love southern novels and I see you do too Mitchdesj.

This is the book I used: Wiring a House (For Pros by Pros) (Paperback) by Rex Cauldwell. You can get it on amazon for 17 dollars or so. I am a DIYer and did a lot (but not all) of the wiring in my new house. This book was a great help. Here are some other tips that the book did not cover (or did cover but I would do differently). I learned these tips from my electricians who supervised my work: Be cautious of box over fill. The book covers this but uses general rules of thumb - you should learn how to compute the number of cubic inches that your wires and device require especially if you are using heavier gauge wire (like #12) which I used a lot of per the book's recommendation. I bought the largest volume boxes available at home depot - 22.5 cubic inches for a single gang box. My electricans bought their boxes at an electrical supply - their single gang boxes were 23 cubic inches. You would not believe this - but I had 3 box overfill citations and failed inspection becuase of a stinking .5 cubic inch overfill (so I replaced these 3 boxes with the ones my electricn used). The book strongly recommends using #12 wire everywhere. After pulling over 3000 feet of this stuff in the winter, i would rethink that suggestion. I watched my electricians easily pull 14/2 and 14/3 wire while I struggled with the stiffer 12/2 and 12/3. My hands were a mess when I was done. Make sure you put in the staples as required by code - you need a staple within 8 inches of a plastic box or recessed can. This was another thing our inspectors loved to flunk us on. Learn about arc fault circuit breakers. Code now requires that bedroom outlets be arc fault protected. This was a new add to the code since the last time I did a large project. Learn about the number & location of smoke detectors now required by code. In my area - one in each bedroom plus in the hallway outside the bedrooms. In a long hall - you might need 2 smoke detectors to provide adequate coverage. At least one smoke detector in the basement - depending on how that is finished. In my 4 bedroom house with an unfinished basement I needed 10 smoke detectors. No complaining - but that was way more than I thought would be needed. This was also a code change since the last house I bought in 1993. Our inspectors were big on making sure we had all of the wires in attic spaces supported properly. Within 6 feet of an attic entryway - all wires (including low voltage) had to be supported and stapled so anyone entering the attic would not be able to step on a wire and possibly damage it. For recessed housings that are nailed into ceiling joists that are more than 16 inches apart - you might have to add some wood bracing to staple the wires within 8 inches of the housing - it all depends on how far the housing is installed from the joists. Another thing to watch is on the exterior of the house - our inspectors wanted siding blocks installed before they would pass the house. These are plastic boxes that are nailed into the exterior sheathing which protects the wires, provides a flush mount box to attach a light fixture, and provides a clean edge to side up to. With these siding blocks - make sure you think about the size light fixture you are planning to use since the standard siding block face plate sizes are designed for smaller light fixtures. If you plan on putting in large light fixtures (like I did) , you may need oversized siding blocks or may have to make custom face plates (which I had to do). This topic was not covered in the book - and was a royal pain in the rump with my house. Anothet topic briefly touched on by the book is surge protection. I would refer to the Building a Home forum and do a search on "whole house surge protection". There are some very good sugegstions in there. I would also recommend that if you are doing the wiring yourself that you have a licensed electrican review your work. I was forced to do the wiring I did for budget reasons and as you know - it really is a lot of work and a lot may have changed in the code since the lst time you wried (this is a do it once right the first time project). I struck a deal with the electrician who allowed me to do the wiring under his permit, but only if I agreed to his review and to fix things isues that he found. I am very thankful I had them on site to check my work - they did find issues and I fixed them, and they helped me get through the electrical inspection which was is not easy in my county. Best of luck.