I have an indulgent voracious reader of a husband, who allowed me to purchase ten books from a neighborhood thrift store (with a great cause) to take on our recent romantic getaway to Charlotte, North Carolina.

Among these ten books, I grabbed, for the title and the cover alone, the book My Summer in a Garden by Charles Dudley Warner. It's a charming read, the most pithy of books I have ever come across. And I'm here to recommend it as a diverting and certainly amusing piece of timeless literature.

Side note: My book reviews say very little about the theme or tone or message of a book. Rather, they are my slight impression (because they will inevitably make a different impression on you) and then a little taste of the flavour of the book. Everyone loves a good free sample. Here you are.

I must say, before I conclude, that this book contained the longest Introduction I have ever seen or read. And, while the introduction isn't so amusing as the actual chapters of the book, some of my most notable takeaways were nevertheless found therein.

"The principle value of a private garden is not understood. It is not to give the possessor vegetables or fruit (that can be better and cheaper done by the market-gardeners), but to teach him patience and philosophy, and the higher virtues - hope deferred, and expectations blighted, leading directly to the resignation, and sometimes alienation. The garden is thus becomes a moral agent, a test of character, as it was in the beginning."

"I do not hold myself bound to answer the question, Does gardening pay? It is so difficult to define what is meant by paying. There is a popular notion, that, unless a thing pays, you had better let it alone; and I may say that there is a public opinion that will not let a man or woman continue in the indulgence of a fancy that does not pay. And public opinion is stronger than the legislature, and nearly as strong as the ten commandments: I therefore yield to the popular clamor when I discuss the profit of my garden."

"Of course, there is no such thing as absolute value in this world. You can only estimate what a thing is worth to you. Does gardening in a city pay? You might as well ask if it pays to keep hens, or a trotting-horse, or to wear a gold ring, or to keep your lawn cut, or your hair cut."