New Year, New Name, New Books

The Botanical Book club at Lewis Ginter decided it needed a new name, a broader descriptor of our eclectic reading tastes. We are now the Nature Study Reading Society.

This year’s selections for the Nature Study Reading Society book club.

Looking back at the titles we’ve read since 2001 (PDF), it’s obvious we have wide-ranging tastes covering plants and gardening, botany, birds, hiking, observational powers, history, birds, biography, philosophy, and birds. Mostly our titles are non-fiction, but we’ve read a few fiction titles over the years.

This year’s list starts with nature essays by poet Mary Oliver and ends next January with a book about a woman who becomes obsessed with seeing every bird in the world. Other topics include longleaf pines, dealing with grief through falconry, love for the land and nature, finding your way in the woods using nature’s signs, and mapping the state line between Virginia and North Carolina.

Our group is open to anyone who likes reading about nature’s bounty in all forms and sharing your thoughts with similar folks. We meet every other month on the second Friday from 11 a.m. until noon, usually in the library’s reading room. Once in a while we must seek shelter elsewhere in the Garden but ample notice is given when this happens.

Our current title list is posted on the Nature Study Reading Society library page. If you have questions, write to [email protected], or call 804-262-9887 x332.

There’s a world of nature awaiting you and the start of a new year is a great time to start reading.

Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden Book Club Titles