<DIV>Michele Slung has collected an enchantingly rich bouquet of captivating, memorable, and frequently surprising stories about gardens and gardening. Eudora Welty, James Thurber, Doris Lessing, Lisa St. Aubin, Saki, V.S. Prichett, Colette, and Robert Graves are included, along with unexpected finds from Stephen King, J.G. Ballard, Sandra Cisneros, Jane Smiley, and Garrison Keillor, among others. The gardens featured in these stories are both cultivated and wild, while the gardeners can be lethal, lazy, rueful, or philandering. There are moments of nearly overpowering sensuousness, and there are moments of tenderness that will touch your heart. <br><BR>Whether you've nurtured a solitary houseplant on a windowsill, acres of glorious blooming flowerbeds, or simply a bright gleam of imagination, <i>The Garden of Reading</i> will remind you of the magic and wonder of the world around us.<br><BR></div>