Review of the $64 Tomato by William Alexander

I got this book from my local library a few days ago (in lieu of returning the other books). I may not make it through the *whole* book because I have 100+ pages of psych reading to do in the next few days but I wanted to give a review of it because the quality is evident.

Picture of the book The $64 Tomato by William
Alexader, picture from NPR

Let me explain through a personal anecdote;

Yesterday, I went to my experimental psychology class; bright eyed and bushy tailed, ready to study t-tests and one way ANOVAs. The professor spent most of the class talking about what could and could not constitute observational research. It was...I'm not going to say a waste of my time, no learning is a waste of my time, but it wasn't what I was expecting or interested in. Well, I thought, now would be a perfect time to read a bit more in that Expensive Tomato book. So, I pulled out the book, laid it open on my text book like a dirty magazine I didn't want to get caught with, and began reading. At one point, I read a line and began to choke. Now, I'm a front-row student, in an auditorium class, and it would be rude, and draw lots of attention, if I were to suddenly double over laughing while the professor is pointing out the downsides of archival research. So, instead I found myself snorting and choking, trying to hold in peels of joviality, and looking for all the world like I was having problems with breathing.

Later, when I was free from the class, and the day's restraints, I went to a pub, bought a beer, and read some more where no one would mind the occasional peal of laughter.

This is a wonderful book.

The writing is superb. This is what writing should be like. And yet, it has a fun wit, a hopefulness, and a fondness for life that most literary works thoroughly lack. It definitely leans more towards A.J. Jacobs territory in (memoir)humor, which I can't complain about since I also love .A.J. Jacobs books. Laughter is medicine for the soul, laughter and information, who could ask for better than that?

I find the sexual innuendo in the book to be wonderful and tactful and tactless at the same time. Being relatively low on the sexual activity scale myself, I find I have the humor of a 13 year-old boy, so this suited me quite well.

The fondness with which he speaks of his wife and his family and his life are deeply refreshing and encouraging.

I also find the information about gardening to be fun and interesting as I'm growing a garden of my own (I may not want to know what my own "overhead" is). He describes the highs and lows of that glorious and gorry dance called "gardening" with a comforting sense of awe, determination, and self-deprication.

And the voice, though the narrator is male, is one that I relate to without fail (it could be the writing is that good, it could be that all English majors think a little alike, it could be I wouldn't have picked up the book except that it struck a fraternal cord in me).

I find myself sad that I can't just put the book on my shelf to go back and pick up and read whenever I need information or a laugh. I find myself wanting to highlight the really witty or profound parts so I can quote them on facebook.

I may not have finished the book, but I already know the quality of it; very very high.

I give it a 4.6 of 5 stars.