Books move me, and one of my favorite questions is: “Hey–what have you been reading?” The answer can tell a lot about a person. When you go into a bookstore, which section do you visit first? Or if you walk up to a shelf crammed with books, which one will you feel compelled to pull out? I realize that I have some literary tendencies–that I’ll pick up nonfiction before I pick up fiction, that I’ll pick up something written within the last five hundred years before I’ll pick up something written in the last five, that I’ll gravitate towards an author I’ve never read (but always wanted to) before I pick up someone whose work I know and love. No subject gets ruled out, and if the reading list is eclectic, then something on it is bound to be good.
The following books and poems are featured on “Down and Out.” Simply click on the links to read more, and please add a comment to the page if you have a response!
Edward Abbey: Abbey’s Road (1979). Desert Solitaire (1968). A Voice Crying in the Wilderness (1990). “Down the River with Thoreau” (1982)
Donna Andrews: The Penguin Who Knew Too Much (2007)
Laurence Bergreen: Marco Polo: From Venice to Xanadu (2007)
James M. Cahalan: Edward Abbey: A Life (2001)
Paulo Coelho: The Alchemist (1993); The Devil and Miss Prym (2000); Warrior of the Light (2004)
Samuel Taylor Coleridge: “Kubla Kahn” (1797)
Emily Dickinson: Selected Poems from Complete Poems (1924)
Annie Dillard: Pilgrim at Tinker Creek (1974); The Writing Life (1989)
Kim Edwards: The Memory Keeper’s Daughter (2005)
Fergus Fleming: Killing Dragons: The Conquest of the Alps (2000)
Rita Golden Gelman: Tales of a Female Nomad (2001)
Elizabeth Gilbert: The Last American Man (2002)
John Harlin III: The Eiger Obsession (2007)
Peter Heller: The Whale Warriors (2007)
Samantha Hunt: The Invention of Everything Else; 2008
Michio Kaku: Physics of Impossibility; 2008
John Keats: “Ode to a Nightingale” (1819)
Ted Kerasote: Merle’s Door (2007)
Jack Kerouac: On the Road (1957)
R.M. Kinder: An Absolute Gentleman (2007)
Joseph Wood Krutch: The Voice of the Desert (1954)
Anne Lamott: Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life (1994)
Madeleine L’Engle: Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art (1980)
Barry Lopez: Arctic Dreams (1986)
Peter Matthiessen: The Snow Leopard (1978). End of the Earth (2003)
Robert McFarlane: Mountains of the Mind (2003)
David Michaelis: Schulz and Peanuts (2007)
Joyce Carol Oates: The Faith of a Writer: Life, Craft, Art (2003)
Susan Orlean: My Kind of Place (2005)
George Orwell: Down and Out in Paris and London (1933)
Melissa Holbrook Pierson: The Place You Love is Gone (2006)
Michael Pollan: In Defense of Food; 2008
Jonathan Raban: Passage to Juneau (1999)
Mary Roach: Stiff (2003)
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry: Wind, Sand, Stars (1939)
David Sedaris: Me Talk Pretty One Day (2000)
Spirit in a Strange Land: A Selection of New Zealand Spiritual Verse (anthology, 2002)
John Steinbeck: Travels with Charley (1962)
Alfred Lord Tennyson: “In Memoriam, A.H.H.” (1850). “Ulysses” (1842)
Dylan Thomas: “Do not go gentle into that good night” (1951)
Henry David Thoreau: Walden (1854)
Terry Tempest Williams: RED: Passion and Patience in the Desert (2001)
William Wordsworth: “The World is Too Much With Us” (1806)
2 responses so far ↓
Glenna Murdock // November 1, 2007 at 6:44 am
Hi Traci,
I like your booklist. I haven’t read all the books you mention but I, too, tend to favor non-fiction. And, we share a couple of favorite authors: Annie Dillard and Anne LaMott. I love everything by Anne LaMott, fiction and non. Given your nature girl propensities, you should read Doug Robinson’s A Night on the Ground, A Day in the Open. Doug is one of my favorite writers. He strings words together so beautifully—to me, even his emails are works of literary art . I adore talking books (that’s talking about books, not books that talk)—we should do more of that.
Are you still racing your bike?
Glenna
Literature: 2007 Best Reads « DOWN and OUT // December 28, 2007 at 10:32 pm
[...] BOOKLIST [...]
Leave a Comment