100 Best Nature Books of All Time

A novel about a young woman determined to make her way in the wilds of North Carolina, and the two men that will break her isolation open.

For years, rumors of the "Marsh Girl" have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. She's barefoot and wild; unfit for polite society. So in late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark.

But

Recommended by Reese Witherspoon and Kris Crocker.

Reese Witherspoon

Actress, Author, Founder/Hello Sunshine

Great article about the success of Where the Crawdads Sing. Did you read the book? @ReesesBookClub 🤗 https://t.co/w1ZgQLRzsx [source]

Kris Crocker

@spokanelibrary I love this book!! [source]

3

Walden

Henry David Thoreau

4.9

At Walden Pond, Henry David Thoreau reflected on simpler living in the natural world. By removing himself from the distractions of materialism, Thoreau hoped to not only improve his spiritual life but also gain a better understanding of society through solitary introspection.

In Walden, Thoreau condenses his two-year, two-month, two-day stay into a single year, using the four seasons to symbolize h

Recommended by Emma Watson, Donna Dickenson, Emily Thomas, and 5 others.

Donna Dickenson

He discusses how the original ideals that America was founded on were being compromised, and how massive industrial interests were starting to dominate. [source]

Emily Thomas

The beginning is hard going. Once you get past that, then suddenly you’re into these beautiful and inspiring descriptions of nature. [source]

Joan Boixados

In case you were deceived and expected me to name Walden by Henry David Thoreau, you should read it too if you haven’t, it obviously is the inspiration to Walden Two. :) [source]

4

The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History

Elizabeth Kolbert

4.9

Over the last half-billion years, there have been five mass extinctions, when the diversity of life on earth suddenly and dramatically contracted. Scientists around the world are currently monitoring the sixth extinction, predicted to be the most devastating extinction event since the asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs. This time around, the cataclysm is us.

In prose that is at once fran

Recommended by Barack Obama, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, and 6 others.

Barack Obama

Former USA President

The president also released a list of his summer favorites back in 2015: All That Is, James Salter The Sixth Extinction, Elizabeth Kolbert The Lowland, Jhumpa Lahiri Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates Washington: A Life, Ron Chernow All the Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr [source]

Bill Gates

CEO/Microsoft

The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History, by Elizabeth Kolbert. Climate change is a big problem—one of the biggest we’ll face this century—but it’s not the only environmental concern on the horizon. Humans are putting down massive amounts of pavement, moving species around the planet, over-fishing and acidifying the oceans, changing the chemical composition of rivers, and more. Natural scientists posit that there have been five extinction events in the Earth’s history (think of the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs), and Kolbert makes a compelling case that human activity is leading to the sixth. Unlike a lot of people who write about the environment, Kolbert doesn’t resort to hype. She just lays out the facts and wraps them in memorable anecdotes. It’s a sobering but engaging and informative read. [source]

Jeff Bezos

Founder/Amazon

"In his autobiography, Walmart's founder expounds on the principles of discount retailing and discusses his core values of frugality and a bias for action — a willingness to try a lot of things and make many mistakes. Bezos included both in Amazon's corporate values," Brad Stone writes. [source]

5

A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail

Bill Bryson

4.9

The Appalachian Trail stretches from Georgia to Maine and covers some of the most breathtaking terrain in America—majestic mountains, silent forests, sparking lakes. If you’re going to take a hike, it’s probably the place to go. And Bill Bryson is surely the most entertaining guide you’ll find. He introduces us to the history and ecology of the trail and to some of the other hardy (or just foolhar

6

A Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There

Aldo Leopold

4.8

First published in 1949, A Sand County Almanac combines some of the finest nature writing since Thoreau with an outspoken and highly ethical regard for America's relationship to the land.

Written with an unparalleled understanding of the ways of nature, the book includes a section on the monthly changes of the Wisconsin countryside; another part that gathers informal pieces written by Leopold over

Recommended by Isabella Tree, Mark Boyle, and Mike Phillips.

Isabella Tree

Leopold wrote that one of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds. To me, that rings painfully true. [source]

I love many books, but I am in love with A Sand County Almanac. [source]

Mike Phillips

It speaks to the need for us to recognize we’re just as much a part of this planet as the wondrous diversity of life that still surrounds us. [source]

7

Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants

Robin Wall Kimmerer

4.8

As a botanist, Robin Wall Kimmerer has been trained to ask questions of nature with the tools of science. As a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, she embraces the notion that plants and animals are our oldest teachers. In Braiding Sweetgrass, Kimmerer brings these lenses of knowledge together to show that the awakening of a wider ecological consciousness requires the acknowledgment and celeb

Recommended by Oliver Sacks Fdn. and Sarah Taber.

Oliver Sacks Fdn.

As a writer, Oliver Sacks found gardens essential to the creative process. Check out our year-end newsletter, devoted to some beautiful books by botanist-writers that would make great gifts for all your plant-loving friends. https://t.co/2U8iEv4L1x https://t.co/IK1cgIMJhE [source]

Sarah Taber

Yeah that's because most of those books are actually just sanctimonious classists pretending they're trying to fix problems. That's why they're depressing If you want a book that's actually about moving forward, "Braiding Sweetgrass" is FANTASTIC. https://t.co/Drr1tmwhSs [source]

8

Desert Solitaire

Edward Abbey

4.7

First published in 1968, Desert Solitaire is one of Edward Abbey’s most critically acclaimed works and marks his first foray into the world of nonfiction writing. Written while Abbey was working as a ranger at Arches National Park outside of Moab, Utah, Desert Solitaire is a rare view of one man’s quest to experience nature in its purest form.

Through prose that is by turns passionate and poetic, A

Recommended by Hari Kunzru and Robert Macfarlane.

Hari Kunzru

He has a deep love for this place and he’s amusing to read because he’s such a strong personality. His writing is extraordinary. [source]

Abbey is full of passion, fury and contempt – a fiery fighter to shake up the sometimes over-tranquil atmosphere of nature writing. [source]

9

Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail

Cheryl Strayed

4.7

An alternate cover for this ISBN can be found here.

At twenty-two, Cheryl Strayed thought she had lost everything. In the wake of her mother’s death, her family scattered and her own marriage was soon destroyed. Four years later, with nothing more to lose, she made the most impulsive decision of her life. With no experience or training, driven only by blind will, she would hike more than a thousand

Recommended by Emma Watson and Nancy Goldstone.

Nancy Goldstone

I found the narrative honest and riveting. The author used the journey through the hiking trail to work out her problems. [source]

10

The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt's New World

Andrea Wulf

4.7

The acclaimed author of Founding Gardeners reveals the forgotten life of Alexander von Humboldt, the visionary German naturalist whose ideas changed the way we see the natural world—and in the process created modern environmentalism.

Alexander von Humboldt (1769 – 1859) was an intrepid explorer and the most famous scientist of his age. In North America, his name still graces four counties, thirtee

11

Silent Spring

Rachel Carson

4.7

Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring was first published in three serialized excerpts in the New Yorker in June of 1962. The book appeared in September of that year and the outcry that followed its publication forced the banning of DDT and spurred revolutionary changes in the laws affecting our air, land, and water. Carson’s passionate concern for the future of our planet reverberated powerfully througho

Recommended by John Kerry.

John Kerry

I’d start with Silent Spring by Rachel Carson, which looked at how pesticide use was harming, and in some cases killing, animals and humans, and really was the first book of its kind to illustrate this environmental destruction. I’ve been so involved in the environment for years and years and that has been a great guideline – it was really the awakening, if you will, to the environmental movement and to the progress we’ve made over the last quarter century or more. [source]

12

The Overstory

Richard Powers

4.7

The Overstory is a sweeping, impassioned work of activism and resistance that is also a stunning evocation of - and paean to - the natural world. From the roots to the crown and back to the seeds, Richard Powers’s twelfth novel unfolds in concentric rings of interlocking fables that range from antebellum New York to the late twentieth-century Timber Wars of the Pacific Northwest and beyond. There

Recommended by Kwame Anthony Appiah, Martha Kearney, and Sarah Dry.

Kwame Anthony Appiah

Feels at the beginning like a series of short stories, each of which has some important thing about a tree or a kind of tree in it, but also holds some human character. You’d be a very strange person if you came away from this book not caring about what’s happening to the trees. [source]

Martha Kearney

@omrgriffiths @BBCPM @RobGMacfarlane Great idea. Loved that book. [source]

Sarah Dry

I had the experience of having the revelation that the author clearly hoped a reader would have, which is that what appears to be a book about distinct individuals—almost a book of short stories— turns out to be something more complex, in which all the characters are linked through time and space. [source]

13

H Is for Hawk

Helen MacDonald

4.7

Winner of the 2014 Samuel Johnson Prize, New York Times Bestseller, Named the Amazon Best Book of the Month for March 2015, #1 Bestseller in the UK, H IS FOR HAWK by Helen Macdonald. Magnificent, splendid memoirs woven with nature and a healing process of grief from the bereavement of her beloved father. In Korean. Annotation copyright Tsai Fong Books, Inc. Distributed by Tsai Fong Books, Inc.

Recommended by Barack Obama, Gail Kelly, Diana Kimball, and 1 others.

Barack Obama

Former USA President

Just like us, the president enjoys a good beach read while relaxing in the sun. In 2016, he released his list of summer vacation books: Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life, William Finnegan H Is for Hawk, Helen Macdonald The Girl on the Train, Paula Hawkins Seveneves, Neal Stephenson The Underground Railroad, Colson Whitehead [source]

Nick Pyenson

H is for Hawk feels like the definitive statement on hawks for the modern times, and I think its success has a lot to do with how well Macdonald tied her inquiry into the life of a hawk with her own personal experience and journey. [source]

14

Into the Wild

Jon Krakauer

4.6

Librarian's Note: An alternate cover edition can be found here

In April, 1992, a young man from a well-to-do family hitchhiked to Alaska and walked alone into the wilderness north of Mt. McKinley. His name was Christopher Johnson McCandless. He had given $25,000 in savings to charity, abandoned his car and most of his possessions, burned all the cash in his wallet, and invented a new life for himse

Recommended by Holger Seim.

Holger Seim

When it comes to adventure stories, Into the Wild. [source]

15

Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

Annie Dillard

4.6

An exhilarating meditation on nature and its seasons—a personal narrative highlighting one year's exploration on foot in the author's own neighborhood in Tinker Creek, Virginia. In the summer, Dillard stalks muskrats in the creek and contemplates wave mechanics; in the fall she watches a monarch butterfly migration and dreams of Arctic caribou. She tries to con a coot; she collects pond water and

Recommended by Laura Dassow Walls and Sara Maitland.

Laura Dassow Walls

She’s enacting Thoreau, but in a 20th-century context: she takes on quantum physics, the latest research on DNA and the nature of life. [source]

Sara Maitland

This book, which won the Pulitzer literature prize when it was released, is the most beautiful book about the wild. [source]

16

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

Yuval Noah Harari

4.6

100,000 years ago, at least six human species inhabited the earth. Today there is just one. Us. Homo sapiens.

How did our species succeed in the battle for dominance? Why did our foraging ancestors come together to create cities and kingdoms? How did we come to believe in gods, nations and human rights; to trust money, books and laws; and to be enslaved by bureaucracy, timetables and consumerism?

Recommended by Barack Obama, Bill Gates, Reid Hoffman, and 34 others.

Barack Obama

Former USA President

Fact or fiction, the president knows that reading keeps the mind sharp. He also delved into these non-fiction reads. [source]

Bill Gates

CEO/Microsoft

Both Melinda and I read this one, and it has sparked lots of great conversations at our dinner table. Harari takes on a daunting challenge: to tell the entire history of the human race in just 400 pages. He also writes about our species today and how artificial intelligence, genetic engineering, and other technologies will change us in the future. Although I found things to disagree with—especially Harari’s claim that humans were better off before we started farming—I would recommend Sapiens to anyone who’s interested in the history and future of our species. [source]

Reid Hoffman

CEO/LinkedIn

A grand theory of humanity. [source]

17

The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World

Michael Pollan

4.6

Every schoolchild learns about the mutually beneficial dance of honeybees and flowers: The bee collects nectar and pollen to make honey and, in the process, spreads the flowers’ genes far and wide. In The Botany of Desire, Michael Pollan ingeniously demonstrates how people and domesticated plants have formed a similarly reciprocal relationship. He masterfully links four fundamental human desires—s

Recommended by David George Haskell and Kenneth Cox.

David George Haskell

Through the stories of four familiar plant species–apples, tulips, marijuana, and potatoes–he demolishes the erroneous impression that we’re in charge. [source]

Kenneth Cox

You can’t fail to be fascinated by this exposition of the motivations of plants to cuddle up to humans. One of several excellent Michael Pollan books, it’s a fun read. [source]

18

The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals

Michael Pollan

4.5

What should we have for dinner? For omnivore's like ourselves, this simple question has always posed a dilemma: When you can eat just about anything nature (or the supermarket) has to offer, deciding what you should eat will inevitably stir anxiety, especially when some of the foods on offer might shorten your life. Today, buffeted by one food fad after another, America is suffering from what can

Recommended by Barry Estabrook, Gabriel Coarna, Paul Rozin, and 1 others.

Barry Estabrook

Michael Pollan looks at food production through four meals. One is a fast-food meal, the other is an industrial-scale organic meal, then there is a small-scale organic meal and finally he actually goes out and either grows or kills, in the case of the meat, the entire meal himself. That is the narrative. [source]

Gabriel Coarna

Michael Pollan's "The Omnivore's Dilemma" --more precisely, the first 3rd of it-- was what first made me realize how badly the Earth, as an ecosystem, is out of balance. [source]

Paul Rozin

Michael Pollan is an excellent journalist who specializes in the food domain.He proposes relying more on whole foods and less on processed foods, like Oreo Cookies. He argues that unprocessed foods are more nutritious, more wholistic and better for the environment. [source]

19

Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster

Jon Krakauer

4.5

When Jon Krakauer reached the summit of Mt. Everest in the early afternoon of May 10, 1996, he hadn't slept in fifty-seven hours and was reeling from the brain-altering effects of oxygen depletion. As he turned to begin his long, dangerous descent from 29,028 feet, twenty other climbers were still pushing doggedly toward the top. No one had noticed that the sky had begun to fill with clouds. Six h

Recommended by Richard Branson, Cristina Riesen, Fabrice Grinda, and 2 others.

Founder/Virgin Group

Today is World Book Day, a wonderful opportunity to address this #ChallengeRichard sent in by Mike Gonzalez of New Jersey: Make a list of your top 65 books to read in a lifetime. [source]

Cristina Riesen

First, a word on career paths. In time, I realised that career paths are like one-way streets. Magic happens in unexplored territories. Plus life is how you choose to live every moment, every day. So today, rather than building a career, I prefer to make lateral moves in life, working with great people and being part of ambitious projects impacting the world. There are a few books that got me here: … Jon Krakauer "Into Thin Air". [source]

Fabrice Grinda

I have lots of books to recommend, but they are not related to my career path. The only one that is remotely related is Peter Thiel’s Zero to One. That said here are books I would recommend. [source]

20

The Genius of Birds

Jennifer Ackerman

4.4

Birds are astonishingly intelligent creatures. According to revolutionary new research, some birds rival primates and even humans in their remarkable forms of intelligence.

In The Genius of Birds, acclaimed author Jennifer Ackerman explores the newly discovered brilliance of birds. As she travels around the world to the most cutting-edge frontiers of research--the distant laboratories of Barbados

21

The Nature Fix: Why Nature Makes Us Happier, Healthier, and More Creative

Florence Williams

4.4

From forest trails in Korea, to islands in Finland, to eucalyptus groves in California, Florence Williams investigates the science behind nature’s positive effects on the brain. Delving into brand-new research, she uncovers the powers of the natural world to improve health, promote reflection and innovation, and strengthen our relationships. As our modern lives shift dramatically indoors, these id

22

Underland

Robert Macfarlane

4.4

From the best-selling, award-winning author of Landmarks and The Old Ways, a haunting voyage into the planet’s past and future.

Hailed as "the great nature writer of this generation" (Wall Street Journal), Robert Macfarlane is the celebrated author of books about the intersections of the human and the natural realms. In Underland, he delivers his masterpiece: an epic exploration of the Earth’s unde

Recommended by Alastair Humphreys, Cal Flyn, and Jonathan Green.

Alastair Humphreys

The cleverest and nicest man in the world of travel writing has just published a brilliant new book which you should definitely buy. And so has @robgmacfarlane... 😂 https://t.co/7tWMRoB08W https://t.co/2UmUfDUqpt [source]

Cal Flyn

Having climbed the highest heights in his debut Mountains of the Mind, Macfarlane now dives down to the lowest of the lows. He goes caving in limestone caverns deep underground, rattles through salt mines under the sea in carts and stumbles across (literal) underground subcultures in the Paris catacombs, all interwoven with learned digressions into geological epochs and classical conceptions of the underworld. What can I say? Macfarlane is the most remarkable writer. [source]

Jonathan Green

@mmbrenn yes the best book i read last year without question. beautiful. harrowing. [source]

23

Last Chance to See

Douglas Adams, Mark Carwardine

4.4

"Very funny and moving...The glimpses of rare fauna seem to have enlarged [Adams'] thinking, enlivened his world; and so might the animals do for us all, if we were to help them live."
THE WASHINGTON POST BOOK WORLD
Join bestselling author Douglas Adams and zooligist Mark Carwardine as they take off around the world in search of exotic, endangered creatures. Hilarious and poignant--as only Douglas A

Recommended by Beth Shapiro, Gaia Vince, and Mark Lynas.

Beth Shapiro

He describes in this book not only the beauty of these animals, but the human landscape they live in and what a disastrous time he has getting to these locations. [source]

Gaia Vince

This is a book obviously for readers but it’s also a book for writers of science to understand how to capture the imagination of readers. [source]

Mark Lynas

For me, Last Chance to See is a real eye-opener, with the idea that you can take a depressing subject – species on the verge of extinction – and present it in a way which is so engaging, so funny and so humane. [source]

24

The Lost Art of Reading Nature's Signs: Use Outdoor Clues to Find Your Way, Predict the Weather, Locate Water, Track Animals—and Other Forgotten Skills

Tristan Gooley

4.4

Turn Every Walk into a Game of Detection

When writer and navigator Tristan Gooley journeys outside, he sees a natural world filled with clues. The roots of a tree indicate the sun’s direction; the Big Dipper tells the time; a passing butterfly hints at the weather; a sand dune reveals prevailing wind; the scent of cinnamon suggests altitude; a budding flower points south. To help you understand nat

25

The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration Into the Wonder of Consciousness

Sy Montgomery

4.4

In pursuit of the wild, solitary, predatory octopus, popular naturalist Sy Montgomery has practiced true immersion journalism. From New England aquarium tanks to the reefs of French Polynesia and the Gulf of Mexico, she has befriended octopuses with strikingly different personalities—gentle Athena, assertive Octavia, curious Kali, and joyful Karma. Each creature shows her cleverness in myriad ways

26

Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder

Richard Louv

4.4

"I like to play indoors better 'cause that's where all the electrical outlets are," reports a fourth-grader. Never before in history have children been so plugged in—and so out of touch with the natural world. In this groundbreaking new work, child advocacy expert Richard Louv directly links the lack of nature in the lives of today's wired generation—he calls it nature deficit—to some of the most

Recommended by Genevieve Von Lob.

Genevieve Von Lob

Louv coined the term ‘Nature Deficit Disorder’ because he was so concerned about the alienation of young people from nature. [source]

27

The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection: Or, the Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life

Charles Darwin

4.4

Darwin's theory of natural selection issued a profound challenge to orthodox thought and belief: no being or species has been specifically created; all are locked into a pitiless struggle for existence, with extinction looming for those not fitted for the task.

Yet The Origin of Species (1859) is also a humane and inspirational vision of ecological interrelatedness, revealing the complex mutual in

Recommended by Neil deGrasse Tyson, Mark Kurlansky, Adam Maloof, and 3 others.

Neil deGrasse Tyson

Astrophysicist, Author & Science Communicator

Which books should be read by every single intelligent person on planet? … On the Origin of Species (Darwin) to learn of our kinship with all other life on Earth. If you read all of the above works you will glean profound insight into most of what has driven the history of the western world. [source]

Mark Kurlansky

It is one of the most important books written, and I always urge people to read it. [source]

Adam Maloof

For me (and many others) this book forms the foundation for modern biology. It is all about humans’ concept of themselves. [source]

28

Lab Girl

Hope Jahren

4.4

Acclaimed scientist Hope Jahren has built three laboratories in which she’s studied trees, flowers, seeds, and soil. Her first book is a revelatory treatise on plant life—but it is also so much more.

Lab Girl is a book about work, love, and the mountains that can be moved when those two things come together. It is told through Jahren’s stories: about her childhood in rural Minnesota with an uncomp

Recommended by Gail Kelly.

29

The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating

Elisabeth Tova Bailey

4.4

In a work that beautifully demonstrates the rewards of closely observing nature, Elisabeth Bailey shares an inspiring and intimate story of her uncommon encounter with a Neohelix albolabris —a common woodland snail.

While an illness keeps her bedridden, Bailey watches a wild snail that has taken up residence on her nightstand. As a result, she discovers the solace and sense of wonder that this mys

Recommended by Mark Kurlansky.

Mark Kurlansky

This is the autobiographical story of a woman who gets ill with a mysterious virus that totally incapacitates her for years. Somebody brings her a violet in a pot which has a snail on it, and she becomes fascinated with this snail. And she starts to learn everything about snails, which are not what you would have as the usual household pet. It is an engaging story of snails, which is surprising. This is also an example of a book that you would want to have in your library, because it is such a handsome book and nicely illustrated. It is a beautiful little book which is written with a real gentleness and is very enjoyable to read. [source]

30

The Snow Leopard

Peter Matthiessen

4.3

When Matthiessen went to Nepal to study the Himalayan blue sheep and, possibly, to glimpse the rare and beautiful snow leopard, he undertook his five-week trek as winter snows were sweeping into the high passes. This is a radiant and deeply moving account of a "true pilgrimage, a journey of the heart."

Recommended by Nick Pyenson.

Nick Pyenson

The book stands apart and it remains fresh because of the ways that Matthiessen weaves his exploration of the outer world with his own inner one. [source]

31

Never Cry Wolf: The Amazing True Story of Life Among Arctic Wolves

Farley Mowat

4.3

More than a half-century ago the naturalist Farley Mowat was sent to investigate why wolves were killing arctic caribou. Mowat's account of the summer he lived in the frozen tundra alone—studying the wolf population and developing a deep affection for the wolves (who were of no threat to caribou or man)—is today celebrated as a classic of nature writing, at once a tale of remarkable adventures and

32

Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses

Robin Wall Kimmerer

4.3

Living at the limits of our ordinary perception, mosses are a common but largely unnoticed element of the natural world. Gathering Moss is a beautifully written mix of science and personal reflection that invites readers to explore and learn from the elegantly simple lives of mosses.Robin Wall Kimmerer's book is not an identification guide, nor is it a scientific treatise. Rather, it is a series o

Recommended by Caspar Henderson.

Caspar Henderson

She writes vividly about what it’s like to walk across moss in bare feet and to notice it for the first time and to notice the incredible world within moss and the creatures that live within it. [source]

33

The Forest Unseen: A Year’s Watch in Nature

David George Haskell

4.3

A biologist reveals the secret world hidden in a single square meter of forest.

In this wholly original book, biologist David Haskell uses a one-square-meter patch of old-growth Tennessee forest as a window onto the entire natural world. Visiting it almost daily for one year to trace nature’s path through the seasons, he brings the forest and its inhabitants to vivid life.

Each of this book’s short

34

The Living Mountain: A Celebration of the Cairngorm Mountains of Scotland

Nan Shepherd, Robert Macfarlane

4.3

In this masterpiece of nature writing, Nan Shepherd describes her journeys into the Cairngorm mountains of Scotland. There she encounters a world that can be breathtakingly beautiful at times and shockingly harsh at others. Her intense, poetic prose explores and records the rocks, rivers, creatures and hidden aspects of this remarkable landscape.

Shepherd spent a lifetime in search of the 'essentia

Recommended by Cal Flyn and Robert Macfarlane.

Cal Flyn

This slim work of nature writing, an account of gentle and repeated interaction with those same mountains in all seasons, requires total immersion. [source]

This book is a geo-philosophical meditation on the Cairngorm landscape in particular, but more generally on how mind and place interpenetrate, as Shepherd puts it. It’s a sensual and, well, erotic text. Shepherd talks about tasting the landscape, and describes walking barefoot, sleeping out. It’s the record of a long-term and full-body immersion in a place. [source]

35

Nature Anatomy

Julia Rothman

4.3

See the world in a new way! Acclaimed illustrator Julia Rothman celebrates the diverse curiosities and beauty of the natural world in this exciting new volume. With whimsically hip illustrations, every page is an extraordinary look at all kinds of subjects, from mineral formation and the inside of a volcano to what makes sunsets, monarch butterfly migration, the ecosystem of a rotting log, the par

36

My Family and Other Animals (Corfu Trilogy #1)

Gerald Durrell

4.3

When the unconventional Durrell family can no longer endure the damp, gray English climate, they do what any sensible family would do: sell their house and relocate to the sunny Greek isle of Corfu. My Family and Other Animals was intended to embrace the natural history of the island but ended up as a delightful account of Durrell's family's experiences, from the many eccentric hangers-on to the c

Recommended by M G Leonard.

M G Leonard

It’s a real work of genius and needs to be kept on every child’s bedside table. [source]

37

A Short History of Nearly Everything

Bill Bryson

4.3

In Bryson's biggest book, he confronts his greatest challenge: to understand—and, if possible, answer—the oldest, biggest questions we have posed about the universe and ourselves. Taking as territory everything from the Big Bang to the rise of civilization, Bryson seeks to understand how we got from there being nothing at all to there being us. To that end, he has attached himself to a host of the

Recommended by Amanda Palmer, David Goldberg, and Fabrice Grinda.

Amanda Palmer

Amanda Palmer recommended this book in the book "Tools of Titans". [source]

David Goldberg

What I really liked about A Short History of Nearly Everything is that it gives an excellent account of a lot of the personalities and the interconnectedness of important discoveries in cosmology and elsewhere. He does such a great job of bringing together our understanding of cosmology, evolution, paleontology, and geology in a very, very fluid way. [source]

Fabrice Grinda

I have lots of books to recommend, but they are not related to my career path. The only one that is remotely related is Peter Thiel’s Zero to One. That said here are books I would recommend. [source]

38

Wilding

Isabella Tree, Eric Schlosser

4.3

For many years Isabella Tree and Charlie Burrell struggled to make a go as farmers, doing everything they could to make the heavy clay soils of their farm at Knepp in West Sussex as productive as possible, while rarely succeeding in making a profit. By 2000, facing bankruptcy, the couple decided they would try something new. They would hand their 3,500 acres, farmed for centuries, even millennia,

Recommended by Ben Goldsmith and Mark Boyle.

Ben Goldsmith

@ErikSolheim Allowing nature to recover by itself is even cheaper, a la Wilding, by @isabella_tree (a book you must order and read). [source]

Wilding is about an extraordinary experiment at the 3,500-acre Knepp Wildland Project, and an example of what can happen when we learn to do the hardest thing of all: nothing. [source]

39

The Old Ways: A Journey on Foot

Robert Macfarlane

4.3

40

The World Without Us

Alan Weisman

4.2

A penetrating, page-turning tour of a post-human Earth

In The World Without Us, Alan Weisman offers an utterly original approach to questions of humanity's impact on the planet: he asks us to envision our Earth, without us. In this far-reaching narrative, Weisman explains how our massive infrastructure would collapse and finally vanish without human presence; which everyday items may become immorta

Recommended by Richard Branson.

Founder/Virgin Group

Today is World Book Day, a wonderful opportunity to address this #ChallengeRichard sent in by Mike Gonzalez of New Jersey: Make a list of your top 65 books to read in a lifetime. [source]

41

Winter World: The Ingenuity of Animal Survival

Bernd Heinrich

4.2

From award-winning writer and biologist Bernd Heinrich, an intimate, accessible and eloquent illumination of animal survival in Winter.

From flying squirrels to grizzly bears, torpid turtles to insects with antifreeze, the animal kingdom relies on some staggering evolutionary innovations to survive winter. Unlike their human counterparts, who must alter their environment to accommodate our physical

42

Wildwood: A Journey Through Trees

Roger Deakin

4.2

Here, published for the first time in the United States, is the last book by Roger Deakin, famed British nature writer and icon of the environmentalist movement. In Deakin's glorious meditation on wood, the "fifth element" -- as it exists in nature, in our culture, and in our souls -- the reader accompanies Deakin through the woods of Britain, Europe, Kazakhstan, and Australia in search of what li

Recommended by Robert Macfarlane.

@OliverPyle @emergence_zine Wildwood is such a special book. The brilliant illustrations in this new @emergence_zine version of the apple-chapter are by Naï Zakharia. She's caught the atmosphere so well, I think. [source]

43

Upstream: Selected Essays

Mary Oliver

4.2

One of O, The Oprah Magazine's Ten Best Books of the Year!

The New York Times bestselling collection of essays from beloved poet, Mary Oliver.

"In the beginning I was so young and such a stranger to myself I hardly existed. I had to go out into the world and see it and hear it and react to it, before I knew at all who I was, what I was, what I wanted to be."

So begins Upstream, a collection of essay

44

Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are?

Frans de Waal

4.2

What separates your mind from an animal’s? Maybe you think it’s your ability to design tools, your sense of self, or your grasp of past and future—all traits that have helped us define ourselves as the planet’s preeminent species. But in recent decades, these claims have eroded, or even been disproven outright, by a revolution in the study of animal cognition. Take the way octopuses use coconut sh

45

Landmarks

Robert Macfarlane

4.2

'Enormously pleasurable, deeply moving. A bid to save our rich hoard of landscape language, and a blow struck for the power of a deep creative relationship to place' Financial Times

Landmarks is Robert Macfarlane's joyous meditation on words, landscape and the relationship between the two.

Words are grained into our landscapes, and landscapes are grained into our words. Landmarks is about the power

46

The Stranger in the Woods: The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit

Michael Finkel

4.2

A National Geographic Best Book of the Year

National Bestseller

Many people dream of escaping modern life. Most will never act on it--but in 1986, twenty-year-old Christopher Knight did just that when he left his home in Massachusetts, drove to Maine, and disappeared into the woods. He would not have a conversation with another person for the next twenty-seven years.

Drawing on extensive interviews

47

The Wild Trees: A Story of Passion and Daring

Richard Preston

4.2

From the #1 bestselling author of The Hot Zone comes an amazing account of scientific and spiritual passion for the tallest trees in the world, the startling biosystem of Rthe canopy, S and those who are committed to the preservation of this astonishing and largely unknown world.

48

The Call of the Wild

Jack London

4.2

First published in 1903, The Call of the Wild is regarded as Jack London's masterpiece. Based on London's experiences as a gold prospector in the Canadian wilderness and his ideas about nature and the struggle for existence, The Call of the Wild is a tale about unbreakable spirit and the fight for survival in the frozen Alaskan Klondike.

49

The Wild Places

Robert Macfarlane

4.2

"An eloquent (and compulsively readable) reminder that, though we're laying waste the world, nature still holds sway over much of the earth's surface."
Bill McKibben

Are there any genuinely wild places left in Britain and Ireland? That is the question that Robert Macfarlane poses to himself as he embarks on a series of breathtaking journeys through some of the archipelago's most remarkable landscap

50

The Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinctions

David Quammen

4.2

David Quammen's book, The Song of the Dodo, is a brilliant, stirring work, breathtaking in its scope, far-reaching in its message -- a crucial book in precarious times, which radically alters the way in which we understand the natural world and our place in that world. It's also a book full of entertainment and wonders.
In The Song of the Dodo, we follow Quammen's keen intellect through the ideas

Recommended by Isabella Tree, Sean B Carroll, and TC Boyle.

Isabella Tree

Quammen’s wondrous peregrination of islands takes us on a journey of evolutions and extinctions in order to illustrate how like islands our continents have become. [source]

Sean B Carroll

The book covers the role that islands have played in our thinking about how nature works. [source]

TC Boyle

A brilliant journalist who can tell scientific stories with the kind of panache you’d expect from a novelist. [source]

51

American Wolf

Nate Blakeslee

4.2

ISBN moved from this edition
The enthralling story of the rise and reign of O-Six, the celebrated Yellowstone wolf, and the people who loved or feared her

Before men ruled the earth, there were wolves. Once abundant in North America, these majestic creatures were hunted to near extinction in the lower 48 states by the 1920s. But in recent decades, conservationists have brought wolves back to the Roc

52

Thinking in Systems: A Primer

Donella H. Meadows

4.2

Meadows’ Thinking in Systems, is a concise and crucial book offering insight for problem solving on scales ranging from the personal to the global. Edited by the Sustainability Institute’s Diana Wright, this essential primer brings systems thinking out of the realm of computers and equations and into the tangible world, showing readers how to develop the systems-thinking skills that thought leader

Recommended by Tobi Lütke, Kate Raworth, and Mira Kirshenbaum.

Tobi Lütke

Founder & CEO/Shopify

Tobi Lütke recommended this book on the podcast "The Knowledge Project". [source]

Kate Raworth

It was a real revelation for me to discover such a different approach to thinking and analysing challenges. [source]

Mira Kirshenbaum

A nice overview of how initial conditions lead to patterns that determine what the relationship feels like to the people in it [source]

53

The Peregrine

J. A. Baker, Robert Macfarlane

4.2

From autumn to spring, J.A. Baker set out to track the daily comings and goings of a pair of peregrine falcons across the flat fen lands of eastern England. He followed the birds obsessively, observing them in the air and on the ground, in pursuit of their prey, making a kill, eating, and at rest, activities he describes with an extraordinary fusion of precision and poetry. And as he continued his

Recommended by Jeremy Mynott, Robert Macfarlane, and William Fiennes.

Jeremy Mynott

It’s the story of this pursuit of the bird and how he came to feel a kind of affinity with it, and how he uses the bird as a symbol for the things he feels, or wants to feel, about the natural world. [source]

Baker turned his bulging set of ornithological field journals into a 120-page prose poem. It’s astonishingly energy-filled. [source]

William Fiennes

It’s hard to imagine a greater contrast with U and I, although it was written by another Baker. My book The Snow Geese had a lot to do with birds and the non-human world around us, but I didn’t read this book until I’d finished. I wish I’d read it earlier than I did. The way he describes the world outside him, particularly birds, is so electric. It avoids all the traps of rhapsody and the sort of nature writing that Evelyn Waugh satirises in Scoop. You remember William Boot the protagonist of Scoop? He writes a nature column that’s a terrible, sub-poetic kind of purple-word haze. But The Peregrine is far removed from that. [source]

54

Wicked Plants: The Weed That Killed Lincoln's Mother and Other Botanical Atrocities

Amy Stewart and Briony Morrow-Cribbs

4.2

Recommended by Asher Wolf.

Asher Wolf

So @Zemmiph0bia loaned me an amazing book https://t.co/vwJmtd8qBA [source]

55

Prodigal Summer

Barbara Kingsolver

4.2

Prodigal Summer weaves together three stories of human love within a larger tapestry of lives inhabiting the forested mountains and struggling small farms of southern Appalachia.

From her outpost in an isolated mountain cabin, Deanna Wolfe, a reclusive wildlife biologist, watches a den of coyotes that have recently migrated into the region. She is caught off-guard by a young hunter who invades her

56

The Lost Words

Macfarlane

4.2

From Acorn to Weasel: a gorgeous, hand-illustrated, large-format spellbook celebrating the magic and wonder of the natural world

All over the country, there are words disappearing from children's lives. Words like Dandelion, Otter, Bramble, Acorn and Lark represent the natural world of childhood, a rich landscape of discovery and imagination that is fading from children's minds.

The Lost Words stand

Recommended by Zoe Greaves.

Zoe Greaves

The illustrations are utterly breathtaking. Jackie Morris is an illustrator that I just find astonishing—she’s got to be one of the most brilliant artists working in children’s books at the moment. [source]

57

The Giving Tree

Shel Silverstein

4.2

"Once there was a tree...and she loved a little boy."

So begins a story of unforgettable perception, beautifully written and illustrated by the gifted and versatile Shel Silverstein.

Every day the boy would come to the tree to eat her apples, swing from her branches, or slide down her trunk...and the tree was happy. But as the boy grew older he began to want more from the tree, and the tree gave and

Recommended by Kaci Lambe Kai, Neal Layton, and Todd Gordon.

Kaci Lambe Kai

I cry every time I read The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein. That story breaks my heart. I recently read it to my nephew (then five at the time) and I cried the whole time. [source]

Neal Layton

It’s a book full of questions, about a boy and a tree, but whether there are any answers there or not is another thing. [source]

Todd Gordon

I got to spend lunch with this wonderful group of 5 yr olds reading The Giving Tree by Shell Silverstein. Great book and good lesson about the value of friendship! (note, I have permission to post this). https://t.co/HahANdNYpq [source]

58

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life

Barbara Kingsolver

4.1

Author Barbara Kingsolver and her family abandoned the industrial-food pipeline to live a rural life—vowing that, for one year, they'd only buy food raised in their own neighborhood, grow it themselves, or learn to live without it. Part memoir, part journalistic investigation, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle is an enthralling narrative that will open your eyes in a hundred new ways to an old truth: You

59

Wesley the Owl: The Remarkable Love Story of an Owl and His Girl

Stacey O'Brien

4.1

When biologist Stacey O'Brien first met a four-day-old baby barn owl with nerve damage in one wing, she knew he had no hope of surviving on his own in the wild, so gave him a permanent home living with her. This is the funny, poignant story of their two decades together.

On Valentine's Day 1985, biologist Stacey O'Brien first met a four-day-old baby barn owl -- a fateful encounter that would turn i

60

The Sense of Wonder: A Celebration of Nature for Parents and Children

Rachel Carson

4.1

First published more than three decades ago, this reissue of Rachel Carson's award-winning classic brings her unique vision to a new generation of readers. Stunning new photographs by Nick Kelsh beautifully complement Carson's intimate account of adventures with her young nephew, Roger, as they enjoy walks along the rocky coast of Maine and through dense forests and open fields, observing wildlife

Recommended by Caspar Henderson.

Caspar Henderson

It’s a beautiful piece. [source]

61

Watership Down

Richard Adams

4.1

Set in England's Downs, a once idyllic rural landscape, this stirring tale of adventure, courage and survival follows a band of very special creatures on their flight from the intrusion of man and the certain destruction of their home. Led by a stouthearted pair of friends, they journey forth from their native Sandleford Warren through the harrowing trials posed by predators and adversaries, to a

Recommended by Jennifer Gunter, M G Leonard, Philip Reeve, and 1 others.

Jennifer Gunter

@SuetheLibrarian I suppose if you only have one great book in you Watership Down is knocking it out of the park! [source]

M G Leonard

My view of the countryside changed forever after reading the book. [source]

Philip Reeve

Watership Down is one of the most famous animal adventures ever written. It is a far stranger book than many people expect. [source]

62

My First Summer in the Sierra

John Muir

4.1

In the summer of 1869, John Muir, a young Scottish immigrant, joined a crew of shepherds in the foothills of California's Sierra Nevada Mountains. The diary he kept while tending sheep formed the heart of this book and eventually lured thousands of Americans to visit Yosemite country.

First published in 1911, My First Summer in the Sierra incorporates the lyrical accounts and sketches he produced d

63

The Monkey Wrench Gang (Monkey Wrench Gang, #1)

Edward Abbey

4.1

Ed Abbey called The Monkey Wrench Gang, his 1975 novel, a "comic extravaganza." Some readers have remarked that the book is more a comic book than a real novel, and it's true that reading this incendiary call to protect the American wilderness requires more than a little of the old willing suspension of disbelief.

The story centers on Vietnam veteran George Washington Hayduke III, who returns to th

Recommended by Mark Boyle.

The book itself is hilarious, and brilliant in its own right. It’s importance, however, in part stems from the wider impact it had in the years following its publication. It’s widely understood that the book gave rise to radical environmental groups across the world from the 1980s onwards. [source]

64

The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival

John Vaillant

4.1

It’s December 1997, and a man-eating tiger is on the prowl outside a remote village in Russia’s Far East. The tiger isn’t just killing people, it’s annihilating them, and a team of men and their dogs must hunt it on foot through the forest in the brutal cold. As the trackers sift through the gruesome remains of the victims, they discover that these attacks aren’t random: the tiger is apparently en

Recommended by Ryan Holiday and TC Boyle.

Ryan Holiday

Author

Holy shit, this book is good. Just holy shit. Even if it was just the main narrative–the chase to kill a man-eating Tiger in Siberia in post-communist Russia–it would be worth reading, but it is so much more than that. The author explains the Russian psyche, the psyche of man vs predator, the psyches of primitive peoples and animals, in such a masterful way that you’re shocked to find 1) that he knows this, and 2) that he fit it all into this readable and relatively short book. You may have heard about the story on the internet a while back: a tiger starts killing people in Russia and a team is sent to kill it (Russia is so fucked up, they already have a team for this). At one point, the tiger is cornered and leaps to attack the team leader…and in mid-air the soldier’s rifle goes into the tigers open jaws and down his throat all the way to the stock, killing the tiger at the last possible second. The autopsy later revealed that the tiger had been shot something like a dozen times during its life and lived. The story is very similar to that of the Tsavo maneaters, which was turned into the underrated Val Kilmer movie The Ghost and the Darkness. There are all sorts of well-selected threads from evolutionary psychology and biology in this book and it makes the book a self-educator’s dream. You can pick and choose which ones you want to follow next–trusting safely that the author has pointed you in an interesting and valuable direction. But that’s just the meta-stuff that is a bonus with this book, and it’s worth pointing out only because the rest of the book is just so fucking interesting and exciting. [source]

TC Boyle

Sometimes nature strikes back, and in this book you really do root for the animal. [source]

65

My Side of the Mountain (Mountain, #1)

Jean Craighead George

4.1

Every kid thinks about running away at one point or another; few get farther than the end of the block. Young Sam Gribley gets to the end of the block and keeps going--all the way to the Catskill Mountains of upstate New York. There he sets up house in a huge hollowed-out tree, with a falcon and a weasel for companions and his wits as his tool for survival. In a spellbinding, touching, funny accou

66

The Death and Life of the Great Lakes

Dan Egan

4.1

A master reporter’s landmark work of contemporary ecology.

The Great Lakes hold 20 percent of the world’s freshwater, and they provide food, work, and weekend fun for tens of millions of Americans. Yet they are under threat as never before.

In a work of narrative reporting in the vein of Rachel Carson and Elizabeth Kolbert, prize-winning reporter Dan Egan delivers an eye-opening portrait of our nati

67

All Creatures Great and Small (All Creatures Great and Small, #1)

James Herriot

4.1

The classic multimillion copy bestseller

Delve into the magical, unforgettable world of James Herriot, the world's most beloved veterinarian, and his menagerie of heartwarming, funny, and tragic animal patients.

For over forty years, generations of readers have thrilled to Herriot's marvelous tales, deep love of life, and extraordinary storytelling abilities. For decades, Herriot roamed the remote,

68

Mind of the Raven: Investigations and Adventures with Wolf-Birds

Bernd Heinrich

4.1

In Mind of the Raven, Bernd Heinrich, award - winning naturalist, finds himself dreaming of ravens and decides he must get to the truth about this animal reputed to be so intelligent.

Much like a sleuth, Heinrich involves us in his quest, letting one clue lead to the next. But as animals can only be spied on by getting quite close Heinrich adopts ravens, thereby becoming a "raven father," as well a

69

Bringing Nature Home: How Native Plants Sustain Wildlife in Our Gardens

Douglas W. Tallamy

4.1

As development and subsequent habitat destruction accelerate, there are increasing pressures on wildlife populations. But there is an important and simple step toward reversing this alarming trend: Everyone with access to a patch of earth can make a significant contribution toward sustaining biodiversity.

There is an unbreakable link between native plant species and native wildlife—native insects c

70

The Secret Garden

Frances Hodgson Burnett

4.1

"One of the most delightful and enduring classics of children's literature, The Secret Garden by Victorian author Frances Hodgson Burnett has remained a firm favorite with children the world over ever since it made its first appearance. Initially published as a serial story in 1910 in The American Magazine, it was brought out in novel form in 1911.

The plot centers round Mary Lennox, a young Engli

Recommended by Clare Morpurgo and M G Leonard.

Clare Morpurgo

The book is about a girl coming to live in England from India. She is a sickly child who had a pretty awful early childhood in India. [source]

M G Leonard

The redemptive power of the natural world and gardening was something that struck a chord with me. [source]

71

The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs: A New History of a Lost World

Steve Brusatte

4.1

Brusatte traces the evolution of dinosaurs from their inauspicious start as small shadow dwellers—themselves the beneficiaries of a mass extinction caused by volcanic eruptions at the beginning of the Triassic period—into the dominant array of species every wide-eyed child memorizes today, T. rex, Triceratops, Brontosaurus, and more. This gifted scientist and writer re-creates the dinosaurs’ peak

72

The Lorax

Dr. Seuss

4.1

"UNLESS someone like you...cares a whole awful lot...nothing is going to get better...It's not." Long before saving the earth became a global concern, Dr. Seuss, speaking through his character the Lorax, warned against mindless progress and the danger it posed to the earth's natural beauty. His classic cautionary tale is now available in an irresistible mini-edition, perfect for backpack or briefc

Recommended by Gary Bury, Georgina Stevens, and Neal Layton.

Gary Bury

Truthfully, I have 3 young kids so don’t get much time to read other than to my kids at bedtime. So you’ll understand when I say my favourite books are Children's books by Dr Seuss, they’re a joy to read and cover a range of social and political issues with an elegance and simplicity that exceeds many adult books. The anti materialism/ consumerism ‘Grinch Who Stole Christmas’ and ‘The Lorax’ about environmentalism are favourites in our house. [source]

Georgina Stevens

The best verse in town, wonderful illustrations and an honest look at what we are doing to our world – with a message that each and every one of us can make the decision to change at any moment. [source]

Neal Layton

It is a very funny story, written in rhyme, with wonderful, crazy Seuss illustrations – and a big environmental message for young readers. [source]

73

Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place

Terry Tempest Williams

4.1

In the spring of 1983 Terry Tempest Williams learned that her mother was dying of cancer. That same season, The Great Salt Lake began to rise to record heights, threatening the herons, owls, and snowy egrets that Williams, a poet and naturalist, had come to gauge her life by. One event was nature at its most random, the other a by-product of rogue technology: Terry's mother, and Terry herself, had

74

The Sea Around Us

Rachel Carson

4.1

Published in 1951, The Sea Around Us is one of the most remarkably successful books ever written about the natural world. Rachel Carson's rare ability to combine scientific insight with moving, poetic prose catapulted her book to first place on The New York Times best-seller list, where it enjoyed wide attention for thirty-one consecutive weeks. It remained on the list for more than a year and a h

Recommended by Jan Zalasiewicz.

Jan Zalasiewicz

It’s beautifully written: it’s poetic, evocative, and creates an air of mystery. [source]

75

Cosmos

Carl Sagan

4.1

Cosmos has 13 heavily illustrated chapters, corresponding to the 13 episodes of the Cosmos television series. In the book, Sagan explores 15 billion years of cosmic evolution and the development of science and civilization. Cosmos traces the origins of knowledge and the scientific method, mixing science and philosophy, and speculates to the future of science. The book also discusses the underlying

Recommended by Richard Branson, Ante Shoda, Anurag Ramdasan, and 1 others.

Founder/Virgin Group

Today is World Book Day, a wonderful opportunity to address this #ChallengeRichard sent in by Mike Gonzalez of New Jersey: Make a list of your top 65 books to read in a lifetime. [source]

Ante Shoda

It explains 14 billion years of the evolution of the universe, a sort of engineering experiment on the largest possible scale. It spans all scales of space and time, describing everything from the largest scales of the universe to the smallest scales of molecules and atoms. It’s a good book for putting everything in perspective. [source]

Anurag Ramdasan

This book helped draft a great perspective on the world and the universe at large and made me a fan of the Cosmos!

76

Arctic Dreams

Barry Lopez

4.1

Barry Lopez's National Book Award-winning classic study of the Far North is widely considered his masterpiece.

Lopez offers a thorough examination of this obscure world-its terrain, its wildlife, its history of Eskimo natives and intrepid explorers who have arrived on their icy shores. But what turns this marvelous work of natural history into a breathtaking study of profound originality is his uni

Recommended by Kate Marvel, Robert Macfarlane, and Sara Wheeler.

Kate Marvel

this book doesn’t directly address climate change. That’s one of the things I love about it. We so often hear about the Arctic in the context of threats: it’s disappearing, it’s changing, we’ll never see it again. I think it’s useful, though, to stop thinking of the Arctic only as a symbol of climate change and to remember it’s a real place. If we appreciate the Arctic for itself, maybe that makes it harder to write it off as an inevitable casualty of climate change………..I included Arctic Dreams on my list because it’s the only ‘science’ book I’ve read that’s really got close to my experience of doing science. It’s meandering and there’s no real structure; there are seriously pages and pages describing how ice melts in great detail. And then a meditation on musk oxen, and then some more ice melting. It’s all a bit of a mess, but there’s a real sense of wonder and gratitude and beauty that permeate the book. [source]

This book changed my life and really made me become a writer, if any one book did. I remember finding a very battered secondhand copy of it in a bookshop in Vancouver while I was out climbing in the Rockies, in my early twenties. [source]

Sara Wheeler

Barry Lopez is an American man and in Arctic Dreams he describes the clarity of the landscape that has such a profound effect on the human spirit. Everyone says it has a profound effect.He’s a proper nature writer and it’s a brilliant book. He wrote it 25 years ago, I think, and it’s very lyrical and uplifting………..It takes you outside your normal existence and sets you loose from your spiritual moorings. Everywhere in the Antarctic is like that and in the Arctic you feel it when you get away from the settlements. [source]

77

Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness

Peter Godfrey-Smith

4.1

Although mammals and birds are widely regarded as the smartest creatures on earth, it has lately become clear that a very distant branch of the tree of life has also sprouted higher intelligence: the cephalopods, consisting of the squid, the cuttlefish, and above all the octopus. In captivity, octopuses have been known to identify individual human keepers, raid neighboring tanks for food, turn off

Recommended by Susan Blackmore.

Susan Blackmore

An enjoyable read that will make you think. [source]

78

Owl Moon

Jane Yolen, John Schoenherr

4.1

Late one winter night a little girl and her father go owling. The trees stand still as statues and the world is silent as a dream. Whoo-whoo-whoo, the father calls to the mysterious nighttime bird.

But there is no answer.

Wordlessly the two companions walk along, for when you go owling you don't need words. You don't need anything but hope. Sometimes there isn't an owl, but sometimes there is.

Distin

79

The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming

David Wallace-Wells

4.1

It is worse, much worse, than you think. If your anxiety about global warming is dominated by fears of sea-level rise, you are barely scratching the surface of what terrors are possible. In California, wildfires now rage year-round, destroying thousands of homes. Across the US, "500-year" storms pummel communities month after month, and floods displace tens of millions annually.

This is only a prev

Recommended by Elizabeth Kolbert, Gerald Butts, Jonathan Safran Foer, and 1 others.

Elizabeth Kolbert

Author

David Wallace-Wells argues that the impacts of climate change will be much graver than most people realize, and he's right. The Uninhabitable Earth is a timely and provocative work. [source]

Gerald Butts

This is a terrific book. Not as depressing as it may sound, even oddly hopeful in the end. Great read if you suddenly have time on your hands. https://t.co/2Bo5DeT3Aa [source]

Jonathan Safran Foer

Most of us know the gist, if not the details, of the climate change crisis. And yet it is almost impossible to sustain strong feelings about it. David Wallace-Wells has now provided the details, and with writing that is not only clear and forceful, but often imaginative and even funny, he has found a way to make the information deeply felt. [source]

80

Feral: Rewilding the Land, the Sea, and Human Life

George Monbiot

4.1

To be an environmentalist early in the twenty-first century is always to be defending, arguing, acknowledging the hurdles we face in our efforts to protect wild places and fight climate change. But let’s be honest: hedging has never inspired anyone.

So what if we stopped hedging? What if we grounded our efforts to solve environmental problems in hope instead, and let nature make our case for us? T

Recommended by Amy Liptrot and Isabella Tree.

Amy Liptrot

This is a bold and radical book, which changed the way I look at the countryside. [source]

Isabella Tree

Monbiot pushed the boundaries of what rewilding should mean. [source]

81

The Julia Rothman Collection: Farm Anatomy, Nature Anatomy, and Food Anatomy

Julia Rothman

4.1

This handsome box set provides hours of enlightening entertainment for those curious about the natural world, farm life, and food. Best-selling author and illustrator Julia Rothman presents Farm Anatomy, Nature Anatomy, and Food Anatomy in a specially designed slipcase with 10 framable prints. Rothman’s popular line drawings offer a whimsical and educational guide to life on a farm, nature’s hidde

82

The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron

Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind

4.0

There were dozens of books about Watergate, but only All the President's Men gave readers the full story, with all the drama and nuance and exclusive reporting. And thirty years later, if you're going to read only one book on Watergate, that's still the one. Today, Enron is the biggest business story of our time, and Fortune senior writers Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind are the new Woodward and B

Recommended by Warren Buffett.

Warren Buffett

CEO/Berkshire Hathaway

Well-reported and well-written. [source]

83

The Outermost House: A Year of Life on the Great Beach of Cape Cod

Henry Beston

4.0

The seventy-fifth anniversary edition of the classic book about Cape Cod, "written with simplicity, sympathy, and beauty" (New York Herald Tribune)

A chronicle of a solitary year spent on a Cape Cod beach, The Outermost House has long been recognized as a classic of American nature writing. Henry Beston had originally planned to spend just two weeks in a seaside cottage, but was so possessed by the

Recommended by Richard Branson.

Founder/Virgin Group

Today is World Book Day, a wonderful opportunity to address this #ChallengeRichard sent in by Mike Gonzalez of New Jersey: Make a list of your top 65 books to read in a lifetime. [source]

84

The Elephant Whisperer: My Life with the Herd in the African Wild

Lawrence Anthony

4.0

Lawrence Anthony devoted his life to animal conservation, protecting the world's endangered species. Then he was asked to accept a herd of "rogue" wild elephants on his Thula Thula game reserve in Zululand. His common sense told him to refuse, but he was the herd's last chance of survival: they would be killed if he wouldn't take them.

In order to save their lives, Anthony took them in. In the year

85

Life on Earth

David Attenborough

4.0

In this unique book, David Attenborough has undertaken nothing less than a history of nature, from the emergence of tiny one-celled organisms in the primeval slime more than 3,000 million years ago to apelike but upright man, equally well adapted to life in the rain forest of New Guinea and the glass canyons of a modern metropolis. Told through an examination of animal and plant life today - with

Recommended by David Bainbridge.

David Bainbridge

I don’t think the book has been bettered since, and that’s because it just seems to be the most interesting way to talk about life, through a narrative. [source]

86

The Secret Wisdom of Nature: Trees, Animals, and the Extraordinary Balance of All Living Things ― Stories from Science and Observation

Peter Wohlleben, Jane Billinghurst

4.0

The final book in The Mysteries of Nature trilogy by the New York Times bestselling author of The Hidden Life of Trees, Peter Wohlleben.

Nature is full of surprises: deciduous trees affect the rotation of the Earth, cranes sabotage the production of Iberian ham, and coniferous forests can make it rain. But what are the processes that drive these incredible phenomena? And why do they matter?

In The S

87

The Animal Dialogues: Uncommon Encounters in the Wild

Craig Childs

4.0

From one of the finest nature writers at work in America today; a lyrical, dramatic, illuminating tour of the hidden domain of wild animals.

Whether recalling the experience of being chased through the Grand Canyon by a bighorn sheep, swimming with sharks off the coast of British Columbia, watching a peregrine falcon perform acrobatic stunts at 200 miles per hour, or engaging in a tense face-off wi

88

Meadowland: The Private Life of an English Field

John Lewis-Stempel:

4.0

What really goes on in the long grass?

Meadowland gives an unique and intimate account of an English meadow’s life from January to December, together with its biography. In exquisite prose, John Lewis-Stempel records the passage of the seasons from cowslips in spring to the hay-cutting of summer and grazing in autumn, and includes the biographies of the animals that inhabit the grass and the soil b

89

Lord of the Flies

William Golding

4.0

At the dawn of the next world war, a plane crashes on an uncharted island, stranding a group of schoolboys. At first, with no adult supervision, their freedom is something to celebrate; this far from civilization the boys can do anything they want. Anything. They attempt to forge their own society, failing, however, in the face of terror, sin and evil. And as order collapses, as strange howls echo

Recommended by Elon Musk, Ev Williams, Audrey Russo, and 5 others.

Audrey Russo

So many novels; Lord of the Flies, Great Gatsby, Great Expectations; all the Nancy Drew books; Catcher in the Rye, Books written by Zora Neale Hurston; Pat Conroy – all because of the view about different people who endure despite adversity while kindling the hearts of the human spirit. [source]

Chigozie Obioma

William Golding imbues some of these children with wisdom that would read, in the hands of a lesser author, as implausibly knowing [source]

Disco Donnie

@JoshRHernandez1 I love the book “Lord of the Flies” so just started watching The Society [source]

90

The Solace of Open Spaces

Gretel Ehrlich

4.0

A stunning collection of personal observations that uses images of the American West to probe larger concerns in lyrical, evocative prose that is a true celebration of the region.

91

Of Wolves and Men

Barry H. Lopez

4.0

Originally published in 1978, this classic exploration of humanity’s complex relationship with and understanding of wolves returns with a new afterword by the author.

Humankind's relationship with the wolf is the sum of a spectrum of responses ranging from fear to admiration and affection. Lopez’s classic, careful study has won praise from a wide range of reviewers and improved the way books on wil

Recommended by Mark Boyle.

Offers fascinating insights into the depths of understanding which civilised peoples have lost and what, if we were wise, we might attempt to regain. [source]

92

Flight Behaviour

Barbara Kingsolver

4.0

Flight Behavior is a brilliant and suspenseful novel set in present day Appalachia; a breathtaking parable of catastrophe and denial that explores how the complexities we inevitably encounter in life lead us to believe in our particular chosen truths.

Kingsolver's riveting story concerns a young wife and mother on a failing farm in rural Tennessee who experiences something she cannot explain, and h

Recommended by Dan Bloom and James Bradley.

Dan Bloom

The novel isn’t about global warming per se. It’s a fable, a poetic fable, with a strong cast of memorable characters. [source]

James Bradley

Flight Behaviour offers a counter-example to the argument social realism is not fit for purpose when it comes to climate change [source]

93

The Hour of Land: A Personal Topography of America's National Parks

Terry Tempest Williams

4.0

America’s national parks are breathing spaces in a world in which such spaces are steadily disappearing, which is why more than 300 million people visit the parks each year. Now Terry Tempest Williams, the author of the environmental classic Refuge and the beloved memoir When Women Were Birds, returns with The Hour of Land, a literary celebration of our national parks, an exploration of what they

94

Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel

Carl Safina

4.0

I wanted to know what they were experiencing, and why to us they feel so compelling, and so-close. This time I allowed myself to ask them the question that for a scientist was forbidden fruit: Who are you?

Weaving decades of field observations with exciting new discoveries about the brain, Carl Safina's landmark book offers an intimate view of animal behavior to challenge the fixed boundary betwe

Recommended by Emma Watson.

95

Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed

Jared Diamond

4.0

In Jared Diamond’s follow-up to the Pulitzer-Prize winning Guns, Germs and Steel, the author explores how climate change, the population explosion and political discord create the conditions for the collapse of civilization

Environmental damage, climate change, globalization, rapid population growth, and unwise political choices were all factors in the demise of societies around the world, but some

Recommended by Bill Gates, Daniel Headrick, David Pilling, and 3 others.

Bill Gates

CEO/Microsoft

I found this to be an interesting follow-up to the excellent Guns, Germs, and Steel. It examines the downfall of some of history's greatest civilizations. [source]

Daniel Headrick

I found Jared Diamond’s book Collapse more valuable in influencing my own thinking, because it shows the importance of culture in determining how humans deal with environmental threats. …….The author investigates the successes and failures of a number of civilisations which had reached a crisis point, and looks at why some succeeded and others hadn’t. [source]

David Pilling

This is a warning that societies can do this. We, as a human society, could do this if we’re not careful. If we stretch the earth beyond its planetary limits, we could ruin the soil, we could ruin the ocean, we could ruin the air, and we could drain the ocean of fish. He sees evidence all around that we’re doing precisely that. He sees a limit to technology to solve our problems. [source]

96

How to Be a Good Creature: A Memoir in Thirteen Animals

Sy Montgomery

4.0

National Book Award finalist Sy Montgomery reflects on the personalities and quirks of 13 animals--her friends--who have profoundly affected her in this stunning, poetic, and life-affirming memoir featuring illustrations by Rebecca Green.

Understanding someone who belongs to another species can be transformative. No one knows this better than author, naturalist, and adventurer Sy Montgomery. To re

Recommended by Alvin Lindsay.

Alvin Lindsay

The 1 #book you MUST read to understand how to build a powerful personal #brand on the web today > https://t.co/uLzyBw429W #makeyourownlane https://t.co/s6qUc1gvUT [source]

97

Walden & Civil Disobedience

Henry David Thoreau

4.0

Disdainful of America’s booming commercialism and industrialism, Henry David Thoreau left Concord, Massachusetts, in 1845 to live in solitude in the woods near Walden Pond. Walden, the account of his stay, conveys at once a naturalist’s wonder at the commonplace and a Transcendentalist’s yearning for spiritual truth and self-reliance. But even as Thoreau disentangled himself from worldly matters,

98

Oh say can you say di-no-saur?

Bonnie Worth

4.0

The Cat in the Hat makes another surprise appearance at Dick and Sally's house--only this time he makes his entrance riding atop a brachiosaurus! Soon, he's off, along with Dick and Sally, millions of years back in time to see how fossils were created. Then it's on to a tour through the Cat's own Super Dino Museum--a fabulous place where the correct pronunciation of a dinosaur's name wins you a pe

99

Fire Season: Field Notes from a Wilderness Lookout

Philip Connors

4.0

A decade ago Philip Connors left work as an editor at the Wall Street Journal and talked his way into a job far from the streets of lower Manhattan: working as one of the last fire lookouts in America. Spending nearly half the year in a 7' x 7' tower, 10,000 feet above sea level in remote New Mexico, his tasks were simple: keep watch over one of the most fire-prone forests in the country and sound

100

The Laws of Human Nature

Robert Greene

4.0