“Walden” by Henry David Thoreau. It got me thinking hard about American attitudes toward the natural world, and the relationship between the two.
“Changes in the Land” by William Cronon. This helps you see that the landscape is a historical creation, not just nature.
“The Art of the Commonplace” by Wendell Berry. His essays show the choices you make in everyday life have political consequences.
“Homer’s Odyssey”. I understood, for the first time, how a book written years ago could teach you how to live.
“Paper Lion” by George Plimpton. For journalism, I learned how personal experience is a perspective no one else would be able to re-create.
A book you want to share with your child: Shakespeare’s “Henry IV, Part 1.” I’ve got a 15-year-old son and I think this is definitely one of those great books about becoming an adult.
A classic that, upon rereading, disappointed: “The Jungle” by Upton Sinclair. I say this even though I assign this to my students. I teach a course on food writing [at Berkeley] and this book is an important influence, but it’s very unreadable and just so over-the-top and overwritten.
