The Books I Can’t Part With

By Eilene Lyon

Earlier, I shared with you some of the books I haven’t purged from my shelves, because I truly intend to read them someday. This is a partial list of books I keep, because I love them. Mostly I read non-fiction, but I’m a serious user of library materials. So, many of these are actually in the fiction realm.

Anything at all by Barbara Kingsolver (fiction and non-fiction) – my favorite author

The Road to Little Dribbling and A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson (another favorite author)

The Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine l’Engle

Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell

The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon (and the rest of the series)

The Mirror by Marlys Millhiser

Replay by Ken Grimwood

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain

Party of One: The Loner’s Manifesto by Anneli Rufus

The Voyage of the Beagle and The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin (Darwin’s books are very accessible, especially “Beagle.” It’s a fabulous travelogue – read it!)

Blue Highways by William Least Heat-Moon

The Far Side Gallery by Gary Larson

Waltzing the Cat by Pam Houston

Wish You Well by David Baldacci

Twain’s Feast by Andrew Beahrs

Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse

What I Learned at Bug Camp by Sarah Juniper Rabkin (I love essay collections, in general)

Farm City by Novella Carpenter

A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold

Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey

The Essential Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson

And some favorite books on writing:

Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott

On Writing Well by William Zinsser

The Elements of Story by Francis Flaherty

Ensouling Language by Stephen Harrod Buhner