Important Ecocentric reading: Two short lists of books. These books informed my thinking on ecocentric philosophy. Anyone interested in the living Earth should know something about them.1. This list of 9 books was picked by others interested in my field. Recent compilations, with three titles (although on important topics), are over represented in my opinion.
2. This is a list of ten authors whose books were (and are) influential to me. I could easily annotate it if there was a reason. I regard the first ten as having a slightly more important place in the process of producing me as I am than the next seven.
But first, before the main list, I must praise and recommend Newcomb’s Wildflower Guide. It’s been my constant companion book since the 80s. It, and the outdoors experience facilitated by it, gave a frame to the ideas in the other books and allowed a much quicker and more complete understanding. Likely I spent an order of magnitude (or maybe two) more time with Newcomb’s than all the others put together.
THE BIG TEN
Stan Rowe – Home Place, and Earth Alive
John Livingston – One Cosmic Instant, The Fallacy of Wildlife Conservation, and Rogue Primate
Aldo Leopold – A Sand County Almanac
Henry Thoreau – Walden and Other Writings
William Catton – Overshoot
Arne Naess – Ecology, Community and Lifestyle
Rudolf Bahro – Avoiding Social and Ecological Disaster
Cormac Cullinan – Wild Law
Stephen LeBlanc – Constant Battles
Patrick Curry – Ecological Ethics
THE REST
Andrew McLaughlin – Regarding Nature
Neil Evernden – The Natural Alien
George Lakoff – Don’t Think of an Elephant
Wackernagel & Rees – Our Ecological Footprint
And the three more or less recent compilations
Life on the Brink
Keeping the Wild
Protecting the Wild
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