As I was assembling my list of 70 novels I’m glad I read for yesterday, my eyes kept passing over books on my shelves and in my memory that had a deep impact on me but were not novels — poem collections, non-fiction, short stories, and all that.
I realized I needed another list of 70 books for all those other volumes. The first one I thought of was my first collection of Ray Bradbury short stories, the second was Bradbury’s fine book about writing, and the third was my well-worn book of poems by another person on my short list of heroes.
Here’s the whole list, in no particular order — I only numbered them to make sure I hit 70. And no doubt I’ve forgotten something important.
1. R is for Rocket – Ray Bradbury
2. Zen in the Art of Writing – Ray Bradbury
3. 100 Selected Poems – E.E. Cummings
4. Do It (Let’s Get Off Our Buts) – Peter McWilliams
5. Thou Shall Prosper – Rabbi Daniel Lapin
6. Bird by Bird – Anne Lamott
7. The War of Art – Steven Pressfield
8. Resistance to Civil Government – Henry David Thoreau
9. How to Win Friends and Influence People – Dale Carnegie
10. As A Man Thinketh – James Allen
11. Writing Into the Dark – Dean Wesley Smith
12. The Write Attitude – Kristine Kathryn Rusch
13. See You at the Top – Zig Ziglar
14. The Art of Loving – Erich Fromm
15. How to Kill the Job Culture Before It Kills You – Claire Wolfe
16. Out of Step – Frank Chodorov
17. 48 Days to the Work You Love – Dan Miller
18. Laugh Your Way to a Better Marriage – Mark Gungor
19. Folks, This Ain’t Normal – Joel Salatin
20. Trivia – Logan Piersall Smith
21. The Sacrament of the Present Moment – Jean-Pierre De Caussade
22. Why Wages Rise – F.A. Harper
23. Steal Like An Artist – Austin Kleon
24. A Simple Act of Gratitude – John Kralik
25. On Writing – Stephen King
26. Disobey – Johnny B. Truant
27. The Art of Being Free – Wendy McElroy
28. the princess saves herself in this one – amanda lovelace
29. Reinvent Yourself – James Altucher
30. I Am Not Spock – Leonard Nimoy
31. I Am Spock – Leonard Nimoy
32. Guesswork: A Reckoning with Loss – Martha Cooley
33. Wishwork – Alexa Fischer
34. The Practice – Seth Godin
35. Me, the Mob and the Music – Tommy James with Martin Fitzpatrick
36. The Right to Write – Julia Cameron
37. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck – Mark Manson
38. Lever Action – L. Neil Smith
39. Olive, Mabel and Me – Andrew Cotter
40. Several short sentences about writing – Verlyn Klinkenborg
41. Take Back Your Time – Christy Wright
42. The Real Anthony Fauci – Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
43. How, Then, Shall We Live? – Wayne Muller
44. Born to Run – Bruce Springsteen
45. Amusing Ourselves to Death – Neil Postman
46. How to Survive Dystopia (With Your Humanity Intact) – Starr O’Hara
47. Woody Guthrie: A Life – Joe Klein
48. The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal 1870-1914 – David McCollough
49. Quit: The Power of Knowing When to Walk Away – Annie Duke
50. The Year of Less – Cait Flanders
51. Composed – Roseanne Cash
52. Big Magic – Elizabeth Gilbert
53. Language in Thought and Action – S.I. Hayakawa
54. Selected Short Stories of Nathaniel Hawthorne
55. Poems of Emily Dickinson
56. Leaves of Grass – Walt Whitman
57. The Total Money Makeover – David Ramsey
58. The Golden Apples of the Sun – Ray Bradbury
59. Autumn of Liberty – Paul Harvey
60. But We Were Born Free – Elmer Davis
61. They Thought They Were Free – Milton Mayer
62. The Great Comic Book Heroes – Jules Feiffer
63. The Freedom Lover’s Handbook – Claire Wolfe
64. Doorways – Norbert Blei
65. The Clearing – Jens Jensen
66. Listen to the Echoes: The Ray Bradbury Interviews – Sam Weller
67. Firefly Magic – Lauren Sapala
68. Finding Serenity – Edited by Jane Esperson
69. The God Who Is There – Francis A. Schaeffer
70. Storyteller – Kate Wilhelm