70 books (not novels) I’m glad I read

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

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