Books I mention

These are books I’ve found worth carrying along — books I’ve quoted or pointed people toward, gathered in one place. Where there’s an edition to buy, the link goes to Bookshop.org to support actual independent bookstores. A few of these are old enough to be in the public domain, in which case there’s a free Project Gutenberg link too.

Walden — Henry David Thoreau, 1854

Quoted in What about my stuff? Thoreau on the cost of the things we drag along: I had three pieces of limestone on my desk, but I was terrified to find that they required to be dusted daily, when the furniture of my mind was all undusted still, and I threw them out the window in disgust. Reads as fresh in 2026 as it did in 1854. Also free at Project Gutenberg.

The Art of Stillness — Pico Iyer, 2014

Iyer has been based in western Japan since 1987 and writes about how the things you don’t bring are what give you room to become someone different. Short, paperback, an afternoon. The TED talk covers the same territory in fifteen minutes if you’d rather start there.

Mornings in Mexico — D. H. Lawrence, 1927

Eight short essays from Lawrence’s time around Oaxaca and New Mexico in the mid-1920s. Walk to Huayapa, Market Day, the dance of the sprouting corn. Sharp eye, idiosyncratic voice. The descriptions of light and dust and a Sunday market in southern Mexico hold up beautifully and are part of how I learned to see the country I now live in. Free at Project Gutenberg (public domain in the US).