I’m not much for self-help books. I’m the type of person who would run, not walk, away from anything titled Words of Wisdom for Dummies or What I Learned from My Next-door Neighbor’s Daughter’s Cat. It isn’t that I don’t look for wisdom and knowledge in books, but I don’t like the force feeding approach.

Very often when I’m reading, I find myself connecting the dots. Realizing truths I had only partially imagined. I wonder how my perception of the world would differ without books. I think of books as the path to understanding and knowledge.

Obviously books are not the only way for us to learn, but they represent an enormous fund of knowledge that has been gathered, analyzed and crafted into volumes organized by subject, title and author. They are a priceless resource.

I believe I’ve gained a great deal of insight into the world in which I live through my affair with books. I have learned something from most of the volumes I’ve read over the course of my lifetime, but some books stand out more than others. I’d like to share the ten books that have influenced me the most. Here they are:

1. The First Eden by David Attenborough (I read this book when I was quite young. It’s probably no longer in print, but I vividly remember its impact. It helped me see the world and its ecosystems differently. I realized how much we had already lost and how much we have yet to lose.)
2. Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond
3. Collapse by Jared Diamond (Full of epiphanies. I realized that we are not invulnerable and that we have the power to make very poor choices as a species.)
4. The Collapse of Complex Societies by Joseph Tainter
5. Dark Age Ahead by Jane Jacobs
6. A Short History of Progress by Ronald Wright (Thoroughly engaging. Brings together many of the concepts covered by Diamond, Tainter and Jacobs in one easy to read volume.)
7. Rivers of Blood, Rivers of Gold by Mark Cocker (A crash course on man’s inhumanity toward man. If you weren’t cynical before ... )
8. The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein (Helped me articulate a concept I had suspected but didn’t have the words to express.)
9. Hope for Animals and Their World by Jane Goodall (Is this hope? I’m not sure, but it might be.)
10. The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood (Funny thing about this book. I found my spiritual belief system had more in common with a fictional cult than any of the current options available. Yeah, hilarious.)

I’m sure there are many I’ve missed, but I hope you find some inspiration in these titles.