This is a little collection of inspiration that help me to learn more about the wonders around. We can pretend, this is me taking you into my library in the east wing with cherrywooden meter-high shelves and a ladder to climb up
Books:
On creatures, more than human beings:
- “Entangled life: : How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds, and Shape Our Futures” by Merlin Sheldrake (2020) –> A classic entry to the fungi world and great introduction to the world on the microscale
- “Metazoa Animal Minds and the Birth of Consciousness” by Peter Godfrey-Smith (2021)
- “The hidden half of nature: the microbial roots of life and health” by David R. Montgomery and Anne Biklé (2016)
- “I contain multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life” by Ed Yong (2017)
- Life’s edge: The search for what it menas to be alive” by Carl Zimmer (2021)
- “Other minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness” by Peter Godfrey-Smith (2017)
- “The soul of an octopus: A surprising exploration into the wonder of consciousness” by Sy Montgomery (2016)
- “What a fish knows: The Inner Lives of Our Underwater Cousins” by Jonathan Balcome (2017)
- Darwin’s earthworm book: The formation of vegetable mould through the action of worms with observations on their habits
- “The book of the earthworms” by Sally Coulthard (2021)
- “Eat, poop, die: How animals make our world” by Joe Roman (2023)
- “Silent spring” by Rachel Carson (1962)
- “The Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinctions” (1996) by David Quammen
- “Wonders of life – exploring the most extraordinary phenomenon in the universe” by Brian Cox (2014)
- “The brilliant abyss – True Tales of Exploring the Deep Sea, Discovering Hidden Life and Selling the Seabed” by Helen Scales (2022)
- “What an owl knows – the new science of the world’s most enigmatic birds” by Jennifer Ackerman (2023)
- “The bird way – a new look at how birds talk, work, play, parent and think” (2020)
- “Endless forms – the secret world of wasps” by Seirian Sumner (2022)
- “The elephant in the brain – Hidden motives in everyday life” by Kevin-Simler Robin Hanson (2018)
- “Invisible friends -how microbes shape our lives and the world around us” by Jake Robinson (2023)
- “If Nietzsche were a Narwhal – what animal intelligence reveals about human stupidity” by Justing Gregg (2022)
- “Brading sweetgrass -indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge and the teachings of plants” by Robin Kimber
- “Beloved beasts fighting for life in an age of extinction” by Michelle Nijhuis (2021)
- “Empire of ants – the hidden world and extraordinary lives” by Susanne Foitzik and Olaf Fritsche (2021)
- “Fresh banana leaves: Healing indigenous landscapes through indigenous science” by Jessica Hernandez (2022)
- “Jellyfish age backwards: Nature’s secrets to longevity” by Nicklas Brendborg (2022)
- “The glorious life of the oak” by John Lewis-Stempel (2018)
Books on farming, cultivating plants and animals and soil
- “The one Straw revolution” by Masanobu Fukuoka (2009)
- “Eating to Extinction: The world’s rarest foods and why we need to save them” by Dan Saladino (2021)
- “The running hare – the secret life of farmland” by John Lewis-Stempel (2017)
- “Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations” by David R. Montgomery (2012) (some arguments in that book need to be handled with care and not some facts have been found to not be true, so better read it with a even more critical lense than usually)
- “The sheep’s tale – the story of our most misunderstood farmyard animal” by John Lewis-Stempel (2022)
Some more biology books, but a bit more technical:
- “The vital question” by Nick Lane, a bit deeper biology raising fundamental questions (2016)
- “What is life” by Paul Nurse (2021)
- “The evolution of power – a new understanding of the history of life” by Geerat Vermeij (2023)
- “Free agents” by Kevin Mitchell (2023)
- How light makes life – the hidden wonders and world-saving powers of photosynthesis by Raffael Jovine (2022)
Physics (soft physics for a person a bit scared by too abstract physics)
- “The big pictures” by Sean Carroll
- “The Tao of physics – An Exploration of the Parallels Between Modern Physics and Eastern Mysticism” by Fritjof Capra (1975)
On humans:
- “The Rumi prescription: How an Ancient Mystic Poet Changed My Modern Manic Life” by Melody Moezzi (2021) Beautiful book how Rumi helped through though times
- “Small creatures such as we: Rituals for Finding Meaning in Our Unlikely World” by Sascha Sagan (2019) –> on rituals where they come from and why we need them
- “The lost art of finding our way” by John Edward Huth (2015)
- “No country for eight-spot butterflies” by Julian Aguon (2022)
- “Blockchain chicken farm” by Xiaowei Wang (2020)
- “The land where lemons grow – the story of Italy and its citrus fruit” by Helena Attlee (2015)
More spiritual books:
- “The Biology of Wonder: Aliveness, feeling and the metamorphosis of science” by Andreas Weber (2016)
- “Goatwalking: A guide to wildland living, a quest for the peacable kingdom” by Jim Corbett
- “A new earth” by Eckhard Tolle (2019)
- “In love with the world: A Monk’s Journey Through the Bardos of Living and Dying” by Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche (2019)
- “Mountains of the mind: A history of fascination” by Robert Macfarlane (2023)
On love, growing, Stoism:
- “All about love” by bell hooks (2001)
- “The art of loving: An Inquiry Into the Nature of Love” by Erich Fromm (1956)
- “Mastery of love: A Practical Guide to the Art of Relationship, A Toltec Wisdom Book” by Don Miguel Ruiz (1999)
- “Daring greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Leady” by Brené Brown (2012)
- “How to control the uncontrollabe – 10 game changing ideas to help you think like a Stoic and build a resilient life” by Ben Aldridge (2023)
- Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
- “The courage to be disliked” by Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga
Podcasts:
- Future ecologies
- Big biology
- Ologies
- Stuff we should know (all episodes on animals, organisms, National Parks, science…)