Best-Loved Books. - book review

Alongside "Nature 101" in our November/December issue, we listed 12 books recommended by the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment (ASLE). At the end of the list, we asked a simple question--"What is your favorite environmental book?"--and got a bushelful of complex, articulate answers. Readers cheered their favorites and howled at the omissions. All told, they endorsed 215 different books, disagreeing with the Association on 5 of the top 12. On this page we present a new and improved list of nature's finest, according to Sierra readers.

Below is a sampling of your comments, starting with the most popular authors left out of the original list. For the deeply curious, we're reproducing on our Web site all 215 recommendations as well as a list compiled by the Bluegrass Chapter of the Sierra Club in Lexington, Kentucky (www.sierraclub.org/sierra/ 200103/letters.asp).Thanks to all who cared enough to divulge and describe their best-loved books.

MUIR MISSING!

This magazine may never have done anything more controversial than printing a list of the "best" environmental books that did not include Sierra Club founder John Muir. "Did they really mean to leave out John Muir?" asked Phila Rogers of Berkeley, California. "Fie on them--may they be sentenced to carry only a bed roll, a packet of tea, and a bit of bread while hiking the length of this revered man's Range of Light."

Sue Smith of San Francisco called the omission "extraordinary! No one else captures the beauty and scientific interest of nature as well as he does. He was a conservationist and conversationalist beyond compare."

The title most frequently recommended by Muir fans was My First Summer in the Sierra. ("The greatest lover of nature meets his greatest love for the first time," said Mike Ward of Reno, Nevada.) Also nominated were The Story of My Boyhood and Youth, A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf, Travels in Alaska, and The Range of Light. Reader adoration moved Muir to the number two place, right after Aldo Leopold, who was tops with both the ASLE literati and our readers.

MASTERFUL MCPHEE

The ASLE list also failed to include John McPhee, who has long been a favorite of Sierra editors. Allan Burns, who teaches a nature-writing course at Southern Illinois University, echoed many other readers when he said, "I nominate McPhee as our finest and most versatile writer of nonfiction." Burns described both Encounters With the Archdruid and The Pine Barrens as "a delight--one a triptych of voyages undertaken by a great conservationist [David Brower] and his natural enemies, the other a masterful, multifaceted evocation of a largely unknown wilderness in New Jersey."

Carol Bowles-Tyndale of Colorado Springs, Colorado, and others also heartily endorsed McPhee's 20-years-in-the-making masterwork on geology, Annals of the Former World. As an example of the insights offered in this 696-page tome, Bowles-Tyndale quoted the author himself: "if by some fiat I had to restrict all this writing to one sentence, this is the one I would choose, `The summit of Mt. Everest is marine limestone.'"

CANOEING WITH SIG

Midwestern readers enthusiastically recommended the works of wilderness guide Sigurd F. Olson. Of the many books Olson authored, the most popular was The Singing Wilderness, an exploration of the wild lake country northwest of Lake Superior, but Listening Point also had its adherents. Kal Larson, who teaches environmental science and outdoor education at Nathan Hale High School in West Allis, Wisconsin, explained: "Through Olson's writings you can almost see and feel the wilderness with its cleansing and soothing effects. Reading Sig might be better than actually going there yourself since you will benefit from his insights. Better yet, take Sig with you the next time you go canoeing." Larson also praised David Backes's biography, A Wilderness Within: The Life of Sigurd F. Olson, as "a testament to maintaining your effort and convictions over the long haul."

DOWN ON THE FARM

"A poet and a farmer, Wendell Berry spelled out the tragedy of industrial agriculture over two decades ago," wrote Loni Kemp of Canton, Minnesota, in nominating The Unsettling of America. "He helps us see that the essence of human culture is intertwined with how we grow our food." Laurie Williams of San Diego, California, recommended "just about anything" by Berry: "He writes wonderful essays that challenge our accustomed patterns. I always feel inspired to be a better person after reading Berry, but expect to be kicked, not coddled by this author."

DODO SONG

"If you link literature and nature, or mind and spirit, or eloquence, intelligence, and superior writing craft, no list of 5, 10, or 12 top picks can merit publication if it does not include The Song of the Dodo by David Quammen," said Irving Shapiro of Riparius, New York. Many other readers agreed. "It's a book to make you weep," said Diane Coogle of Applegate, Oregon. "it has adventure in foreign places, vividly descriptive writing about people, places, animals, and plants, and hard-hitting unquestionable science. Quammen makes an eloquent and passionate plea for saving the great diversity of the planet, but in the end he makes even more of a deep, sorrowful lament for the inevitable passing of all this beauty."