Early this year, I started to wonder which book has impacted me the most in life. It was a random reflective question that I had posed to my dad (he didn’t have an answer).
I started by doing some brainstorming and looking back through my various libraries (kindle, audible, library thing, and bookcases). It was a partial list at best, but still brought back many memories. You could also chart what topics I was into at the time. It wasn’t hard to find a dozen or so books that I really enjoyed. I was surprised, though, at how many books I had started but quickly abandoned. I also ran across far too many that still sound interesting, but that I’ve yet to crack open.
But then I sat back and thought more about who I am, what I enjoy, how I think, what I value, what I detest, what interests me, and so forth. This exercise was about impact, not enjoyment, so it should focus on books that had an outcome in my life—it was something that helped me become who I am today.
I came up with a clear “most impactful” book. I started writing a post about it, but didn’t get around to finishing it. Several months later, a few folks I follow online1 started posting their own “most impactful” book lists. I decided to expand my list to the top 15 instead. This is that list, in no particular order, except after the first entry—my book that impacted my life the most.
The Hiker’s Guide to the Superstition Wilderness: With History and Legends of Arizona’s Lost Dutchman Gold Mine, by Jack Carlson and Elizabeth Stewart (1995)
I don’t think any single book has had a bigger impact on my life than this hiking guidebook. Which is interesting, because I still haven’t hiked all the trails it lists, and I’ve owned some version of this book since high school.
But more than any other book, this is the one that accompanied me as I developed a love for hiking, and by extension, for exploring the amazing landscapes of the West, and by extension, enjoying road trips, camping, and travel in general. Since those things have generally dominated my interests throughout my adult life, it’s hard to pick any other book.
I should note that Sedona Hikes: 135 Day Hikes and 5 Vortex Sites around Sedona, Arizona by Richard & Sherry Mangum should get honorable mention here. I picked up that book (and their Flagstaff Hikes book) early in my hiking career, which resulted in countless weekend day trips north. I even skipped my senior prom and brought my girlfriend hiking in Sedona that day instead. Had I not fallen in love with the Supes first, this book would probably have had the same impact.
The Complete Reference: HTML & CSS
I’m not entirely sure if this was the specific reference book I first bought, but it was something similar. I’ve had a personal website and a variety of web projects since the late 90s, and hand-coded most of those early ones. Without the experience of working on websites, I’m not sure what path my life might have taken. Having a website at that time made me a “guy who makes websites” and opened a surprising number of doors that otherwise would have remained shut. And sharing my national park adventures on those early trip sites helped inspire me to keep prioritizing travel over other expenditures, like, say a working vehicle.
Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit, by Daniel Quinn (1992)
TEACHER SEEKS PUPIL
Must have an earnest desire to save the world.
Apply in person.It was just a three-line ad in the personals section, but it launched the adventure of a lifetime.
This is the only non-nonfiction book on my list, a philosophical journey into the nature and role of humanity, using a rather unique conceptual device. I didn’t like the main character. I didn’t like the context of the story. But it made me question the societal stories we tell ourselves about humanity, and to view our existence in the world in a much different way. My favorite band wrote a song about it2. I bought a dozen copies to give to friends—the first book I had ever gifted. For quite some time, I considered it my favorite book, even though I’ve only read it once and didn’t want to read it again. It was powerful enough the first time. I think this book would have paired very well with Sapiens, had that been published back two decades earlier.
The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape the 9-5, Live Anywhere And Join The New Rich, by Tim Ferriss (2007)
It’s hard to imagine a more cringy-worthy title [gives side eye to Ramit Sethi3], but here we are. Now, many of the ideas in this book are concepts taken to the laughable extreme. You should not, say, outsource your dating—which iirc, is actually something he tries doing. But this book introduced me to the concept of “lifestyle design,” which really just means being intentional about how you structure your life and not accepting societal defaults. That’s proven to be a useful concept in my own life.
Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal, by Eric Schlosser (2001)
This book changed the way that I looked at corporate behavior and greed. It was a takedown of the entire fast food industry, from slaughterhouse to advertising strategy and everything in between. In fact, my ex-wife and I stopped eating all fast food for more than decade after reading it, which is quite a feat given our low nonprofit incomes and frequent rural road trips.
Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity, by David Allen (2001)
Hugely influential, “GTD” served as the productivity bible for many knowledge workers. I loved it because not only did it establish a generally effective system (I love me some systems!) for managing the flood of incoming inputs I suddenly had for my work and side projects, but it also did so in a way that helped set aside all other times for “calm.” The notion of relying on trusted systems so you can let go of background worry is what I continue to strive for in all the systems I build/follow today.
Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water, by Marc Reiner (revised edition, 1993)
This book details how the West was watered, and the role that several government agencies played in doing so. It opened my eyes to how policy choices, and bureaucratic aspirations, can play a major role in determining how the future is shaped. It’s a necessary treatise on water over-use and the folly of locating too many residents in arid areas, famously encapsulated in explorer John Wesley Powell’s assessment of the region. But to me it also oddly demonstrates what’s possible when policy is directed toward a goal.
There Are No Children Here: The Story of Two Boys Growing Up in The Other America (1991)
This was the first book that opened my eyes to the plight of race in America. For me, it was also a view of poverty and how those two things, intertwined and combined together, fundamentally shape the direction one’s life is often pointed in. You sort of know these things in a broad, intellectual sense, but it was eye-opening to see how it plays out in simple day-to-day ways. These stories were relatable in a way that statistics and dry academic text were not.
Breaking the News: How the Media Undermine Democracy, by James Fallows (1996)
This book substantially shaped how I view the news media, and how I consume the news. It made me cogniscent of how what I consume determines what I think—a concept that many of my friends really struggle with, especially in the age of algorithmic feeds. Combined with later readings of Neil Postman’s classic Amusing Ourselves to Death and Marshall McLuhan’s concept of “the medium is the message,” it’s changed how I try to consume information in general.
Play to Win!: Choosing Growth Over Fear in Work and Life, by Larry & Hirsch Wilson (1998)
This book formed an important framework for a year-long executive leadership training program I attended when I worked in public lands conservation. The training overlapped with the period in which my first marriage was coming unraveled, and I did my best to incorporate many of its ideas into how I thought about interpersonal interactions, how I viewed life events, and the resulting stories I told myself afterwards. Some simple but powerful ideas that have definitely made me a better person.
The Nonprofit Membership Toolkit, by Ellis M.M. Robinson (2003)
This is a technical manual of sorts for running a successful nonprofit membership program. It helped launch me from volunteer advocate to landing my first professional job, running the statewide membership program for the Arizona League of Conservation Voters (and its related organizations), which became a stepping stone towards a career in public lands conservation.
Arizona Strip Draft Resource Management Plan and Draft Environmental Impact Statement (including Grand Canyon-Parashant and Vermilion Cliffs National Monuments), US Bureau of Land Management (2005)
This is an absolutely terrible read—it’s three volumes of technical acronyms and bureaucratic speak and stands about 6” tall. It was released the day before my first day working in public lands conservation, so it served as one helluva introduction into the field (it essentially governed my first 90 days of the job). But it was my first serious policy document, and dissecting, analyzing, and responding to it—administratively, in the court of public opinion, and ultimately, in actual court, too—was a formative experience.
Die With Zero: Getting All You Can from Your Money and Your Life, by Bill Perkins (2020)
I wasn’t sure if this one met the “impactful” mark or not. We read this relatively recently, and it hasn’t changed our behavior at all. Nor has it changed our minds about anything at all. But that’s probably because the philosophy it lays out was already our own personal philosophy, and my wife and I had made several very big decisions around maximizing the book’s core ideas. So reading this was validation of the path we had already charted, one that was met with initial skepticism by some of our social circle.
A Walk in the Woods (1999)
This is another one that I’m unsure makes the list or not. I really enjoyed reading this book, and moreso than other “adventure” books (like Colin Fletcher’s The Man Who Walked Through Time), this one seemed more “average guy does something incredible.” I’ve long wondered if it played any role in me deciding to adopt the (seemingly audacious) goal of visiting all the National Park units. And I’m still unsure. Of course, their journey was a predictable mess, but an entertaining read, and the main takeaway for me at the time was that, at minimum, they got a great story for their effort. I’m not sure that’s bad advice.
The Complete Guide to Kayaking the Salt River: Everything You Need to Know to Paddle the Lower Salt River, by R Scott Jones (that’s me!)
Yeah, yeah, I wrote this guidebook. It was a covid lockdown project (I wrote most of it in two days) and a proof-of-concept experiment for a long-term conservation project that I’m considering embarking on. But it’s not just a cheap plug for my book (don’t buy it anyway, I give it away for free on my kayaking website).
I’m including it because, after kicking around several book ideas for a couple decades, I finally got something “out” into the wild. And I’m hopeful that the experience removes barriers to getting some other ideas published, too.
Honorable mentions:
- Sedona Hikes, already mentioned above
- Wilderness and the American Mind, by Roderick Frazier Nash (2001 edition)
- The Art of Non-Conformity: Set Your Own Rules, Live the Life You Want, and Change the World, by Chris Guillebeau (2010)
- No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies, by Naomi Klein
- Organizing for Social Change: Midwest Academy Manual for Activists, by Kim Bobo, Jackie Kendall, and Steve Max (2001 edition)
- How to Write Successful Fundraising Letters, by Mal Warwick (2001)
- Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World, by Cal Newport (2013)
- Shoutout to Lou Plummer in particular for getting things rolling, but I’d also include JCProbably, Ben, and Tracy here, too. Lou’s been curating a list of these posts; go check it out. ↩︎
- The music video—a rarity for Pearl Jam—is pretty damn amazing. It was illustrated by the famed comic book artist (and fellow Ahwatukee resident) Todd McFarlane. In a weird twist of fate, his wife happened to work for me several years later, so I got a chance to thank Todd personally during a short hike together. There aren’t many times you get to say thanks to the person who made your favorite music video for your favorite band about your favorite book! ↩︎
- Look, I’m not going to apologize for Ramit’s book title, “I Will Teach You to Be Rich: No Guilt. No Excuses. Just a 6-Week Program That Works,” which might take the top cringe prize. But I did enjoy that book quite a bit and thought it contained a lot of good concepts. His podcast is a fun listen, too. ↩︎
Webnotes
(none yet)