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Helen Macdonald's Reading List

The author of "H Is for Hawk" and, most recently, "Shaler's Fish" says "reading mystery novels is hugely comforting when you're freaking out about your own writing."

By the Book: Helen Macdonald (2016)

NYT By the Book column (2016-01-28).

Source: www.nytimes.com

The Lonely City

Olivia Laing · Buy on Amazon

"An advance copy of "The Lonely City," a remarkable examination of isolation and art by the writer and critic Olivia Laing."

The Once and Future King

T. H. White · Buy on Amazon

"I was rereading T. H. White's "The Once and Future King," where Sir Lancelot recounts his Grail quest to Arthur and Guinevere. A holy ship and a sea of green glass... It's a sentence of childlike simplicity."

Lolly Willowes

Sylvia Townsend Warner · Buy on Amazon

"The one I'll be pressing into people's hands forever is "Lolly Willowes," the 1926 novel by Sylvia Townsend Warner. It completely blindsided me."

Wolf Hall

Unknown · Buy on Amazon

"For years I avoided historical novels. But then "Wolf Hall," so. . . ."

Pack My Bag

Henry Green · Buy on Amazon

""Pack My Bag," by Henry Green, written in idiosyncratic prose that is unnervingly close to perfection. I wouldn't dare to compare my work to his, but it was this memoir that spurred me to take stylistic risks and to write with the greatest possible honesty."

Sand County Almanac

Aldo Leopold · Buy on Amazon

"Aldo Leopold's "Sand County Almanac," an exquisitely lyrical book that is also a primer in environmental ethics."

The Dark Is Rising sequence

Susan Cooper · Buy on Amazon

"Susan Cooper's "Dark Is Rising" sequence and Ursula Le Guin's "Earthsea Quartet" were the best of all."

Earthsea Quartet

Ursula Le Guin · Buy on Amazon

"Susan Cooper's "Dark Is Rising" sequence and Ursula Le Guin's "Earthsea Quartet" were the best of all."

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