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Jane Goodall's Reading List

“There was no TV when I was a child,” says the primatologist Jane Goodall, author (most recently) of “The Book of Hope.” “I learned from books — and nature. I read every book about animals I could find. Doctor Dolittle and Tarzan led me to dream about living with animals in Africa.”

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By the Book: Jane Goodall (2021)

NYT By the Book column (2021-10-14).

Source: www.nytimes.com

Cover of Beautiful Ruins
Beautiful Ruins
Jess Walter · Buy on Amazon
"Beautiful Ruins, by Jess Walter. His mastery of the different voices of his characters is quite extraordinary."
Cover of The Lord of the Rings
The Lord of the Rings
J. R. R. Tolkien · Buy on Amazon
"Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings — the author has created another world that becomes totally real even as the story grips you. Moreover, the book is like an allegory of the challenges we face in today's dark times."
Cover of Silent Spring
Silent Spring
Rachel Carson · 1962 · Buy on Amazon
"I admire Rachel Carson, who wrote Silent Spring."
Cover of The Hidden Life of Trees
The Hidden Life of Trees
Peter Wohlleben · Buy on Amazon
"Peter Wohlleben, who wrote The Hidden Life of Trees."
Cover of The Arbornaut
The Arbornaut
Meg Lowman · Buy on Amazon
"Meg Lowman, who wrote The Arbornaut. So far I've only read the prologue and Chapter 1, but I wrote about her amazing discoveries in my last book."
Cover of Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Harriet Beecher Stowe · Buy on Amazon
"Uncle Tom's Cabin, by Harriet Beecher Stowe, made a huge impression on me, so that I am passionate about racial discrimination."

On their bookshelf (2020)

Books visible on Jane Goodall's bookshelf during an April 2020 TV/media appearance. Compiled by Gal Beckerman for The New York Times. Books extracted by NYT editor from video footage.

Source: www.nytimes.com

Cover of The Hidden Target
The Hidden Target
Helen MacInnes · Buy on Amazon
"This 1980 spy novel tells the story of an American college student on a world tour who becomes entangled with secret agents looking to stop a terrorist plot."
Cover of The End of Food
The End of Food
Thomas F. Pawlick · Buy on Amazon
"Danger abounds at the grocery store in this 2006 expose of our current method of food production."

Favorite books (2022)

Favorite books recommended by Jane Goodall's Recommended Reads, as compiled by radicalreads.com. Source article: https://radicalreads.com/jane-goodall-favorite-books/.

Source: radicalreads.com

Pride and Prejudice
Jane Austen · Buy on Amazon
Tarzan of the Apes
Edgar Rice Burroughs · Buy on Amazon
"One of the books that I could just afford to buy was Edgar Rice Burroughs Tarzan of the Apes. I had just enough money to buy it. I read it from cover to cover up my favorite tree in Danny’s garden, Beech. I fell in love with Tarzan and was very jealous when he married the wrong Jane!"
Cover of Silent Spring
Silent Spring
Rachel Carson · 1962 · Buy on Amazon
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Samuel Taylor Coleridge · Buy on Amazon
"A very special treasure was Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner illustrated with fantastic engravings by Gustave Doré."
The Essential Collection
Charles Dickens · Buy on Amazon
One Pair of Hands
Monica Dickens · Buy on Amazon
"When I finally set off for Gombe many people felt it would be a wonderful opportunity for me to spend hours reading. A couple of people even suggested I take a good book to read while I was waiting for chimpanzees to arrive in a fruiting tree, or when I was sitting, hoping to see some, on the peak. I was shocked: how could I be immersed in the world of the wild chimpanzees if I was reading books about another place, another time. But I did have one book with me – I was reading it when I left..."
The Wind and the Willows
Kenneth Grahame · Buy on Amazon
The Complete Poems
Thomas Hardy · Buy on Amazon
All Creatures Great and Small
James Herriot · Buy on Amazon
Someone Knows My Name
Lawrence Hill · Buy on Amazon
Etre the Cow
Sean Kenniff · Buy on Amazon
The Story of Dr. Dolittle
Hugh Lofting · Buy on Amazon
"The first book that really made an impression was The Story of Dr. Doolittle by Hugh Lofting. An English country doctor who lived in Puddleby-on-the-Marsh who was taught how to speak to animals by his parrot, Polynesia. His amazing household ranging from Jip, the dog and Whitey the white mouse to Dab Dab the duck who took over as housekeeper when the Doctor’s sister left in a huff because he would have animals in the house and she found mice nesting in her linen cupboard…Mum got it for me fro..."
Animal Liberation
Peter Singer · Buy on Amazon
The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency
Alexander McCall Smith · Buy on Amazon
The Lord of the Rings
J.R.R. Tolkien (also rec’d by Jane Goodall & Trevor Noah ) · Buy on Amazon
The Chimps of Fauna Sanctuary
Andrew Westoll · Buy on Amazon
The Miracle of Life
Harold Wheeler · Buy on Amazon
"Perhaps the volume that influenced me most was called The Miracle of Life . I spent hours poring over the small print of those magical pages. It was not a book written for children, but I was absolutely absorbed as I learned about the diversity of life on earth, the age of the dinosaurs, evolution and Charles Darwin, the early explorers and naturalists — and the amazing variety and adaptations of the animals around the world."

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