Books on Solitude

Cold Mountain Poems: Zen Poems of Han Shan, Shih Te, and Wang Fan-chih (Shambhala Pocket Library) By Han Shan, J. P. Seaton (Translated by) Cover Image
By Han Shan, J. P. Seaton (Translated by)
$12.95
ISBN: 9781611806984
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Published: Shambhala - May 7th, 2019

The incomparable poetry of Han Shan (Cold Mountain) and his sidekick Shih Te, the rebel poets who became icons of Chinese poetry and Zen, has long captured the imagination of poetry lovers and Zen aficionados.


Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness By Edward Abbey Cover Image
$8.99
ISBN: 9780345326492
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Published: Ballantine Books - January 12th, 1985

“Rough, tough, combative . . . a passionately felt, deeply poetic book.”—Edwin Way Teale, The New York Times Book Review
 


How to Be Alone: If You Want To, and Even If You Don't By Lane Moore Cover Image
$16.99
ISBN: 9781501178832
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Published: Atria Books - November 6th, 2018

The former Sex & Relationships Editor for Cosmopolitan and host of the wildly popular comedy show Tinder Live with Lane Moore presents her poignant, funny, and deeply moving first book.

Lane Moore is a rare performer who is as impressive onstage—whether hosting her iconic show Tinder Live or being the enigmatic front woman of It Was Romance—as she is


The Beauty of Everyday Things By Soetsu Yanagi Cover Image
$16.00
ISBN: 9780241366356
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Published: Penguin Classics - October 8th, 2019

The Japanese philosopher and aesthete's definitive, hugely influential exposition of his philosophy of folkcrafts, setting out the hallmarks of Japanese design as we know it today: anonymity, quality, simplicity and honesty—and, of course, wabi-sabi, the beauty of imperfection

A Penguin Classic


Silence: In the Age of Noise By Erling Kagge, Becky L. Crook (Translated by) Cover Image
By Erling Kagge, Becky L. Crook (Translated by)
$14.95
ISBN: 9780525563648
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Published: Vintage - December 4th, 2018

"A joyful celebration" (NPR) that shows us why silence is essential to our sanity and happiness—and how it can open doors to wonder and gratitude—from a renowned explorer and acclaimed author.


The Essential Emily Dickinson By Emily Dickinson Cover Image
$14.99
ISBN: 9780062668875
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Published: Ecco - November 8th, 2016

The essential poems of Emily Dickinson selected and introduced by Joyce Carol Oates

“Between them, our great visionary poets of the American nineteenth century, Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman, have come to represent the extreme, idiosyncratic poles of the American psyche. . . .


Too Loud A Solitude By Bohumil Hrabal Cover Image
$12.99
ISBN: 9780156904582
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Published: HarperVia - April 27th, 1992

A short novel by Czech writer Bohumil Hrabal, called "our very best writer today" by Milan Kundera, this eccentric romp celebrates the indestructability––against censorship and political oppression––of the written word.


The Art of Solitude By Stephen Batchelor Cover Image
$23.00
Temporarily Unavailable
ISBN: 9780300250930
Published: Yale University Press - February 18th, 2020

In a time of social distancing and isolation, a meditation on the beauty of solitude from renowned Buddhist writer Stephen Batchelor
 
A Los Angeles Review of Books “Best of the Year” selection
 
“Whatever a soul is, the author goes a long way toward soothing it.


My Side of the Mountain (Puffin Modern Classics) By Jean Craighead George Cover Image
$8.99
ISBN: 9780142401118
Availability: NOT on our shelves now. Usually ships from warehouse in several days.
Published: Puffin Books - April 12th, 2004

Terribly unhappy in his family's crowded New York City apartment, Sam Gribley runs away to the solitude-and danger-of the mountains, where he finds a side of himself he never knew.


Fire Season: Field Notes from a Wilderness Lookout By Philip Connors Cover Image
$17.99
ISBN: 9780061859373
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Published: Ecco - February 28th, 2012

Fire Season both evokes and honors the great hermit celebrants of nature, from Dillard to Kerouac to Thoreau—and I loved it.”
—J.R. Moehringer, author of The Tender Bar


The Seven Storey Mountain By Thomas Merton Cover Image
$17.99
ISBN: 9780156010863
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Published: HarperOne - October 4th, 1999

One of the most famous books ever written about a man’s search for faith and peace.

The Seven Storey Mountain tells of the growing restlessness of a brilliant and passionate young man, who at the age of twenty-six, takes vows in one of the most demanding Catholic orders—the Trappist monks.


The Turquoise Ledge: A Memoir By Leslie Marmon Silko Cover Image
$19.80
Temporarily Unavailable
ISBN: 9780143120100
Published: Penguin Books - September 27th, 2011

“Leslie Marmon Silko writes in the language of the spirit . . . sentence by sentence, the reader is given an enormous amount of useful information about how to get the most out of life, beginning in the present moment.” The Los Angeles Times

Profound reflections on family and the natural world-from the legendary Native American author


Flâneuse: Women Walk the City in Paris, New York, Tokyo, Venice, and London By Lauren Elkin Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9780374537432
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Published: Farrar, Straus and Giroux - February 6th, 2018

FINALIST FOR THE PEN/DIAMONSTEIN-SPIELVOGEL AWARD FOR THE ART OF THE ESSAY

A New York Times Notable Book of 2017


Alone Time: Four Seasons, Four Cities, and the Pleasures of Solitude By Stephanie Rosenbloom Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9780399562327
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Published: Penguin Books - June 4th, 2019

A wise, passionate account of the pleasures of traveling solo

In our hectic, hyperconnected lives, many people are uncomfortable with the prospect of solitude. Yet a little time to ourselves can be an opportunity to slow down, savor, and try new things, especially when traveling.


Tracks: A Woman's Solo Trek Across 1700 Miles of Australian Outback (Vintage Departures) By Robyn Davidson Cover Image
$15.95
ISBN: 9780679762874
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Published: Vintage - May 30th, 1995

NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE

Robyn Davidson's opens the memoir of her perilous journey across 1,700 miles of hostile Australian desert to the sea with only four camels and a dog for company with the following words: “I experienced that sinking feeling you get when you know you have conned yourself into doing something difficult and there's no going back."


Rough Beauty: Forty Seasons of Mountain Living By Karen Auvinen Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9781501152290
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Published: Scribner - June 4th, 2019

In the bestselling tradition of Cheryl Strayed’s Wild and Helen MacDonald’s H Is for Hawk, Karen Auvinen, an award-winning poet, ventures into the wilderness to seek answers to life’s big questions with “candor [and] admirable courage” (Christian Science Monitor).

Determined to live an independent life on her own terms, Karen Auvinen


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Blue Highways: A Journey into America By William Least Heat-Moon, Bill McKibben (Foreword by) Cover Image
$19.99
ISBN: 9780316353298
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Published: Back Bay Books - October 19th, 1999

Hailed as a masterpiece of American travel writing, Blue Highways is an unforgettable journey along our nation's backroads.


Possum Living: How to Live Well without a Job and With (Almost) No Money By Dolly Freed, Novella Carpenter (Contributions by) Cover Image
By Dolly Freed, Novella Carpenter (Contributions by)
$15.95
ISBN: 9781947793200
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Published: Tin House Books - January 1st, 2019

“A back-to-the-land classic” (Garden & Gun) that will “inspire you to embrace a simpler life” (O, The Oprah Magazine).


The Living Mountain: A Celebration of the Cairngorm Mountains of Scotland (Canons #6) By Nan Shepherd Cover Image
$24.00
ISBN: 9781786897350
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Published: Canongate Books - October 1st, 2019

Nan Shepherd describes her journeys into the Cairngorm mountains of Scotland. There she encounters a world that can be breathtakingly beautiful at times and shockingly harsh at others. Her intense, poetic prose explores and records the rocks, rivers, creatures and hidden aspects of this remarkable landscape.


Henry David Thoreau: A Life By Laura Dassow Walls Cover Image
$20.00
ISBN: 9780226599373
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Published: University of Chicago Press - September 28th, 2018

“Walden. Yesterday I came here to live.” That entry from the journal of Henry David Thoreau, and the intellectual journey it began, would by themselves be enough to place Thoreau in the American pantheon.


At the Center of All Beauty: Solitude and the Creative Life By Fenton Johnson Cover Image
$29.65
Temporarily Unavailable
ISBN: 9780393608298
Published: W. W. Norton & Company - March 10th, 2020

A profound meditation on accepting, and celebrating, one’s solitude.


The Penny Poet of Portsmouth: A Memoir of Place, Solitude, and Friendship By Katherine Towler Cover Image
$18.65
Temporarily Unavailable
ISBN: 9781619029101
Published: Counterpoint - March 14th, 2017

The Penny Poet of Portsmouth is a memoir of the author’s friendship with Robert Dunn, a brilliant poet who spent most of his life off the grid in downtown Portsmouth, New Hampshire.


A Book of Silence By Sara Maitland Cover Image
$18.65
Temporarily Unavailable
ISBN: 9781582436135
Published: Counterpoint - August 17th, 2010

A personal and cultural exploration of silence and its value in our lives—“[an] artful book, mixing autobiography, travel writing, meditation, and essay” (Independent, UK).


Solitude: A Return to the Self By Anthony Storr Cover Image
$17.99
ISBN: 9780743280747
Availability: NOT on our shelves now. Usually ships from warehouse in several days.
Published: Free Press - October 3rd, 2005

Originally published in 1988, Anthony Storr's bestselling meditation on the creative individual's need for solitude has become a classic.

A pre-eminent work in self-help and popular psychology literature, Solitude was seminal in challenging the psychological paradigm that “interpersonal relationships of an intimate kind are the chief, if not the only, source of human hap