Reading is a wonderful way to learn about any number of things. I honestly believe that books can change the way humans see and live in the world. The books listed below are books I've personally read (most of which I also own) and highly recommend to anyone interested in foraging, ethnobotany, botany, mycology, and natural history. You'll notice these recommendations come with a strong bias to the southeast and more specifically Kentucky because this is my home and our history is rich with adventure, hardship and beauty. Some of these titles could be found in your local library, most can be found in local bookstores and online for purchase. I don't want to support Amazon by using an affiliates link for these books because I'd rather you purchase them from a local bookstore or more independent online bookstore. Where applicable, I'll include links to books that you can purchase directly from the authors and/or publishers. These links will be underlined on the book titles.
Foraging / Ethnobotany
Sam Thayer’s Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants, The Forager’s Harvest, Nature’s Garden, and Incredible Wild Edibles by Samuel Thayer
Foraging Kentucky: An Introduction to the Edible Plants, Fungi and Tree Crops of the Southeast by George Barnett
Edible Wild Plants Vol.1 and Vol.2 by John Kallas
Edible Wild Plants of the Prairie by Kelly Kindscher
Ancestral Plants, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, by Arthur Haines
Native American Ethnobotany by Daniel E. Moerman
Tending the Wild by M. Kat Anderson
Medicine of the Cherokee by J. T. Garrett and Michael Garrett
Iwígara: American Indian Ethnobotanical Traditions and Science by Enrique Salmon
Regional Plants (Southeast)
Trees and Shrubs of Kentucky and Bluegrass Land and Life by Mary E. Wharton and Roger W. Barbour
Native Trees of the Southeast: An Identification Guide by L. Katherine Kirkman, Claud L. Brown, and Donald J. Leopold
Vascular Plants of Kentucky by Edward T. Browne Jr. and Raymond Athey
Wildflowers and Ferns of Kentucky by Thomas G. Barnes and S. Wilson Francis
Wildflowers and Ferns of Red River Gorge and the Greater Red River Basin by Dan and Judy Dourson
Identifying Trees of the East by Michael D. Williams
Wildflowers of Tennessee, the Ohio Valley and the Southern Appalachians by Dennis Horn, Tavia Cathcart, Thomas E. Hemmerly, and David Duhl
Wildflowers & Plant Communities of the Southern Appalachian Mountains & Piedmont by Timothy P. Spira
Forest Plants of the Southeast and Their Wildlife Uses by James H. Miller and Karl V. Miller
Agroforestry / Permaculture
Tree Crops: A Permanent Agriculture by J. Russell Smith
Trees of Power by Akiva Silver
The Mayan Forest Garden by Anabel Ford and Ronald Nigh
Farming the Woods by Ken Mudge and Steve Gabriel
The Resilient Farm and Homestead by Ben Falk
Living the Good Life, The Maple Sugar Book by Helen and Scott Nearing
Indigenous Landscapes: Native Plant Agriculture, vol. 1, by Solomon Gamboa and Austin Miller
The Regenerative Landscaper by Erik Ohlsen
Regional Mushrooms (Southeast)
Appalachian Mushrooms by Walter E. Sturgeon
Mushrooms of the Southeast by Todd F. Elliott and Steven L. Stephenson
100 Edible Mushrooms and Morels by Michael Kuo
A Field Guide To Mushrooms of the Carolinas by Alan E. Bessette, Arleen R. Bessette, & Michael W. Hopping
Wild Food Cookbooks
Mushroom Wanderland by Jess Starwood
The New Wildcrafted Cuisine by Pascal Baudar
The Forager Chef’s Book of Flora by Alan Bergo
Naturalist Guides
Common Mosses of the Northeast and Appalachians by Karl B McKnight, Joseph R. Rohrer, Kirsten McKnight Ward, and Warren J. Perdrizet
Nature Inspired
Self-Reliance and Nature by Ralph Waldo Emerson
Journals, Walden, Wild Fruits, Faith in a Seed by Henry David Thoreau
A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold
Down the River and Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey
Alone Against the North: An Expedition into the Unknown, A History of Canada in Ten Maps, and Beyond The Trees by Adam Shoalts
Kentucky History
Boone: A Biography by Robert Morgan
The Hunters of Kentucky by Ted Franklin Belue
The Kentucky by Thomas D. Clark
Water in Kentucky: Natural History, Communities, and Conservation edited by Brian D. Lee, Daniel I. Carey and Alice L. Jones
Elkhorn: Evolution of a Kentucky Landscape by Richard Taylor
Kentucky Illustrated: The First Hundred Years by Martin F. Schmidt
Appalachian & eastern North American History
The Wilderness Road by Robert Lee Kincaid
Ginseng Diggers: A history of Root and Herb gathering in Appalachia by Luke Manget
Endangered and Disappearing Birds of Appalachia and the Southeast by Matt Williams
18th Century
The Frontiersmen: A Narrative by Allan W. Eckert
Poetry/Prose
RipRap, This Present Moment, and The Practice of the Wild by Gary Snyder