"Love Your Journey Through Life!"
William Wittmann, M.Ed., LMP
Bookstore and Tools You Want for Living Well
So you can wholeheartedly enjoy your life.
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Animals and Nature: Healing and Connecting
Animal-Speak : The Spiritual & Magical Powers of Creatures Great & Small by Ted Andrews Use this book to look up the symbolism and the nature, the medicine of different mammals, bugs, trees, birds, et al. I had a sighting of an opossum at the beginning of a trip. What did that bode for me? Look it up.
The Birder's Handbook by Paul Ehrlich, is as is suggested by the title, a handbook with a collection of all the rough data you could ever want on any bird in North America. It will tell you the birds feeding strategy, how it builds its nests and where, how many eggs it lays how often, etc. It is a rich source.
Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit by Al Gore,
Paperback Cassette
Tape Version This is one of the best books on the subject and it is
easily understood, and it's hopeful. I voted for him on the strength of
this book. He was also a classmate of mine at Harvard, amazing, huh.
The Horse Whisperer : A Novel by Nicholas Evans, Paperback Cassette Tape Version Hardcover Hardcover Largeprint Soon to be a major motion picture by Robert Redford. It is a little melodramatic, but it does illustrate accurately animal human connections. This was on the best seller lists for ages.
Ingwe by M. Norman Powell, Ingwe Powell. This is another for really story. Ingwe is the co-founder of Wilderness Awareness School (see link below). He was of English stock, raised in Africa and played with and eventually was adopted by the Akamba people. He was raised as a native. Great stories and illustrations for what is possible. Much of his wisdom went into the making of the Kamana Program at Wilderness Awareness School.
Kinship with all Life by J. Allen Boone. This guy talks to animals and they talk back. He makes it sound real and not crazy. He was a guy who was babysitting a dog actor and fell into relationship with this really intelligent German Shepard. It's a gentle, humorous book without weirdness.
Love, Miracles, and Animal Healing : A Veterinarian's Journey from Physical Medicine to Spiritual Understanding by Allen M. Schoen, Pam Proctor, Hardcover
Love, Miracles, and Animal Healing : A Heartwarming Look at the Spiritual Bond Between Animals and Humans by Allen M. Schoen, Pam Proctor, Paperback. Same book, different title in the paperback version. Moving and inspiring.
The Man Who Listens to Horses Cassette Tape Version by Monty Roberts, Lawrence Scanlan (Introduction), Lucy Grealy, Hardcover. Also on the best seller list. This is non-fiction however.
Medicine Cards : The Discovery of Power Through the Ways of Animals/Book and Cards by Jamie Sams, Angela C. Werneke, David Carson. This is a tool for divination mostly, but I find it a good resource for connecting to animals. This has sold over 1/2 million copies, so you know it has struck a chord. It goes well with Animal Speak above.
Peterson Guides are the best, except for The Sibley Guide to Birds below and see also The Birder's Handbook above. You can begin to learn from these. I have listed some of my favorites, there are bunches of them.
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Birding
by Ear : Eastern/Central : A Guide to Bird-Song Identification/3 Cds
(Peterson Field Guides) by Richard K. Walton, Robert W. Lawson This
and the one below for the West will teach even the tone deaf, like me, to
hear the differences in bird song. There may be no more powerful way to
connect to nature.
- Birding by Ear : Western : A Guide to Bird Song
Identification (Peterson Field Guides, No 413 Audio Cassettes and Booklet)
by Richard K. Walton, Robert W. Lawson, Roger Tory Peterson
The
CD version Because of the search capabilities of the CD, I strongly
recommend the CD version.
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A
Field Guide to Animal Tracks (Peterson Field Guides) by Olaus J. Murie,
Roger Tory Peterson A master tracker with stories that give you a
feel for the out of doors and the wilderness that was and is.
- Mammals (Peterson Field Guides) by Roger Tory Peterson Mammals are our closest relatives and there are fewer species of them than insects or anything else, so it makes them a good place to start.
The
Sibley Guide to Birds by David Allen Sibley is a beautiful book, and for
this reason alone it is worth owning. But if you have ever tried to look
up a bird and couldn't find it, it may have been because most other
identification books are based on only one state of plumage -- spring mating.
Sibley has done all seasons. These illustrations are not detailed like a
photo would be, but come much more closely to approximating what you will see in
the field. I love this book.
The Tracker by Tom Brown, Jr. Tom Brown Junior was the first guy who made tracking seem possible. Not that I could do it, but someone from the twentieth century and living in the suburbs made it. Later I met and studied with Jon Young, Tom's first student and a gifted tracker. Now, I am a beginning tracker with miracles to tell about. It all started with this book. To find out more see the link to Jon Young's Wilderness Awareness School below. Check out their Kamana Program.
Washington Atlas and Gazetteer (Atlas & Gazetteer Ser) If you like to explore, and love to go on back roads, This is the book for you. My buddy Morris and I took a trip recently into Eastern Washington. We turned this way and that way and found ourselves in a most amazing place. We were concerned that we would never be able to return there again given the nature of we got there. The dirt road we were on, the size of a driveway, is on this map. So are logging roads and trails and even I-90. It's all there.
Great atlas for getting around Washington, there are others for other states. (You can use the search engine at the end of the page to look for the other states.) They have all the details you need with a huge scale and topo maps for those like me who want to get the feel for the land's contours.
Washington Wildlife Viewing Guide by Joe LA Tourrette This is a gem and a model of interagency co-operation. The project has nine different sponsors ranging from The Defenders of Wilderness to the US Forest Service. I have used this to find some wonderful places that I might not have found on my own.
You can find Wildlife Viewing Guides for many states by using the Amazon.com search engine and entering Wildlife Viewing Guide. I assume they are all good, but I am only familiar with the Washington one. If you search from my site, I will get credit. See the search engine at the end of this page.
Return to Directory of Bookstore Departments or you can search my site at left or Amazon.com below.