This week, I’m sharing a short and sweet outdoor reading list. While so many more books could be included here, these three capture the essence of outside unlike any others.

Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey

Abbey’s story of his young life as a Park Service Ranger in Arches National Monument is not only a statement of the value of wilderness and conservation, but also a reflection on his own place in that wild, empty West. If you can’t take a semester off to build trails or roam around in the desert, this book is the next best thing. Abbey’s ultimate message is one of humility, adventure and respect in the face of Mother Nature, giving environmentalists ... “one final paragraph of advice: Do not burn yourselves out. Be as I am — a reluctant enthusiast ... a part-time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure.” No wonder I read the book over and over again until I owed Olin Library a ton of late fees.

A River Runs Through It by Norman Maclean

Maclean spent his adult life studying at Dartmouth and teaching literature at the University of Chicago. But it was his youth and his summers spent fly-fishing and working for the Forest Service in Montana that led to this powerful work of fiction. It takes the reader to the banks of the Big Blackfoot River near Missoula, where Maclean learned the arts of religion, family, love and fly-fishing.

But Maclean’s no­vella does more than relate a compelling tale of youth. It actually teaches you how to fly-fish. Fishing scenes in the book, and in Robert Redford’s movie based on it, follow the process of fishing sequentially — from learning to cast, choosing the proper fly, gaining style and finally landing a big trout. My favorite lesson? “The world is full of bastards, the number increasing rapidly the further one gets from Missoula, Montana.”

The Gary Snyder Reader by Gary Snyder

Finally, a brief pitch for The Gary Snyder Reader. A Pulitzer Prize winner for poetry, UC Davis professor and Kerouac’s inspiration — for his character Japhey Ryder in The Dharma Bums — Snyder is the sole reason I almost regret not going to Reed College. The Reader follows Snyder’s career, his study of Zen Buddhism and his evolving beliefs about the environment and community with an excellent collection of poems, essays and letters. From the fire look-outs of the Northern Cascades to the beaches of Japan, Snyder’s travels, musings and values have made him a prominent figure in American poetry, earth politics and environmentalism.