Worldbuilders Book Club Rec List

[forestofglory]

Friend of the blog quartzen has started a challenge on Storygraph called Worldbuilder's Book Club with the goal of reading twelve non-fiction books in different categories to inspire worldbuilding.

I thought it would be fun to do a rec list based on the challenge. I have recommended one or two books in each category. Many of these books can fit into multiple categories, but I tried to put them into the ones that make the most sense to me. This list reflects my somewhat eclectic interests, which include Chinese history, urban planning, and ecology.

I'm especially interested in books about food and material culture and books about how people in the past understood the world. I've also tried to choose books that are good for worldbuilding, things that showcase unexpected connections and highlight interesting details.

I like to read books by experts writing about their area of expertise, and so I read a fair number of academic books, a trend that’s reflected in this list. Academic books can skew more expensive, so t's worth checking your local library or looking for used copies.
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