The Best Books to Read in a Hammock

A hammock is the best reading chair ever made. These are the books we keep coming back to on long afternoons.

For the outdoors-curious

• A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson. Funny, warm and a little dangerous for your plans, because you will want to hike the Appalachian Trail by chapter three.
• Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey. A season as a park ranger in Arches, written with real fire.
• Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer. Short essays about plants and people that read beautifully in small doses between naps.

For getting lost

• The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway. Short enough for one long hang.
• Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens. Marshes, mystery and summer heat.
• The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien. Still the coziest adventure story there is.

For when you might fall asleep

• Walden by Henry David Thoreau. Open to any page. Read three paragraphs. Drift.
• A book of Mary Oliver poems. One poem, one look at the sky, repeat.