A life in books

A note from the Reviews Editor. How are intellectual and personal lives shaped through encounters with books? In this first instalment of our new occasional special feature, Tim Ingold responds to our invitation to select the five key books that most influenced his thinking. His selections illustrate the diversity of ways in which books can become meaningful: sometimes condensing an existing train of thought; in moments of inspiration; nagging away in languages that draw us in despite, or because of, the partial ways we understand; sometimes as points of arrival, redescribing what we already feel we know; at others as moments of departure, in new possibilities realized or glimpsed; in disagreement as much as assent; in the exhilarating revelation of a fleeting moment of discovery, or in the gradual evolution of new ideas over years or even decades.