The Omnivore's Dilemma/In Defense of Food - Michael Pollan (which is weird, considering he doesn't actually advocate a vegan diet)
Animal Liberation - Peter Singer
Becoming Vegan - Brenda Davis and I totally can't remember the other author!
Vegan: The New Ethics of Eating – Erik Marcus
Diet for a Small Planet (20th anniversary edition)

I read various others as well once I was leaning towards veganism, but these ones really stood out as giving me a giant push. Great thread, I'm looking forward to seeing what other people have read!

The McDougall Program: 12 Days to Dynamic Health by Dr. John McDougall
The Food Revolution by John Robbins
Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser
The China Study by T. Colin Campbell
Being Vegan: Living with Conscience, Conviction, and Compassion by Jo Stepaniak

Dr. John McDougall, John Robbins, and Jo Stepaniak were THE driving forces for me. I HIGHLY recommend anything they've written. I think they are all awesome and they changed my life.

Another vote for 'the ethics of being vegan".  I was veggie for 10 years.  I guess I always knew that veganism was the next logical step to take, but I told myself that it would be too hard because I was living in Asia.  Then I read this book, bawled my eyes out, and became vegan that same day!

Animal Liberation: I read that about 18 years ago, and became vegetarian almost immediately.

In the last year, I have read . . .
Omnivore's Dilemma:  like others have said, he doesn't advocate veganism, but it was still a huge push for me in that direction.  I think reading that book is what made me realize that my search for "cruelty-free dairy" was in vain.  In my mind, that left only two options:  be a hypocrite or be a vegan. 

Skinny bisque, weird, huh?  But, she is right to the point that dairy is disgusting. 

The China Study, ethics aside, animal products are just not good for you.  Oh, and I was so enraged by the arrogance and outright power of the cattle and dairy industry. 

Those pretty much cinched it for me.  Also, John Robbins website is great!  And, as always, PPK!

I got Gene Baur's book "Farm Sanctuary" when I went to the "walk for farm animals" a few weeks ago. It's really good. It's an account of how he got started with Farm Sanctuary, what battles with different factory farms he went through, how he started the California branch...

Makes me want to move Upstate

Animal Liberation - Peter Singer

Omnivore's Dilemma - Michael Pollan:  This was maybe the most influential on me, because he doesn't advocate for veganism.  In fact, he even lightly argues against it, but I found myself engaging with him intellectually and felt renewed in my belief that veganism was right, because his argument was one of the best I'd read FOR eating meat, and I still found I disagreed.  Plus, the rest of the book is just a kickass look at where food comes from and the problems with industrialized farming in general.

The Kind Diet - Alicia Silverstone:  Just started reading it, and though it's preaching to the choir, I'm really liking her tone, the information she adds, and how she is not afraid to detail ALL the reasons to be vegan.  She doesn't avoid the animal rights or compassion angles at all.  And she's pleasantly hippy-dippy without being overly so - just cutely and sweetly so!

A lot of my path was paved for me by people I knew - my high school boyfriend went to school at UC Santa Cruz and he convinced me about why I should go vegetarian, and my best friend in college was vegan.  I jumped in wholeheartedly both times because I intuited that it was right for so many reasons.  Most of the reading I've done has been after the fact, to help me develop my beliefs and put them into words.

Last edited by loveonamixtape (Tue 10/27/09 5:13 pm)