Reading List: Walking in the City

David Ulin reflects on his favorite "city books" and the relationships that can form between cities and writers. His reading list revolves around traversing cities on foot, an act that can be both a physical and psychological journey.

Ulin writes, "Cities, after all, require a double vision, in which past and present, collective and personal, blur. They are shared spaces — not just for the millions who live in them at any moment but also for all those who have ever lived in them — and yet they are individual, as well [...] Like writing, cities are expressions of process, the back-and-forth between our aspirations and our abilities."

Featured books include Frank Conroy's Stop Time (one of Ulin's quintessential New York books), Alfred Kazin's A Walker in the City, and Vivian Gornick's The Odd Woman and the City. Ulin concludes with his book, Sidewalking, which chronicles his own walks through the city of Los Angeles.