g'day sunnybunny,

i'd suggest a visit to yor local lending library first up there should be a plethora of books on the shelf, don't get into the tomes keep the reading simple.

one you should seek out first i'd suggest is bill mollison's "intro' to permaculture" comes in paper back and hard cover versions, for me permaculture is all about simple common sense practises that fit into your lifestyle or system.

the rest you can find out here for free.

len

Here is a link that might be useful: lens garden page

Gaia's Garden is a good one.

Edible Forest Gardens is good, although it takes some time to digest. I like it because it's focus is on the New England Bioregion, but that may not be so good for someone in the northwest.

Dan

I second what Len says: see what what's in your local library.
There's loads of permaculture books in heaps of different styles.
Gaia's Garden is really accessible, whereas you might find Mollison heavy going.
On the other hand, if you want a really detailed explanation of how permaculture works, then read Mollison and Holmgren's books.

The best book I have read is Toby Heminway's "Gaia's Garden." I got me hooked on permaculture. It is well written and very informative.

I second Gaia's Garden. I have the 2nd printing where they add a permaculture specific chapter and a couple other things I guess. Very good read.

I like Food not Lawns as well, though that is less about how and more about why. It's got a heavy focus on community and activism, so that may or may not be up your alley.

One more to throw in the mix--"The Permaculture Garden" by Graham Bell. It's like a condensed version of Gaia's Garden with metric measurements, and it's a great crash course in the gardening side of permaculture.

I'll also second Food Not Lawns as a good introduction to some of the social concepts of permaculture as well as for some out-of-the-box ideas (but like bekajoi said, you may have to read around the activism bits).

Happy reading!

Art Ludwig's books on home use of greywater:

The New Create an Oasis with Grey Water

Laundry to Landscape

Water Storage: Tanks, Cisterns, Aquifers and Ponds (includes how to make a ferrocement water tank)

Also Brad Lancaster's series of 3 books (I'm not sure if #3 is out yet): Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond.

Masanobu Fukuoka's books the One-Straw Revolution and The Natural Way of Farming.

And of course, all of Bill Mollison's books.

Go to youtube and watch videos
~ search for "Geoff Lawton - Permaculture", "Sepp Holtzer" and "Masanobu Fukuoka" as well as "Path to Freedom" - "Homegrown Revolution" and "Emilia Hazelip" also "Permaculture Food Forest" many many to see.!
Videos on these will give you some insight before reading any books.

Here is a link that might be useful: Old Food Forest

'Edible Forest Garden' (both volumes) as well as 'Gaia's Garden' are both available on library.nu FO FREE! you just need a 7zip to unzip them as PDFs

Here is a link that might be useful: library.nu