FAVORITE BOOKS
The most recently added books
are at the
top
of each list
Most of these links take you to Amazon.com, where
you can read reviews
and see sample pages.
MIND
ALTERING BOOKS:
Looking for Spinoza: Joy, Sorrow and the Feeling
Brain (Antonio Damasio, 2003) Amazon.com
review:
As he seeks to unlock the secrets of such things as joy and sorrow,
Antonio Damasio pursues a unifying [neurobiological] theory [of mind]
in Looking for Spinoza.
Why Spinoza? The philosopher, whom Damasio calls a "protobiologist,"
firmly linked mind and body, paving the way for modern ideas of
neurophysiology. Damasio examines this linkage, which ran counter to
all scientific and religious thinking of Spinoza's day, and lays out
the reasoning and evidence behind its truth. As he has in his previous
books on the subject (Descartes'
Error and The
Feeling of What Happens), Damasio is careful to use
clear examples from life to explain the often dry and difficult science
of the brain. GS:
Damasio's neurobiology explains how biological emotions and mental
feelings are the integrated -- together they are the necessary basis
for reason, not reason's antithesis.
Meditation Now or Never (Steve Hagen, 2007)
Zen priest Hagen, author of Buddhism Plain and
Simple and Buddhism Is Not What You Think,
offers a brief and wonderfully accessible primer on meditation, which
untutored beginners can inadvertently turn into an unnecessary
difficulty. Meditation is a
lifelong practice that can, and should, seep into every arena of our
life, so that when we're attentively folding laundry or taking out
the trash, we're doing meditation. Mediation is no more and no less
than teaching the mind just
to be here
right now,
says Hagen.
Everything
Must Change (Brian McLaren, 2007) Brian
McLaren asks and answers two questions. 1) "What are the biggest
problems in the world?" and 2) "What does Jesus have to say about these
global problems?" His thorough analysis of the cultures in Christ's
era, in our era, and for a few other era's in between, leads
him
to develop a robust and coherent model of societies based on three
interoperable systems, which he delineates in great detail : The
Security System, The Prosperity System, and The Equity System, all
driven by a common engine -- the "Framing Story" of
each
culture. He shows how establishment
and anti-establishment
forces of any culture in any era are locked together in vain in a
dichotomous battle because they share the same framing story. He
describes how his emergent
understanding of Christ's framing story -- a "Kingdom of God" focused
on immediate
social justice
on earth
-- was an orthogonal break that freed peopple from the dominant framing
story of his time -- the Roman Empire -- and how Christ's
"Kingdom of God" framing story today would be an orthogonal break with
the current framing story of current societies (also one
of empire), which is driving a run-away global "suicide
machine",
that is not only inexorably and wastefully destroying the environment
and killing its plant and animal inhabitants including humans, but also
turning us against each other as individuals and as nation states in
hateful fratricide and genocide. (See below, The Secret
Message
of Jesus.)
Consciousness: An Introduction (Susan
Blackmore, Ph.D, 2004)
See also the very much shorter version (130 pages): Consciousness: A Very Short Introduction
(Susan Blackmore, Ph.D., 2005)
Speak
Peace in a World of Conflict : What You Say Next Will Change Your World
(Marshall Rosenberg, 2005)
The radical theory and rigorous, yet pragmatic practice of
protocols for "Non-Violent Communication" for self-fulfillment,
conflict
resolution, and compassionate service towards the liberation and full
actualization of all beings. supersedes Rosenberg's original
'Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life". This book is also
available on CD. If you can't find Speak
Peace, then look for Rosenberg's precursor to this
book, Nonviolent
Communication: A Language of Life: Create Your Life, Your
Relationships, and Your World in Harmony with Your Values, Marshall
Rosenberg (2003)
For more on NVC, see
these sites:
www.cnvc.org
www.nonviolentcommunication.com
www.shareNVC.com
puddledancer.com/
Breaking
the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon (Daniel Dennett, 2005)
The Secret Message of Jesus (Brian
McLaren, 2006)
(Nothing mysterious -- Profoundly fresh insights
into the
practical application of Jesus's real message in a post-modern world,
from a leading thinker in the "Emergent Church" movement.)
A
Generous
Orthodoxy (Brian McLaren, 2004)
The
End of Faith: Religion, Terror and the Future of Reason (2004)
What
the Buddha Taught (Walpola Rahula 1974 revised expanded edition)
The best concise explanation i've read of what the Buddha
actually
taught during his lifetime.
Freedom
Evolves (Daniel Dennett, 2004 reprint)
Buddhism
without Beliefs (Stephen Batchelor)
Mindfulness
in Plain English
(Bhante Henepola Gunaratana)
Darwin's
Dangerous
Idea (Danial Dennett 1996)
Getting
Past
OK: A Straightforward Guide to Having a Fantastic Life
Virus
of
the
Mind: The New Science of the Meme
The
Meme
Machine
How
the
Mind
Works (Steven Pinker, 1999)
An extraordinarily lucid and comprehensive explanation of the
evolutionary, computational theory of mind, intelligence and
consciousness (self-reflection), until the last chapter when Pinker
punks out:
(p.561) "Maybe ... the mind of Homo Sapiens ... [which] evolved by
natural
selection ... lacks the cognitive equipment to solve ... conundrums
like
free will and sentience [subjective experience]." For a much
bolder
solution, see Consciousness Explained (Daniel Dennett, 1991).
Pinker
cites Dennett, but does not directly address Dennett's sound arguments
that
sentience is simply an emergent activity of our
self-reflective
consciousness,
requiring no separate explanation.
Consciousness
Explained (Daniel Dennett, 1991)
A tour de force, comprehensive, if still preliminary, evolutionary,
computational
theory of mind, intelligence and consciousness.
Wherever
you
Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life
Peace
Is
Every
Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life
Lord
of
the
Rings: The Return of the King/the Two Towers/the Fellowship of the Ring
--J.
R. R.
Tolkien (Fiction)
Catch-22
(Fiction)
Lord
of
the
Flies (Fiction)
Catcher
in
the Rye (Fiction)
The New Testament
The
Little
Engine That Could (Fiction)
OTHER VERY GOOD BOOKS:
CSS
Mastery: Advanced Web Standards Solutions (Andy Budd, 2006)
(If you have to read about CSS, this is the book! This ugly page has almost no CSS.)
The
Dhamapada
(Gil Fronsdal, 2005)
A
New Kind of Christian (Brian McLaren, 2001, Fiction)
The
Wisdom of Crowds
(Paperback, 2004) James Surowiecki
Blink
(2005) The Power of Thinking Without Thinking (and the pitfalls)
One
Dharma: The
Emerging Western Buddhism (Joseph Goldstein, 2002)
Actual
Innocence
Recent DNA forensics have exonerated a
disquieting
number of innocent men on death row and exposed how the U.S. judicial
system's culture
and procedures result in too many erroneous convictions in all
categories
of crime; and how its aversion to self-examination prevents identifying
and
correcting human errors and systemic problems in the premises and
procedures
of prosecution, defense and judgment.
Teaching
About Evolution and the Nature of
Science:
Working Group on Teaching Evolution, National
Academy of
Sciences
Read
this
entire book online
Science
and Creationism: A View from the
National Academy of Sciences, Second Edition
Read
this
entire book online
The
Inflationary
Universe: The Quest for a New Theory of Cosmic Origins
Quarantine
(Greg Egan, 1992, Science Fiction)
Diaspora:
A Novel (Greg Egan, 1998, Science
Fiction)
Emotional
Intelligence
Coming
of
Age
in the Milky Way
Conscilience:
The Unity of Knowledge
The
Mismeasure
of Man
Foucault's
Pendulum (Umberto Eco 1988, Fiction)
The
Disciplined
Mind: What All Students Should Understand
Science
and
the Paranormal
The
Shipping
News (Fiction)
The
Physics
of Star Trek
The
Corner
Longitude:
The
true story
of a lone genius who solved the greatest scientific problem of his time
Unweaving
the
Rainbow: Science, Delusion and the Appetite for Wonder
Climbing
Mount
Improbable
How evolution "designs" improbably complex biological structures like
the eye. An antidote to false "Intelligent Design Theory".
The
World
According
to Garp (Fiction)