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Non-Fiction Reading List

punktuality

punktuality

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May 12, 2003
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I know there was a reading list compiled not long ago but It was largely compiled of fiction books. I was interesting in expanding my library and wondering what non-fiction books people suggest about thought, awareness, ego, soul and higher states of conciousness.

A small review/blurb of the books you like would help too!


My favourite books are:

***The Master Game : Robert De Ropp***
This book is easily one of, if not the best book I have ever read, The author has a strong background and interest in nuerology and has clearly experimented with psychadelics... however his emphasis in the book is not on the psychadelic experience, but how to change your brain patterns and become more aware through observing your own thought process...excellent! It explains that we all need to find "games worth playing" in life and we need to rid ourselves of the counter productive games we are all subject to. I recomend everyone read this book!



***The Doors of Perception & Heaven and Hell : Aldous Huxley***
I dont think these books need too much introduction on these forums... quite simply one of the best accounts of the psychadelic experience and insights into the human mind ever written.


there is a few more which I may add later but that will do for now...
 
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I believe a Daniel Pinchbeck wrote a book "breaking open the head" about exploring shaman cultures and trying psychedelics. It is a good book. I like the author.

~psychoblast~
 
'the fall of paris 1870' by alistair horne is a great account of the siege of paris and the commune in 1870/71...

for all those who can read german, stefan zweig wrote incredibly readable biographies of a number of historical figures, such as casanova, maria stuart, marie antoinette, josef fouché, calvin, dostojevsky etc. .... great, great books...

'war is a force that gives us meaning' by, i think his name is chris hedges, is a good book about how conflict situations - while causing tremendous terror and misery - give thrill and meaning to many people who suffer through them...

i think the fact that so many people who have been in armed conflicts later testify that it was the most intense period of their life (often they will even say the best) is very interesting...
 
john pilger - heroes.

thoroughly worthy, dedicated and ascerbic investigative journalism. pilger has a unique grasp on the salient points in any situation, and is unrepentant in his prosecution of those who he believes are perpetrating injustices. his articles on vietnam, cambodia, nicaragua and honduras are superb.


bertrand russell - political ideals.

intended as a series of lectures that were never given thanks to the censorship of WWII britain, this book remains IMO one of the most forcefully argued humanitarian/libertarian treatises. it's still as ringingly relevant today as it was in 1939.

bill bryson's travel books are great. his american, english and australian ones in particular. i learnt more about my country from his book than any number of school lessons :) and it is genuinely hilarious. he also clearly loves language and uses fantastic old words just for the fuck of it :D.


isaac deutscher - stalin.

a remarkable portrait of a thoroughly nasty but nonetheless fascinating man. deutscher's work survives the translation from german well, and readable and detailed. if you're interested more in the characterisation of the Stalin figure rather than the practical implementation of it, this book is essential.


robert templer - shadows and wind.

a fantastic contemporary history of vietnam. it's really really good! :)
 
Current (re-)reading list:

Robert Wright - The Moral Animal, why we are the way we are.
Eckhart Tolle - The Power of Now, a guide to spiritual enlightenment.
Oliver James - They F*** You Up, how to survive family life.
Roger Penrose - Shadows of the Mind.
Martin Seligman - Helplessness, on depression development and death.
 
just starting: just & unjust wars by micheal walzer

questions the morality of wars by examining previous conflicts. i just started this book, so i don't really know what to make of it yet.

just finishing: no logo by naomi klein
great book about the corporatization of public space, sweatshops and globalization. good stuff.
 
The Elegant Universe -- Brian Greene

It's probably a bit out of date by now, having been written a few years ago. However, it's still a great (alebit abstract at times) walkthorugh of modern physics leading up to superstring and M-theory. Food for imagination.

Also Elwood's No Nonsense Guide to Globalization. It's quite small, and more than a little bit preachy, but is a good place to start for anyone curious as to what globalization is, why some people are against it (in it's current incarnation) and possible solutions to problems that it has created.

Oh, and for a fun little read, try: The nothing that is: A Natural History of Zero, by Robert Caplan. The first half is a discussion of how zero came into being, followed by some funky proofs (including one which shows that all integers can be created somehow by nesting empty sets). A fun read for the inner math geek (sorry, math stud), which doesn't bore the rest of the mind.

Dave
 
Michael Talbot- Holographic Universe
Al Frankin- Lies and the Lying Liars who tell them
Randall Kennedy- Ni9ger
 
Stephen Hawking - A Brief History of Time

probably the best book to read about quantum physics
 
DigitalDuality said:
Al Frankin- Lies and the Lying Liars who tell them
Click to expand...

Hilarious book and at first read it seemed to actually have a basis in fact unlike much of the political demagogery that sells these days. (Harvard fellowship allowed him to use students as unpaid research assistants resulting in a decent amount of substantiation for his points).
 
"escape from freedom" by erich fromm

its about how humanity cannot live with the responsibilities inherent in freedom and so how we will eventually turn to authoritarianism or totalitarianism. its a great book on social psychology which helped me find out some things about myself that i was not aware of before.

i also recomend the art of loving by the same author. it speaks of the psycology of love.
 
I started reading "Seat of the Soul" by Gary Zukav. It's a great book about listening to our soul and living beyond our five senses.
 
Thomas the Tank Engine Counts to Ten - by W. Awdry

absolute classic....

Descarte's Error: Emotion, Reason and the Human Brain - A.Damasio

"Rich in provocative concepts about intelligence,memory creativity and even passion, is an excellent guide to the revelations of neuobiolgy" LA Times

Written by Professor in Neurology and it shows.
 
Cool thread! I'm happy to contribute; however, I first want to point out that I believe "awareness" and the examination of such a concept cannot be confined to a transcendental space of postulation and speculation. In other words, I believe philosophical theory must be grounded in a study of humanity and history. I suppose this is a result of my training in anthropology, but I find it useful to employ a holistic study of people and their impact on culture and thought in any discussion of consciousness.

This is a dangerous thread for me, as there are A LOT of books I'd like to recommend!! However, I'll try to keep the list short

3 by Hannah Arendt
-- The Human Condition
-- The Origins of Totalitarianism
-- On Violence

1 by Simone de Beauvoir
-- The Second Sex

1 by Seyla Benhabib (ed.)
-- Democracy and Difference: Contesting the Boundaries of the Political

2 by Jacques Derrida
-- Acts of Religion
-- Ethics, Institutions, and the Right to Philosophy

-- 5 by Michel Foucault
-- Discipline & Punish: The Birth of the Prison
-- The History of Sexuality vol. 1: An Introduction
-- The History of Sexuality vol. 2: The Use of Pleasure
-- The History of Sexuality vol. 3: The Care of the Self
-- Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings, 1972-1977

1 by Walter Goldschmidt
-- The Human Career: The Self in the Symbolic World

2 by Claude Levi-Strauss
-- Myth and Meaning: Cracking the Code of Culture
-- The Savage Mind

1 by Jerry Mander (yeah, that's really his name!)
-- In the Absence of the Sacred: The Failure of Technology & the Survival of the Indian Nations

1 by Karl Marx (ed.)
-- The Marx-Engels Reader

2 by Friedrich Nietzsche
-- The Will to Power
-- The Gay Science

4 by Edward Said
-- Orientalism
-- Out of Place: A Memoir
-- Reflections on Exile and Other Essays
-- Representations of the Intellectual

3 by Jean-Paul Sartre
-- Being and Nothingness
-- Critique of Dialectical Reason
-- Existentialism and Human Emotions

2 by Huston Smith
-- Why Religion Matters: The Fate of the Human Spirit in an Age of Disbelief
-- Cleansing the Doors of Perception: The Religious Significance of Entheogenic Plants and Chemicals

1 by R. S. Sugirtharajah
-- The Bible and the Third World : Precolonial, Colonial and Postcolonial Encounters
 
OMG, you've read Michel Foucault AND Nietzsche?!?!

*swoon*

I friggin' love Foucault to death, and Nietzsche is a guilty pleasure - it's not often I run into people that have read them both! =D

--- G.

p.s. Discipline and Punish is a must-read for anyone interested in the historical and philosophical origins of concepts related to crime and punishment
 
Guns, Germs and Steel- by Jared Diamond. It's a short history about everyone over the last 13,000 years and he seeks to dispell notions of racial superiority by examining all the factors that brought the people of each continent to where they are today. It's been one of the best books I've read in the last year or two, completely altered my perception of early human history.

For a brief synopsis check this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guns,_Germs_and_Steel
 
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