I've also been dipping into Daily Rituals: How Artists Work[2]. Lots of brief summaries of how various famous creators have broken up their workday; it both inspires me to get off my ass, and makes me feel better about the days when absolutely nothing happens.

Oh, and I've been slowly picking at Thee Psychick Bible[3], a collection of the majgickal documents of Genesis P-Orridge. Not sure it's really got any ideas I haven't seen in my other mystical readings. But there sure is a lot of it.

1: http://rifters.com/real/Blindsight.htm 2: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009Y4I4OM/ref=oh_aui_d_det... 3: http://www.amazon.com/THEE-PSYCHICK-BIBLE-Apocryphal-Scriptu...

Hadfield's description of the massive preparation that astronauts must go through to be cleared for space flight really shows how seemingly insurmountable tasks can be accomplished by determined individuals. I think it's valuable to understand that becoming an astronaut (or any other high skill profession) isn't through some magic process but is the result of years of keeping your nose to the grindstone.

It's full of many pragmatic life lessons (visualize failure, aim to be a zero) that are contrary to what many 'life gurus' espouse. A wonderful sigh of realism.

It's the last in a series exploring the geologic history the country along Interstate 80.

The last book I read was Abdel Haleem's translation of the Qur'an[2]. For an ancient religious text, it's rather short. Total reading time was maybe 16 hours over the course of a week. I'm not religious, but it was interesting to get a better idea of what Muslims believe and why. That said, the whole thing reads like a 7th-century version of Time Cube. I came away with the impression that the author was a schizophrenic who knew of parts of the Bible.

The most useful book I've recently read is Steve Blank's Four Steps to the Epiphany[3]. It's a more structured version of a lot of the stuff I learned in YC.

My favorite books of the past year are Confessions of a Yakuza[4] and Infidel[5]. The subjects of each book are as different as can be, but their stories are quite captivating. Both survived immense suffering and managed to thrive afterwards. Reading those books reminded me of how lucky I am and how insignificant my problems are.

1. http://www.amazon.com/When-Air-Hits-Your-Brain-ebook/dp/B006...

2. http://www.amazon.com/Quran-Oxford-Worlds-Classics-ebook/dp/...

3. http://www.amazon.com/Four-Steps-Epiphany-Steve-Blank-ebook/...

4. http://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Yakuza-Junichi-Saga-ebook/...

5. http://www.amazon.com/Infidel-Ayaan-Hirsi-Ali-ebook/dp/B000N...

Thinking about doing a mind flush with either a short Kurt Vongegut or Terry Pratchett then on to tackle The Origin of Wealth, by Eric Beinhocker

You?

Just finished reading Straight Dope Tells All (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35107.The_Straight_Dope_T...) and Mahabharata Vol 5 (http://www.amazon.com/Mahabharata-Vol-5-Bibek-Debroy-ebook/d...)

Is anyone here reading some absolute trash like Dan Brown, or do we only read "good" books?

I'll start. I've just read "Full Assault Mode" by Dalton Fury. The action is good, but the account of hacking a nuclear power station using iPhones is completely risible.

I'm now reading I, Claudius which is a lot better.

Edge.org, in its annual question to prominent scientists and 'thought leaders', asked them "What is your favorite deep, elegant, or beautiful explanation?" My favorite ones so far include the many offshoots of natural selection and evolution, plus all of the stuff about the brain.

I recently finished The Cold War: A New History, a great primer to how we got to the geopolitical situation we are in now (at least the major western/eastern powers), and A Short History of Nearly Everything, which was an awesome birds-eye view of modern science. ★★★★☆ to both.

My next book is going to be about AI; let me know if you have any recommendations. (I'm not sure I'm ready for GEB.)

[0] http://www.amazon.com/dp/0062230174/

Last week I finished The Paradox of Choice and Zero Day. I enjoyed both of them, although I don't think I'll be reading any of the sequels to Zero Day.

Before that I went through The Maze Runner trilogy, those were entertaining reads.

Some other books I've read recently that I can remember off the top of my head are the Divergent series of books (eh), How Will You Measure Your Life by Clayton Christensen (great read), Ready Player One (loved, loved, loved this book), Starters (didn't bother reading any more in the series) and Moon walking With Einstein (I enjoyed it).

Waiting for new chapters in the serial Ra by Sam Hughes. Possibly about to read Engineering a Safer World by Nancy Leveson.

* Algorithms [2]

* The 50th Law [3]

* Applied Predictive Modeling [4]

When I get a breather from school...

* Cibola Burn [5]

1: http://amzn.com/013293633X ; 2: http://amzn.com/032157351X ; 3: http://amzn.com/006177460X ; 4: http://amzn.com/1461468485 ; 5: http://amzn.com/031621762X

http://www.amazon.com/Theory-Game-Design-Raph-Koster/dp/1449...

I have no interest in making games, but this comes highly recommended to understand applied intrinsic motivation (which I am very interested in). Grabbed it from the worrydream book list.

http://worrydream.com/#!/Links

Apparently when you're eating, your experience of flavor is about 80 percent olfactory!

Also, here's a list of books I read and recommend in 2014: http://blog.chewxy.com/books/

Body by Science — Doug McGuff, MD and John Little [2]

1. http://www.amazon.com/Zen-Mind-Beginners-Shunryu-Suzuki/dp/1...

2. http://www.amazon.com/Body-Science-Research-Strength-Trainin...

I was feeling the need for some fiction, so I picked up Vladimir Nabokov's translation of Eugene Onegin by Aleksandr Pushkin. Not sure what to think about it yet, but it's interesting reading Nabokov's analysis and seeing into his mindset a little. Sheds some light on his work as well.

I'm working through Calculus on Manifolds. Partly as mathematical weight training, partly because the aspect of quantum field theory that trips me up is usually the field bit.

Great Museum Homes of the Western United States - The great houses of the Western US, who built them, how the owners got their fortune, details into their businesses, etc

Laws of Power: Not for everyone but the book is damn useful if you're ambitious and can translate examples and vague concepts into your own situations in life.

No More Mr Nice Guy: Not very far into it but it's almost cathartic if it applies to you and I feel like its a huge step in social/emotional development for me.

BOOM Big Idea to share with you. No matter your functional role, there's solid research here on how people receive and respond to information. This is one of the best books on sales presentation and positioning I've read in ages.

Now I'm on Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole. Very funny book so far. The main character, Ignatius, is such a piece of work. I was slightly annoyed at first, but he's so odd and unique that it kept me captivated. Now everything is just really funny.

It approaches the topic of attaining mastery from the angle of Aikido, but I found it strongly resembling my feelings in the programming domain. I'm still pondering it, and will likely re-read it soon (it's a very short book).

Overall, the series has been good, if not a little long-winded and a bit repetitive at times.

But I don't think reading many books in parallel is a good strategy...

Discover Meteor: a book for the Meteorjs framework. Good book if you want to learn the framework.

I read a lot of fiction I guess. Now I am reading American Gods, and before that, Dune. Before Dune I read the 2 released books of The Kingkiller Chronicle.

Now I'm about to tackle "Inspired: How To Create Products Customers Love"

Plus the recipes look crazy amazing. I rarely say that.

pretty great so far

(On a fiction binge)

moving on to his "warbreaker" now. apparently, they're all tied together in an uber-epic.

Now reading Neil Young's autobiography

Behold, it was very good[2].

[1] http://www.amazon.com/Is-God-Vegetarian-Christianity-Vegetar...

[2] Gen 1:31