Books
These are some of my favorite books. I love to read, and hope you like these books as much as I have.
(Disclosure: If you follow their links to Amazon, I get a little bit of compensation as an “Amazon Associate,” but you are welcome to purchase them elsewhere, including your local second-hand bookstore.)
Neurodharma
Buddha’s Brain – Rick Hanson
Selfless Insight – James Austin
Mathematics, and physical and biological sciences
The Accidental Mind – David Linden
Godel, Escher, Bach – Douglas Hofstadter
The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat – Oliver Sacks
Mind in Life – Evan Thompson
Mind Wide Open – Steven Johnson
The Mindful Brain – Dan Siegel
The Pocket Idiot’s Guide to Bioidentical Hormones – Ricki Pollycove
Six Easy Pieces – Richard Feynman
Synaptic Self – Joseph LeDoux
Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain – Sharon Begley
Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers – Robert Sapolsky
Wonderful Life – Stephen Jay Gould
Social sciences
The European Dream - Jeremy Rifkin
Guns, Germs, and Steel – Jared Diamond
The Interpersonal World of the Infant - Daniel Stern
Psychological tools
Awakening Joy – James Baraz & Shoshana Alexander
Emotional Intelligence – Daniel Goleman
Fully Present – Susan Smalley Ph.D. and Diana Winston
Focusing
Happy for No Reason – Marci Shimoff
Integral Life Practice – Ken Wilber, Terry Patten, et al.
Mindful Motherhood – Cassi Vieten
Nonviolent Communication – Marshall Rosenberg
Shift Your Mood – Rik Isensee
The Wise Heart – Jack Kornfield
What We May Be – Piero Ferrucci
You Just Don’t Understand – Deborah Tannen
Selected Buddhist readings
Buddhism has several major lineages – Theravadan (based on the original teachings of the Buddha), Tibetan, Chan, Zen, and Pure Land – as well as modern variations and syntheses of these. My background is mainly Theravadan, and I welcome suggestions for other lineages.
If you’re getting just one book
In the Buddha’s Words: An Anthology of Discourses from the Pali Canon – Bhikkhu Bodhi
Solid introductions, from a Western perspective
The Experience of Insight – Joseph Goldstein
A Path with Heart – Jack Kornfield
Wherever You Go, There You Are – Jon Kabat-Zinn
When the going gets tough
Being Peace – Thich Nhat Hanh
Radical Acceptance – Tara Brach
When Things Fall Apart – Pema Chodren
For meditative absorption and insight
Living Dharma – edited by Jack Kornfield
Mindfulness, Bliss, and Beyond – Ajahn Brahm
Theravadan
Being Dharma – Ajahn Chah
The Dhammapada – translated by Gil Fronsdal
Pure and Simple – Upasika Nanayon
Satipatthana – Analayo
Small Boat Great Mountain – Ajahn Amaro
What the Buddha Taught – Walpola Rahula
The Wings to Awakening – Thanissaro Bhikkhu
Tibetan
Carefree Dignity – Tsoknyi Rinpoche
Cutting through Spiritual Materialism – Chogyam Trungpa
Zen
The Three Pillars of Zen – Philip Kapleau Roshi
Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind – Shunryu Suzuki
Zen Flesh, Zen Bones – Paul Reps and Nyogen Senzaki
Modern interpretations
Awakening Joy – James Baraz
The Buddhist Unconscious – William Waldron
One Dharma – Joseph Goldstein
Selfless Insight – James Austin
Other spiritual literature
The Book: On the Taboo against Knowing Who You Are - Alan Watts
Easy Death – Adi Da Samraj
How Can I Help? – Ram Dass and Paul Gorman
I Am That – Nisargata Maharaj
The Perennial Philosophy – Aldous Huxley
Remember, Be Here Now – Ram Dass
Talks with Ramana Maharshi
A Year to Live – Stephen Levine
General fiction
Deliverance – James Dickey
East of Eden – John Steinbeck
For Whom the Bell Tolls – Ernest Hemingway
Haroun and the Sea of Stories – Salman Rushdie
Master and Commander – Patrick O’Brian, as well as the other nineteen novels in this incomparable series of funny, profound, exciting, lyrical, and deeply insightful books
The Persian Boy – Mary Renault
Sweet Thursday – John Steinbeck
Their Eyes Were Watching God – Zora Neale Hurston
Science fiction and fantasy
Dune – Frank Herbert
The Left Hand of Darkness – Ursula Le Guin
Lord of Light - Roger Zelazny
Lord of the Rings – J.R.R. Tolkien
Neuromancer – William Gibson
Startide Rising – David Brin
Stranger in a Strange Land – Robert Heinlein
A Wizard of Earthsea – Ursula Le Guin
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