Introduction to Positive Neuroplasticity

• Buddha’s Brain – Rick Hanson
• Hardwiring Happiness – Rick Hanson
• Bouncing Back – Linda Graham
• Selfless Insight – James Austin
• Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain – Sharon Begley
• Mind Wide Open – Steven Johnson
• Synaptic Self – Joseph LeDoux
• The Accidental Mind – David Linden
• The Mindful Brain – Daniel Siegel
• Mind in Life – Evan Thompson
• In Search of Memory – Eric Kandel

Family Life

• Awakening Joy for Kids – James Baraz and Michele Lilyana
• How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk – Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish
• Mindful Motherhood – Cassi Vieten
• Mother Nurture – Rick Hanson, Jan Hanson and Ricki Pollycove
• Raising Happiness – Christine Carter
• Raising Your Spirited Child – Mary Sheedy Kurcinka
• Sensational Meditation for Children Child-Friendly Meditation Techniques based on The Five Senses – Sarah Wood Vallely

Psychological Tools

• A Beautiful Mourning – Elizabeth A. Weber
• Awakening Joy – James Baraz & Shoshana Alexander
• Emotional Intelligence – Daniel Goleman
• Fully Present – Susan Smalley Ph.D. and Diana Winston
• Focusing – Eugene Gendlin
• Happy for No Reason – Marci Shimoff
• Inner Strengths: Contemporary Psychotherapy and Hypnosis for Ego Strengthening – Shirley A. McNeal & Claire Frederick
• Integral Life Practice – Ken Wilber, Terry Patten, et al.
• Nonviolent Communication – Marshall Rosenberg
• Shaolin Chi Kung (eBook) – Marcus James Santer
• Shift Your Mood – Rik Isensee
• What We May Be – Piero Ferrucci
• The Wise Heart – Jack Kornfield
• You Just Don’t Understand – Deborah Tannen

Mathematics, and Physical and Biological Sciences

• Born to be Good – Dacher Keltner
• Godel, Escher, Bach – Douglas Hofstadter
• The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat – Oliver Sacks
• Mind in Life – Evan Thompson
• The Pocket Idiot’s Guide to Bioidentical Hormones – Ricki Pollycove
• Six Easy Pieces – Richard Feynman
• Wonderful Life – Stephen Jay Gould
• Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers – Robert Sapolsky

Social Sciences

• The European Dream – Jeremy Rifkin
• Guns, Germs, and Steel – Jared Diamond
• The Interpersonal World of the Infant – Daniel Stern

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

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
• Practicing the Jhanas – Stephen Snyder and Tina Rasmussen

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
• The Forgiveness Solution – Philip H. Friedman, Ph.D
• How Can I Help? – Ram Dass and Paul Gorman
• I Am That – Nisargata Maharaj
• Integrative Healing – Philip H. Friedman, Ph.D
• The Perennial Philosophy – Aldous Huxley
• Remember, Be Here Now – Ram Dass
• Talks with Ramana Maharshi – 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. This is the first of twenty 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

• A warrior confronting a fly
• Chris Sharma climbing Dreamcatcher (5.14d)
• Randy Pausch’s (literally) “last lecture”

• People flying with wingsuits
• Surfing an incredibly huge wave
• Oingo Boingo singing “Insanity” from their farewell concert