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Some Books I Recommend
As requested by some of my website readers I want to give you a list of some of my favourite books from my own "personal canon" - not all necessarily useful in the academic context but each is highly recommended for its own reasons. I've just picked a couple in each category so therefore comprehensiveness doesn't begin to enter the picture, these are just a few recommendations for you to consider. There are a lot of books I recommend not on this list so again it's just to give some ideas.
Psychiatry/Psychology
- Prof Victor Frankl - Psychotherapy and Existentialism, The Unheard Cry for Meaning, The Doctor and the Soul, The Unconscious God or any of his other works - they also could just as easily be categorised under philosophy or even religion. Best one to start with is probably Man's Search for Meaning.
- Any of Dr Irvin Yalom's books on Existential Psychotherapy develop this theme further
- Any one of a number of books by Dr Albert Ellis deal with more superficial but nonetheless useful cognitive issues
Philosophy
- Alain de Botton - The Consolations of Philosophy, Essays in Love, The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work
- Seneca - On the Shortness of Life (published as a stand-alone piece by Penguin - there is some overlap with the following books also), Letters from a Stoic, Dialogues and Essays
Business and Time Management
- C. Northcote Parkinson - The Law
- Edwin C. Bliss - Getting Things Done
Religion
- Bernard Glassman and Rick Fields - Instructions to the Cook - an interesting text on Zen Buddhism
- John Allen Paulos - Irreligion
- Prof Richard Dawkins - The God Delusion
Fiction
- Douglas Coupland - The Gum Thief
- Tobias Wolff - Our Story Begins
Diaries
- Alan Clark - Diaries (in 3 volumes)
Science
- Dr Jacob Bronowski - The Ascent of Man