Out of Pod Experience

What are the best non fiction.

Here's some of mine

Getting things done - David Allen; good for time management, organizing your life, I run my life by this system now and if I didn't have it I think my life would be total chaos

Self Discipline in 10 Days; this book is like full of clip art and silly fonts but actually the info inside is GOLD, if you ever wondered why you can't do something you planned this book will tell you why, seriously this is worth 1000x all of those dr phil books etc.

Harry Lorayne - How to Develop a Super-power Memory; once in college I did a psychology course and went to no lessons for the whole of one module, for the exam I used to system in this book + a revision guide and got an A, obviously I remember sweet FA now but if you want to blag exams quick then maybe use this lol

Richest Man in Babylon; saving money, making money, the lesson seem really simply but obviously not that simple otherwise half of people around wouldn't be flat broke at the end of the month

Art of Seduction - Robert Greene; NOT just a PUA book but more about manipulating individuals, basically reads like a sociopaths manual, I read a review on Amazon about one guy getting totally screwed up by a girl who applied this book on him

Laws of Power - Robert Greene; I'm only just started on this but again this could be totally powerful and dangerous in the wrong hands

Liar's Poker - Michael Lewis; an account of one guys experience in the investment banking industry, this was written after the 80s and it is one huge clusterfuck back then so who the hell knows what its like now

Blow Him Away - Marcy Michaels; this sounds like a joke but it isn't, this book is a guide on blow jobs written by a qualified speech therapist lol, seriously get this book for your wife/girlfriend/boyfriend for christmas because it's just cruel to go through life getting bad head

Thinking in Systems - Donella H. Meadows; good explanation of how stuff in the world works and why nothing ever gets fixed

Mind Performance Hacks - Ron Hale Evans; little tricks and stuff to use your brain better, some of the stuff is light on content so its best to use each chapter as a point to go do more research or buy the recommended books to learn about each hack in depth

The Gods of Eden - William Bramley; this is slightly out-there but after you read you will be questioning everything and getting paranoid about everything going on in the world, but then maybe come back a little and calm down but still be a little paranoid, if you're not ready for this information or too closed minded then stay away til you are ready


Other stuff to read/bittorrent if bored

Art of War; overrated
The Prince; boring
Rich Dad Poor Dad; utter rubbish
4 hour workweek; flim flam
The Game; a biography of a road trip but not much useful PUA info

"Godel Escher Bach" by Douglas Hofstadter

Freakonomics is a good one.

Sink the Bellgrano (sp)) is an account of the Faulklands War from the perspective of the infamous SSN crew that fired the shot.

yk

Alistair Cook's America

not for accuracy, but because it was the first time the concept of a narrative was explained to me. by my father. I was 10.

yes he's still alive and no it's nothing dramatic like that. considering narratives and who is working to build one or destroy one has shaped a lot of my thinking from a young age. so now that you ask, this book stands out.

Richest Man in Babylon

Art of Seduction - Robert Greene

Laws of Power - Robert Greene

and contrary to your opinion, Rich Dad, Poor Dad...

excellent books.

"instead of climbing the corporate ladder, why not own it?" -paraphrase of Rich Dad, Poor Dad.

I didn't realize the benefit of these books immediately, but it proved immensely prudent to have placed the information in my head before it was needed.

Not a book, but do not miss Terry's hysterical narration of a BBC/PBS special called "The Story of One". Tons of Python humor throughout. He should host "All The Shows."

"Sangre en el Diván" by Ibeyise Pacheco.

It´s the actual story and investigative report from Ibeyise Pacheco, a sort of Venezuelan "Afrodita Jones" (and much more than her in some other areas) that deals with the former Psychiatrist from the Venezuelan President Hugo Rafael Chavez Frias, the Infamous Dr. Edmundo Chirinos, a serial abuser and raper of patients since the 60´s that went overboard and killed one when he was old, it is hinted he had been killing some of them but only this one managed to create quite a stir.

He always focused on abusing females from very poor backgrounds and almost no family relationships, he drugged them and abused them physically in his office and personal house.

He proceeded to take pictures of the "sleeping virgins" and had quite a stash of pictures of women sleeping, some of them so old they were naturally sepia in color, the Dr is over 70 years old, and seems he had been doing it for quite a while.

But last one was murdered in such a haphazardly fashion inside his own car, its was too obvious.

A very very interesting case, since well, I am a mental health practitioner in my country and I have been witness to several sordid cases that portrayed the abuse of the therapist-client relationship in here, and besides his many exploits in Venezuelan Society he also was the personal Psychiatrists of Chavez, which only adds more to the morbid fascination some of us have with Chavez.

So much power can be had with a client under therapy, specially if you use drugs. Some people just forget who they are and let their dark passions and lusts control them.

Even us Psychologists, with no easy access to drugs unlike Psychiatrists, saw some shocking drug related cases in the Faculty. Seems the career tends to attract a special type of person.

Very good book, well, most of her books, which are investigative in nature , are chilling and portray the dark side of this country in shocking ways, even to us, the nationals.

Joseph Campbell, The Masks of God, Vol. 2: Oriental Mythology - How ancient mythology stories express what humans are actually looking for in life. Why ancient Egyptians did crazy things like build massive pyramids and bury themselves in them with their pharoahs.

Fritzjof Capra, The Tao of Physics - Easy explanation of the odd paradoxes of quantum physics. Those little particles/waves are alive!

Daniel J. Levitin, This is Your Brain on Music - By a punk/rock musician turned neurologists. The parts of the brain, what each does and how information travels around between them. And how music mysteriously lights up unexpected parts of the brain.

Desmond Morris, The Naked Ape: A Zoologist's Study of the Human Animal - A zoologist's analysis of humans as a species of animal. Why do female humans have large breasts, but female chimps don't? Why are we mostly hairless, but have thick hair in certain odd places? Why don't humans have an "in heat" cycle like other mammals do?

Carlos Castaneda, Journey to Ixtlan - An anthropology grad student sets out to study psychoactive plant use among Mexican indian shamans but ends up learning sorcery. (Not exactly non-fiction-- he says the events really happened, but he combined a few people into just a few characters.