11/22/63 - by: Stephen King (Fiction 2011)

Another inmate loaned me this book to read. I think it is the best King book yet, and I enjoyed it very much.

Under the Dome - by: Stephen King (Fiction 2009)

I don't generally read fiction very much, but when I do I like King's intelligence, imagination, and attention to detail (well researched stories). His books seem to get better as he gets older also.

The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory - by: Brian Greene (1999)

I heard this book refered to in a science fiction movie and thought I'd read it to understand the reference better. I think Greene, and other physicists like him, would make a lot more progress if they simply let go of the rigid constructs of their religion (i.e. science) and followed their bliss (as Joseph Campbell might say).

Heart of Darkness - by Joseph Conrad (Classic Fiction)

This is the original story that made the movie "Apocalypse Now" was based on. If you want to really understand the movie, then read this book!

What the Dog Saw: and Other Adventures - by: Malcolm Gladwell (2009)

This is a collection of intellectual (i.e. intelligent) articles written by Gladwell for The New Yorker, where he has been a staff writer since 1996. Several of the articles are very interesting, but of particular note is the one called "Dangerous Minds: Criminal Profiling made easy", in which Gladwell does a good job discrediting the FBI's behavior analysis units for the quackeries they are, and why.

A Stolen Life: A Memoir - by Jaycee Dugard (2011)

The story of an eleven year old girl who is kidnapped and held as a sex slave for eighteen years. I got this book for research into the character, Philip Garrido, who kidnapped Jaycee. I thought he'd be the right "psycho" for a story I'd like to write someday, not about a psycho, but about a "John-Walsh" character who incounters a psycho like Garrido and learns from him that they aren't so different.

Heart Shaped Box - by Joe Hill (2007, Fiction)

Joe Hill is the pen name used by Stephen King's son. As a writer he is okay, but nowhere near as good as his father. Maybe in time he will get better, but I still think he should get off his father's shirt tail and find his own bliss (as Joseph Campbell might say).

Elemental Mind: Human Consciousness and the New Physics - byNick Herbert (1993)

In case you didn't know, modern physics has been faced with a perplexing enigma concerning the clearly established effects that human consciousness has on the result of completely scientific experiments for the last 100 years or so (ever since Einstein, and far more so since). This book addresses the mystery in a methodical scientific way, but only manages (in my opinion) to step around the blaring truth: that consciousness comes before matter!