We are what we read

A bookshelf is a projection of a reader's mind. Here's a non-exhaustive look at my physical library.

I am more into ideas than information. Intuition over details. Philosophy over history. I dislike the ephimeral and non-actionable. Preference for old books, specially when related to human nature. News are toxic. Business books boring.

I found particularly interesting the ones in maroon. Order does not imply preference. Inclusion does not imply endorsement, only curiosity. Penguin is my favorite publisher. As for classics, you may find better editions than the ones included below.

My favorite books of 2021 so far have been: The Three Body Problem trilogy, Americana: A 400 year history of American Capitalism, How Asia works, Shoe Dog, The Case for Space, and a bunch of Krishnamurti's transcribed lectures.

• Meditation
• Think on these things - Jiddu Krishnamurti
• Total Freedom: The essential Krishnamurti - Jiddu Krishnamurti
• Awakening of intelligence - Jiddu Krishnamurti
• The Second Penguin Krishnamurti Reader - Jiddu Krishnamurti
• Writings from the Zen Masters
• Tao Te Ching - Lao Tzu
• The book of Tea - Okakura
• The art of war - Sun Tzu
• The analects - Confucius
• The Dhammapada. Classics of Indian spirituality - Buddha
• The miracle of Mindfulness. An introduction to the practice of mindfulness - Thich Nhat Hanh
• Zen training: Methods and philosophy - Katsuki Sekida
• What the Buddha taught - Walpola Rahula
• Teachings of Buddha - Jack Kornfield
• A path with heart - Jack Kornfield
• Zen mind. Beginner's mind. Informal talks on Zen meditation and practice - Shunryu Suzuki
• Filosofía del Budismo Zen - Byung-Chul Han
• Wherever you go, there you are. Mindfulness meditation in everyday life - Jon-Kabat Zinn
• Secret to the Vajra world. The tantric buddhism of tibet - Reginald Ray
• Call me by my true names - Thich Nhat Hanh
• Rumi: Bridge to the sould
• Turning the mind into an alley - Sakyong Mipham
• Light on yoga. The bible of modern yoga - Iyengar
• The importance of living - Lin Yutang
• Mindfulness. An 8-week plan to find peace in a frantic world - Williams & Penman
• Search inside yourself - Chade-Meng Tan
• The monk who sold his Ferrari - Robin Sharma
• The power of now - Eckhart Tolle
• A new earth - Eckhart Tolle (skip economical/political statements)
• Stillness is the key - Ryan Holiday
• Ego is the enemy - Ryan Holiday
• Pensamientos extraordinarios - Bruce Lee
• Mind & Psychology
• Man and his symbols - Carl Jung
• Modern man in search of a soul - Carl Jung
• He. Understanding masculine psychology - Robert Johnson
• Flow - Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
• Self comes to Mind - Antonio Damasio
• Why we sleep: The new science of sleep and dreams - Matthew Walker
• The pyramid principle. Logic in writing and thinking - Barbara Minto
• The body keeps the score - Bessel van der Kolk
• Neuroscience. Exploring the brain - M. Bear
• How to change your mind: What the new science of psychedelics teaches us about consciousness - Michael Pollan
• The organized mind - Daniel Levitin
• Thinking. Fast and slow - Daniel Kahneman
• The art of thinking clearly - Rolf Dobelly
• Intuition pumps & other tools for thinking - Daniel Dennett
• Mindware. Tools for Smart thinking - Richard Nisbett
• Lateral thinking. Creativity step by step - Edward de Bono
• Predictably irrational - Dan Ariely
• Man's search for meaning - Victor Frankl
• How we learn. The surprising truth about when, where and why it happens - Carey
• Emotional Intelligence. Why it can matter more than IQ - Daniel Goleman
• The power of habit. Why we do what we do in life and business - Charles Duhigg
• Influence. The psychology of persuasion - Robert Cialdini
• A mind for numbers. Barbara Oakley
• States of mind. Experiences at the edge of consciousness. An anthology
• How not to be wrong. The power of Mathematical thinking - Jordan Ellenberg
• How to win every argument. The use and abuse of logic - Madsen Pirie
• Think like Da Vinci. 7 easy steps to boost your everyday genius - Michael Gelb
• Mastermind. How to think like Sherlock Holmes - Maria Konnikova
• How to create a mind. The secret of human thought revealed - Richard Kurzweil
• Maximize your memory. Read faster and retain anything - Ramon Campayo
• Desarrolla una mente prodigiosa - Ramon Campayo
• Curso definitivo de lectura rápida - Ramon Campayo
• Empathy. Why it matters, and how to get it - Roman Krznaric
• Mindset. Why it matters, and how to get it - Caraol Dweck
• Philosophy
• Doors of perception - Aldous Huxley
• Justice. What's the right thing to do - Michael Sandel
• A History of Western Philosophy - Bertrand Russell
• Sophie's world. A novel about the history of philosophy - Jostein Gaarder
• The Nichomachean Ethics - Aristotle
• Rethoric - Aristotle
• On the happy life - Seneca
• On the shortness of life - Seneca
• On the firmness of the wise person - Seneca
• Meditations - Marcus Aurelius
• The world as I see it - Albert Einstein
• Life of the Mind. Volumes 1 & 2 - Hannah Arendt
• Utilitarianism - John Stuart Mill
• On liberty - John Stuart Mill
• The abolition of man - C.S. Lewis
• In praise of idleness - Bertrand Russell
• Plato and platypus walk into a bar - Thomas Cathcart
• The prince - Niccolo Machiavelli
• Religion for atheists. A non-believer's guide to the uses of religion - Alain de Botton
• The Daily Stoic. 366 meditations on wisdom, perseverance, and the Art of Living - Ryan Holiday
• The soul of the world - Scruton
• Cinq méditations sur la beauté - Alain de Botton
• The usefulness of the useless - Nuccio Ordine
• The burnout society - Byung-Chul Han
• Provocations. Spiritual writings of Kierkegaard - Kierkegaard
• How to live. A Life of Montaigne in one question and twenty attempts - Sarah Bakewell
• Textos claves de etica/Key texts of ethics
• Science & Engineering
• Space Design Mission Analysis and Design - J.R. Wertz
• The Case for Space - Robert Zubrin
• How to avoid a climate disaster - Bill Gates
• Classical Mechanics - Herbert Goldstein
• Thermodynamics: An engineering approach - Yunus Cengel
• How to avoid a Climate Disaster - Bill Gates
• Superintelligence. Paths, dangers, strategies - Nick Bostrom
• Lifespan. Why we age. And why we don't have to - David Sinclair
• Oil - Vaclav Smil
• Energy - Vaclav Smil
• Applied Regression models - Kotner
• The future of the mind. The scientific quest to understand, enhance, and empower the mind - Michio Kaku
• Physics of the impossible. A scientific exploration into the world of phasers, force fields, teleportation, and time travel - Michio Kaku
• Physics of the future - Michio Kaku
• Periodic Tales. The curious lives of the elements - Hugh Aldersey-Williams
• In search of the ultimate building blocks - Hooft
• Surely you're joking Mr. Feynman - Richard Feynman
• Space 2.0: How Private Spaceflight, a Resurgent NASA, and International Partners are Creating a New Space Age - Rod Pyle
• Good bunch of college books: C++, Matlab, Calculus, Algebra, Statistics, Physics, Electronic Technology, Systems Control, Electrotechnics, Graphic Expression, Mechanics of Materials, Materials Technology, Materials Science, Instrumentation systems, Mechanics, Fluid Mechanics, Thermal and Fluids Technology, Pneumatic and Hydraulics, Theory of Machines, Machine Design, Industrial Design, Industrial Buildings, Vehicle Technology, Energy Technology, Environmental Technology, Chemistry

• International development
• Poor economics. A radical rethinking of the way to fight global poverty - Banerjee & Duflo
• The bottom billion - Paul Collier
• How Asia works - Joe Studwell
• The elusive quest for growth - William Easterly
• Economics of the public sector - Joseph Stiglitz & Jay Rosengard
• The white man's burden. Why the West efforts to aid the rest have done so much ill and so little good - William Easterly
• Development as freedom - Amartya Sen
• 23 things they don't tell you about capitalism - Ha-Joon Chang
• Emerging Africa. How the global economy's last frontier can prosper and matter - Kingsley Moghalu
• The end of poverty. Economic possibilities for our time - Jeffrey Sachs
• The price of inequality. How today's divided society endangers our future - Joseph Stiglitz
• Why Nations fail - Acemoglu & Robinson
• Reimagining capitalism. Building a responsible long-term model - Dominic Barton et al.
• Dead aid. Why aid is not working and how there is a better way for Africa - Dambisa Moyo
• How to spend $75 billion to make the world a better place - Bjorn Lomborg
• Portfolios of the poor. How the world's poor live on $2 a day - Daryl Collins and Jonathan Morduch
• Introduction to modern economic growth - Daron Acemoglu
• Economic growth - David Weil
• Economy
• Americana. A 400-year history of American capitalism - Bhu Srinivasan
• Modern Economic Growth - Daron Acemoglu
• Capitalism in America - Alan Greenspan
• The narrow corridor. States, societies, and the fate of liberty - Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson
• The ascent of money: A financial history of the world - Niall Ferguson
• The communist manifesto - Marx & Engels
• Capital in the 21st century - Thomas Piketty
• The rise and fall of nations - Ruchir Sharma
• The future is Asian - Parag Khanna
• Small is beautiful. Study of economics as if people mattered - Schumacher
• Inventing the future. Postcapitalism and a world without work - Srnicek & Williams
• Think like a freak - Levitt & Dubner
• Freakonomics. A rogue economist explores the hidden side of everything - Levitt & Dubner
• Crashed. How a decade of financial crises changed the world - Adam Tooze
• The undercover economist. Tim Harford
• The triumph of injustice: How the rich dodge taxes and how to make them pay. Emmanuel Saez & Gabriel Zucman
• El desarrollo de la España contemporánea. Historia económica de los siglos XIX y XX - Gabriel Tortella
• Qué hacer con España. Del capitalismo castizo a la refundación de un país - Cesar Molinas
• Una revolución liberal para España. Anatomía de un país libre y próspero - Rallo
• El dilema de España. Ser más productivos para vivir mejor - Luis Garicano
• Social science & History
• Seeing like a state - James Scott
• Historia de Galicia - Ramón Villares (imprescindible para os meus paisanos galegos)
• Sapiens. A brief history of humankind - Yuval Harari
• Homo Deus. A brief history of tomorrow - Yuval Harari
• 21 lessons for the 21st century - Yuval Harari
• The lessons of History - Will Durant
• Guns, germs, and steel - Jared Diamond
• Prisioners of geography: 10 maps that tell you everything you need to know about the world - Tim Marshall
• World Order - Henry Kissinger
• Who rules the world - Noah Chomsky
• Nationalism - Rabindranath Tagore
• The social contract - Jean-Jacques Rousseau
• Democracy. A very short introduction - Bernard Crick
• There was a country. A personal story of Biafra - Chinua Achebe
• The river of lost footsteps. Histories of Burma - Thant Myint-U
• Os oestrimnios, os Saefes e a Ofiolatria en Galiza - Fermin Bouza Brey e Florentino Cuevillas
• Fiction
• Siddharta - Hermann Hesse
• Steppenwold - Hermann Hesse
• Demian - Hermann Hesse
• Narcissus and Goldmund - Hermann Hesse
• Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. An inquiry into values - Robert Pirsig
• The three body problem - Cixin Liu
• The dark forest - Cixin Liu
• Death's end - Cixin Liu
• Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand
• The Culture series - Ian Banks
• The alchemist - Paulo Coelho
• The prophet - Khalil Gibran
• The aleph and other stories - Borges
• The little prince (ENG) - original French - Saint-Exupery
• The shadow of the wind - original Spanish - Carlos Ruiz Zafón
• On the road - Jack Kerouac
• A hundred years of solitude - original Spanish - Gabriel García Marquez
• Brave new world - Aldous Huxley
• 1984 - George Orwell
• Burmese days - George Orwell
• Animal Farm - George Orwell
• The richest man in Babylon - George Clason
• Entrepreneurship & business
• Shoe dog. A memoir by the creator of Nike - Phil Knight
• Black Swan. The impact of the highly improbable - Nassim Nicholas Taleb
• Antifragile. Things that gain from disorder - Nassim Nicholas Taleb
• The bed of Procrustes. Philosophical and practical aphorisms - Nassim Nicholas Taleb
• Fooled by randomness. The hidden role of chance in life and the markets - Nassim Nicholas Taleb
• Skin in the Game. Hidden assimetries in everyday life - Nassim Nicholas Taleb
• Debt. The first 5000 years - David Graeber
• AI superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order - Kai Fu Lee
• Zero to one. Notes on start-ups and how to build the future - Peter Thiel
• Mastering the VC game. A Venture Capital insider reveals how to get from start-up to IPO in your own terms - Jeffrey Bussgang
• Venture deals. Be smarter than your lawyer and venture capitalist - Feld & Mendelson
• The long tail. Why the future of business is selling less of more - Chris Anderson
• Blue Ocean Strategy. How to create an uncontested market space and make the competition irrelevant - Kim & Mauborgne
• The innovators dilemma. When new technologies cause great firms to fail - Christensen
• Leadership. Essential writings by our greatest thinkers
• The essential Drucker. The best of 60 years of Peter Drucker's essential writings on management - Peter Drucker
• Industries of the future - Alec Ross
• Originals. How non-conformist change the world - Adam Grant
• Start-up Nation. The story of Israel's economic miracle - Senor & Singer
• Zero marginal cost society. The internet of things, the collaborative commons, and the eclipse of capitalism - Jeremy Rifkin
• Let my people go surfing. The education of a reluctant businessman - Yvon Chouinard
• Leadership on the line - Ronald Heifetz
• Leadership without easy answers - Ronald Heifetz
• The Lean Start-up - Eric Ries
• The 4 hour workweek. Escape 9-5, live anywhere, and join the new rich - Tim Ferris
• The design of everyday Things - Don Norman
• Creativity, Inc.. Overcoming the unseen forces that stand in the way of true inspiration - Ed Catmull
• The creative economy. How people make money from ideas - John Howkins
• Delivering happiness. A path to profits, passion and purpose - Tony Hsieh
• Case in Point. Complete case interview preparation - Marc Cosentino
• Case interview secrets. A former McKinsey consultant reveals how to get multiple job offers in consulting - Victor Cheng
• Rework - Fried & Hansson
• Getting things done. The art of stress free productivity - David Allen
• Outliers. The story of success - Malcolm Gladwell
• What the dog saw and other adventures - Malcolm Gladwell
• Monkey business. Swinging through the Wall Street jungle - Rolfe & Troob
• Billion dollar whale - Tom Wright & Bradley Hope
• A random walk down Wall Street - Burton Malkiel
• The code. Silicon Valley and the remaking of America - Margaret O'Mara
• Art & Writing
• Art Theory. A very short introduction - Cynthia Freeland
• Ways of seeing - John Berger
• Art as therapy - Alain de Botton
• Beauty. A very short introduction - Roger Scruton
• Psychoanalysis of art - Sigmeun Freud
• How to read a book. The classical guide to intellectual reading - Adler & Doren
• The elements of style - Strunk & White
• Sanford Meisner on Acting - Sanford Meisner
• Audition - Michael Shurtleff
• Biographies
• Einstein. His life and universe - Walter Isaacson
• The virgin way. If it's not fun, it's not worth doing - Richard Branson
• Elon Musk. Tesla, SpaceX, and the quest for a fantastic future - Ashlee Vance
• My spiritual autobiography - Dalai Lama
• Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
• Self-development
• Mastery - Robert Greene
• Atomic habits - James Clear
• The art of conversation - Judy Apps
• The charisma myth - Cabane
• Languages
• Teach Yourself Korean

Any recommendations? :) Send them over! me@rodrifernandez.com

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