The 4-Hour Body: An Uncommon Guide to Rapid Fat-Loss, Incredible Sex, and Becoming Superhuman

by Timothy Ferriss

A very fine book. It's changed the way I eat and exercise I've lost 25lbs as a result.

You Learn By Living

byEleanor Roosevelt

I read this six months ago. It's pleasant, kind of reminded me of a pre-seven-habits book on being effective. I'll skim again.

Consider Phlebas

by Iain M. Banks

A fun but very trashy sci fi novel, set in an interesting universe, but appears to have no purpose other than to put it's lead character into one deadly situation after another.

The Grand Design

by Leonard Mlodinow, Stephen Hawking

Hawking to endorses multiverses and the strong anthropic principle-- much of the universe exists the way it does because if it wasn't that way, we wouldn't be here to observe it. It does leave open the question what are possible variables of all universes?

Marilyn Monroe

From a story about the auction of Marilyn Monroe's estate http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/doonan/2012/01/was_marilyn_monroe_fat_her_secrets_revealed_.2.html

Marilyn Monroe was a huge movie star, but she owned diddly-squat. She was not materialistic!

Marilyn’s estate was a bunch of poignant schlock. The auction raised more than $13 million, but not because of any intrinsic value in the numbered lots. There were no Renoirs or Picassos. Her knickknacks were pedestrian. Her cookware was greasy. Her spatulas were bent. Even her Golden Globe was broken.

The majority of her clothing showed surprising wear and tear. She had worn it all repeatedly and there just wasn’t that much of it.

Her jewelry? With the exception of her DiMaggio wedding ring it was a bunch of paste danglers and costume crap.

Shoes? Yes, there were several pairs of black suede Ferragamo stilettos with worn heels. But Marilyn—brace yourself for another shocker—was more into books than shoes. Her poignant desire to cultivate her mind and give herself an education resulted in an extensive library of first editions. Take that, Carrie Bradshaw!

This stunning lack of materialism made me love and respect her more. What do you need in life other than a good book, a few capri pants, and a cotton sundress or two?

Yes, there were a few fur coats. But compared to the gimme-gimme-gimme stars of today whose hangar-size closets are bursting with freebies, she was a total bread-and-water-eating, hair-shirt-wearing, self-denying nun

Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything

by Joshua Foer.

This book is on my read-again list. The book is part history, part technique and part travelogue, as the author digs into the techniques of memory improvident and tells his story on the road to winning the U.S. memory championship.

Reclaiming the Fire: How Successful People Overcome Burnout

by Steven Berglas

This is the 2nd time I've read this book. Things I want to remember...

When you choose a goal, ask yourself when you achieve that goal what will you do for an encore? What will you do next? These questions are good ways to identify hollow goals that add no long term value to your life.

Find ways to be generative-- to grow the people around you, the generation after you, in ways that you care about.

Sooner or later we all run into the skiver problem; to grow as a skier, you can challenge yourself to ski on larger and more risky hills. Sooner or later though, the risks are so great and the new rewards so small that this stops being a worth while goal. Your just risking your life and not improving your skills. You can deal with this in two ways-- instead of skiing, switch to a new sport. Or, you can be generative and teach other people to be great skiers as well.

Learn whats makes you angry. Learn what makes you afraid. Find a way to constructively deal with your fears and anger, not bury it, suppress it, manage it or avoid it, but actually deal with it. Be angry to the right degree, at the right time, with the right person, for the right reason.