Some Interesting Books I Recommend Reading

My library and my Amazon.de wishlist are currently in a very serious relationship: one has shelves, the other has ambition, and my bank account has asked not to be involved. I already own some of these books, while most are still waiting patiently for me to press “Buy Now”.

I have not read every one yet, and recommending them does not mean I agree with every argument inside them. It simply means they look valuable, provocative, useful, entertaining, or dangerous enough to make the brain do some exercise. I am planning to buy many of them myself, so consider this both a recommendation list and a public record of my future financial mistakes. The prices below are those shown in my Amazon.de saved list on 30 July 2026. Prices, editions, sellers, and availability can change faster than my decision to add another book to the basket. ;))

1. Fermat’s Last Theorem — Simon Singh
   A lively account of the centuries-long mathematical quest to prove Fermat’s deceptively simple theorem. Listed price: €11.17.
2. The Code Book — Simon Singh
   A readable history of cryptography, from ancient ciphers to modern encryption and code-breaking. Listed price: €13.38.
3. Stalking the Wild Pendulum: On the Mechanics of Consciousness — Itzhak Bentov
   An unconventional exploration of consciousness, time, vibration, and the possible structure of reality. Listed price: €22.31.
4. Think and Grow Rich — Napoleon Hill
   A classic self-development book about ambition, persistence, belief, and turning goals into deliberate action. Listed price: €9.09.
5. The Psychology of Money: Timeless Lessons on Wealth, Greed and Happiness — Morgan Housel
   A clear guide to how emotions, habits, and personal history shape our financial decisions. Listed price: €13.99.
6. Outwitting the Devil — Napoleon Hill
   A dialogue-driven examination of fear, conformity, distraction, and the habits that prevent personal independence. Listed price: €17.45.
7. The Setup — Dan Bilzerian
   Dan Bilzerian’s memoir about risk, fame, wealth, controversy, and the construction of his public persona. Listed price: €103.33.
8. Hermetica — Brian P. Copenhaver, translator
   A scholarly English translation of foundational Hermetic writings on divinity, nature, mind, and humanity. Listed price: €59.85.
9. Asclepius: The Perfect Discourse of Hermes Trismegistus — Clement Salaman
   A central Hermetic dialogue exploring God, the cosmos, the soul, and humanity’s place in creation. Listed price: €25.77.
10. The Kirov Murder and Soviet History — Matthew E. Lenoe
    A historical investigation into Sergei Kirov’s assassination and its role in Stalinist political repression. Listed price: €107.22.
11. Irreducible: Consciousness, Life, Computers, and Human Nature — Federico Faggin
    Federico Faggin argues that consciousness and life cannot be fully reduced to computation or material mechanisms. Listed price: €18.49.
12. Silicon: From the Invention of the Microprocessor to the New Science of Consciousness — Federico Faggin
    A memoir of semiconductor innovation that connects the microprocessor revolution with questions about consciousness. Listed price: €14.84.
13. The Decline of the West, Vol. II: Perspectives of World-History — Oswald Spengler
    Spengler’s comparative study of civilizations, empires, politics, and the long-term patterns of world history. Listed price: €17.12.
14. The Decline of the West, Vol. I: Form and Actuality — Oswald Spengler
    Spengler’s controversial theory that cultures develop through recognizable cycles of growth, maturity, and decline. Listed price: €29.69.
15. Ernest Hemingway Collection — Six-Book Set — Ernest Hemingway
    A six-book collection showcasing Hemingway’s spare style, war stories, travel writing, courage, loss, and endurance. Listed price: €33.00.
16. Stalin’s Gamble: The Search for Allies Against Hitler, 1930–1936 — Michael Jabara Carley
    A study of Soviet diplomacy and Stalin’s search for partners against Nazi Germany before the war. Listed price: €83.41.
17. Stalin’s Great Game: War and Neutrality, 1939–1941 — Michael Jabara Carley
    An analysis of Soviet strategy, neutrality, and great-power maneuvering during the opening years of World War II. Listed price: €88.48.
18. Stalin’s Failed Alliance: The Struggle for Collective Security, 1936–1939 — Michael Jabara Carley
    An account of failed collective-security efforts and the diplomatic breakdown preceding World War II. Listed price: €81.59.
19. Thy Neighbor’s Wife — Gay Talese
    An immersive work of reportage about America’s changing sexual culture and private relationships. Listed price: From €13.57.
20. The Iliad & The Odyssey — Homer
    Homer’s foundational epics of war, honor, fate, homecoming, loyalty, and the human cost of heroism. Listed price: From €23.00.
21. The Divine Comedy — Dante Alighieri, translated by Peter Armour
    Dante’s visionary journey through Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise, blending theology, politics, poetry, and moral philosophy. Listed price: €37.40.
22. On the Heights of Despair — E. M. Cioran
    Cioran’s intense early meditation on despair, mortality, insomnia, isolation, and the burden of consciousness. Listed price: From €40.52.
23. The Fourth Turning Is Here — Neil Howe
    A generational theory arguing that societies move through recurring historical cycles culminating in periods of crisis. Listed price: €24.72.
24. The Devil’s Chessboard — David Talbot
    An investigation of Allen Dulles, the CIA, covert power, and the development of America’s national-security establishment. Listed price: €13.19.
25. The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine — Ilan Pappé
    Ilan Pappé presents a historical argument about the displacement of Palestinians during the creation of Israel. Listed price: From €14.78.
26. Du Pont: Behind the Nylon Curtain — Gerard Colby Zilg
    A critical corporate history of the Du Pont family, its industrial empire, political influence, and labor practices. Listed price: €425.61.
27. Modern Semiconductor Devices for Integrated Circuits — Chenming Calvin Hu
    A rigorous engineering textbook covering semiconductor physics, transistors, device behavior, and integrated-circuit design. Listed price: €173.03.
28. A Brief Tour of Higher Consciousness — Itzhak Bentov
    Bentov offers an accessible, speculative tour through consciousness, cosmology, evolution, and the mechanics of creation. Listed price: €17.31.
29. The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are — Alan Watts
    Alan Watts challenges the idea of the isolated self and presents a more interconnected view of identity. Listed price: €12.45.
30. The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr. — Martin Luther King Jr.
    Martin Luther King Jr.’s life and civil-rights leadership, assembled from his writings, speeches, and personal reflections. Listed price: €14.49.
31. The Autobiography of Malcolm X — Malcolm X and Alex Haley
    Malcolm X recounts his transformation from troubled youth to influential activist, religious thinker, and political voice. Listed price: €7.79.
32. Neuroplasticitatea: Secretul longevității creierului — Leon Dănăilă
    A Romanian-language guide to neuroplasticity, brain health, cognitive resilience, and preserving mental function with age. Listed price: €18.99.
33. The New China Playbook — Keyu Jin
    An economist’s explanation of China’s distinctive development model beyond simple labels of capitalism or socialism. Listed price: €16.99.
34. Chip War — Chris Miller
    A geopolitical history of semiconductors and the global struggle to control the technology underlying modern power. Listed price: €11.27.
35. The Way of the Shadow Wolves — Steven Seagal
    A political action thriller involving corruption, organized crime, border conflict, and alleged deep-state manipulation. Listed price: €13.57.
36. The Physics of Interstellar Travel — Coryn A. L. Bailer-Jones
    A scientific examination of the immense physical, technological, and energy challenges involved in traveling between stars. Listed price: €74.02.
37. Special Tasks — Pavel Sudoplatov
    A Soviet intelligence chief’s controversial memoir of espionage, assassinations, wartime operations, and internal power struggles. Listed price: €13.46.
38. The Ages of Globalization — Jeffrey D. Sachs
    A broad history of globalization shaped by geography, technology, institutions, trade, and political organization. Listed price: €31.15.
39. A New Foreign Policy — Jeffrey D. Sachs
    Jeffrey Sachs argues for a less militarized American foreign policy based on diplomacy and international cooperation. Listed price: €12.19 paperback or €17.95 hardcover.
40. The End of Poverty — Jeffrey D. Sachs
    An ambitious case for ending extreme poverty through targeted investment, development policy, and global cooperation. Listed price: €15.54.
41. Common Wealth — Jeffrey D. Sachs
    A framework for sustainable development in a crowded world facing poverty, resource limits, and environmental stress. Listed price: €26.00.
42. A Life in Aikido — Kisshomaru Ueshiba
    A biography of Morihei Ueshiba, tracing the spiritual development and martial philosophy behind aikido. Listed price: €30.06.
43. Capitalism and Slavery — Eric Williams
    Eric Williams’ influential argument linking profits from slavery and the Atlantic trade to the rise of industrial capitalism. Listed price: €13.56.
44. Time Enough for Love — Robert A. Heinlein
    A far-future novel about longevity, love, memory, family, sexuality, and the life of Lazarus Long. Listed price: €18.99.
45. The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress — Robert A. Heinlein
    A lunar-revolution classic about political freedom, artificial intelligence, rebellion, and self-government. Listed price: From €15.51.
46. Starship Troopers — Robert A. Heinlein
    A military science-fiction novel examining citizenship, duty, discipline, violence, and the relationship between rights and service. Listed price: From €16.14.
47. Stranger in a Strange Land — Robert A. Heinlein
    A provocative science-fiction story about religion, society, sexuality, and a human raised by Martians. Listed price: €13.90.
48. The Puppet Masters — Robert A. Heinlein
    A paranoid science-fiction thriller about alien parasites secretly taking control of human bodies and institutions. Listed price: From €20.45.
49. Covert Regime Change — Lindsey A. O’Rourke
    A documented study of American-backed covert operations designed to overthrow foreign governments during the Cold War. Listed price: €28.76.
50. How States Think — John J. Mearsheimer and Sebastian Rosato
    An argument that states often act rationally even when their decisions end disastrously. Listed price: €14.49.
51. The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy — John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt
    A controversial analysis of pro-Israel advocacy and its influence on United States foreign policy. Listed price: €19.43.
52. The Great Delusion — John J. Mearsheimer
    A realist critique of liberal internationalism, democracy promotion, and attempts to remake other societies. Listed price: From €21.11.
53. The Tragedy of Great Power Politics — John J. Mearsheimer
    Mearsheimer’s foundational realist account of why great powers compete for security, influence, and regional dominance. Listed price: From €21.50.
54. Enough Already — Scott Horton
    A critique of the post-9/11 war on terrorism and the human, strategic, and political costs of intervention. Listed price: €18.72.
55. Fool’s Errand — Scott Horton
    A detailed argument that the Afghanistan war was strategically misguided, prolonged, and ultimately unnecessary. Listed price: €11.19.
56. From Third World to First — Lee Kuan Yew
    Lee Kuan Yew’s account of Singapore’s transformation from a poor colony into a prosperous modern state. Listed price: From €15.15.
57. Lee Kuan Yew: The Grand Master’s Insights — Graham Allison, Robert D. Blackwill, and Ali Wyne
    A collection of Lee Kuan Yew’s observations on China, America, leadership, strategy, and the international order. Listed price: €18.99.
58. Journey to the West, Volume 1 — Wu Cheng’en, translated by Anthony C. Yu
    The opening volume of the classic Chinese epic, introducing the Monkey King and the pilgrimage’s central characters. Listed price: €29.96.
59. Journey to the West, Volume 2 — Wu Cheng’en, translated by Anthony C. Yu
    The pilgrimage continues through comic, spiritual, and dangerous trials drawn from Chinese mythology and Buddhist tradition. Listed price: €29.96.
60. Journey to the West, Volume 3 — Wu Cheng’en, translated by Anthony C. Yu
    The travelers face increasingly difficult demons, temptations, and moral tests on their journey west. Listed price: €32.10.
61. Journey to the West, Volume 4 — Wu Cheng’en, translated by Anthony C. Yu
    The concluding volume completes the pilgrimage and its long process of discipline, transformation, and enlightenment. Listed price: €32.10.
62. Junglekeeper — Paul Rosolie
    Paul Rosolie’s account of rainforest conservation, fieldwork, activism, and the struggle to protect threatened ecosystems. Listed price: €21.99.
63. Mother of God — Paul Rosolie
    An adventure memoir about a dangerous expedition into remote and largely unexplored parts of the Amazon rainforest. Listed price: €11.11.
64. The Girl and the Tiger — Paul Rosolie
    A nature-centered adventure story about a young girl, a tiger, and the defense of a threatened wild landscape. Listed price: €15.50.
65. Extraterrestrial — Avi Loeb
    Avi Loeb argues that the interstellar object ‘Oumuamua may deserve serious consideration as artificial technology. Listed price: €16.95.
66. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions — Thomas S. Kuhn
    Kuhn’s landmark account of how scientific fields change through paradigms, crises, and revolutionary shifts in thought. Listed price: €17.69.
67. Fire from Ice — Eugene J. Mallove
    A history of the cold-fusion controversy and the scientific, institutional, and personal conflict surrounding it. Listed price: From €137.67.
68. Middlemarch — George Eliot
    A panoramic novel of provincial life, marriage, ambition, reform, idealism, and disappointment in nineteenth-century England. Listed price: €16.02.
69. Vanity Fair — William Makepeace Thackeray
    A sharp social satire about ambition, class, vanity, manipulation, and survival in nineteenth-century Britain. Listed price: From €6.22.
70. The Complete George Orwell Collection — George Orwell
    A broad collection of Orwell’s fiction and political writing on power, truth, class, propaganda, and totalitarianism. Listed price: €106.26.
71. The Complete Novels of Franz Kafka — Franz Kafka
    Kafka’s major novels of alienation, opaque authority, guilt, bureaucracy, and the individual trapped by incomprehensible systems. Listed price: €9.37.
72. The Thin Red Line — James Jones
    A brutal war novel about American soldiers fighting, fearing, and breaking down during the Guadalcanal campaign. Listed price: From €10.85.
73. Life and Fate — Vasily Grossman
    An epic Soviet novel about totalitarianism, war, family, freedom, and survival during the Battle of Stalingrad. Listed price: €24.89.
74. The End of the Affair — Graham Greene
    A psychologically complex novel about adultery, jealousy, faith, resentment, and love during wartime London. Listed price: €10.37.
75. Man’s Search for Meaning — Viktor E. Frankl
    Frankl’s account of surviving Nazi concentration camps and finding meaning through responsibility, purpose, and inner freedom. Listed price: €12.99.
76. Kiss Your Dentist Goodbye — Ellie Phillips, DDS
    A practical oral-care program focused on daily routines for cleaner teeth, healthier gums, and cavity prevention. Listed price: €21.11.
77. Designing Data-Intensive Applications — Martin Kleppmann
    A modern classic on building reliable, scalable data systems and understanding the trade-offs behind distributed architectures. Listed price: €58.99–€62.50.
78. Software Architecture: The Hard Parts — Neal Ford, Mark Richards, Pramod Sadalage, and Zhamak Dehghani
    A practical guide to difficult architectural decisions involving distributed systems, decomposition, data, and operational trade-offs. Listed price: €64.40.
79. Momo — Michael Ende
    A timeless fantasy about a girl defending human time and attention from mysterious forces of efficiency and consumption. Listed price: €9.19.
80. The Light Eaters — Zoë Schlanger
    A popular-science exploration of plant sensing, communication, behavior, adaptation, and the debate around plant intelligence. Listed price: €14.79.
81. Otherlands — Thomas Halliday
    A journey through Earth’s prehistoric worlds, reconstructing vanished ecosystems and the organisms that inhabited them. Listed price: From €7.28.
82. Bitch: What Does It Mean to Be Female? — Lucy Cooke
    A zoological challenge to stereotypes about female animals, sex, evolution, behavior, and scientific bias. Listed price: €12.37.
83. The Unexpected Truth About Animals — Lucy Cooke
    A funny, surprising tour of animal behavior that replaces familiar myths with stranger scientific realities. Listed price: €13.99.
84. The Song of the Cell — Siddhartha Mukherjee
    A history of cell biology and how understanding cells transformed medicine, genetics, disease, and our conception of life. Listed price: €15.54.
85. Braiding Sweetgrass — Robin Wall Kimmerer
    A blend of Indigenous knowledge, botany, memoir, and environmental ethics centered on reciprocity with the living world. Listed price: From €14.60.
86. Entangled Life — Illustrated Edition — Merlin Sheldrake
    An illustrated exploration of fungi, symbiosis, networks, ecology, and the hidden systems supporting life on Earth. Listed price: From €29.72.
87. The CIA Insider’s Guide to the Iran Crisis — Gareth Porter
    A history of United States–Iran relations, covert intervention, nuclear tensions, and the political roots of recurring crises. Listed price: From €17.31.
88. Manufactured Crisis — Gareth Porter
    Gareth Porter challenges the dominant account of Iran’s nuclear program and the intelligence used to justify alarm. Listed price: €30.52.
89. Secrets — Daniel Ellsberg
    Daniel Ellsberg’s memoir of Vietnam, government deception, conscience, and his decision to release the Pentagon Papers. Listed price: €19.99.
90. The Doomsday Machine — Daniel Ellsberg
    A former nuclear-war planner exposes the machinery, secrecy, and catastrophic risks behind United States nuclear strategy. Listed price: €14.99.
91. The Great Ron Paul — Scott Horton
    A collection of Scott Horton’s interviews with Ron Paul on war, liberty, monetary policy, and American foreign affairs. Listed price: €10.88.
92. Lords of Secrecy — Scott Horton
    Essays and interviews examining government secrecy, national-security power, foreign policy, and democratic accountability. Listed price: €18.99.
93. Hotter Than the Sun — Scott Horton
    Interviews with leading critics of nuclear weapons on deterrence, escalation, abolition, and the danger of mass destruction. Listed price: €20.33.
94. Dragon Ball Complete Box Set — Akira Toriyama
    The original Dragon Ball manga saga, following Goku’s adventures, friendships, tournaments, and search for the Dragon Balls. Listed price: €109.10.
95. Dragon Ball Z Complete Box Set — Akira Toriyama
    The complete Dragon Ball Z manga arc, covering Saiyans, Namek, Androids, Cell, Majin Buu, and escalating cosmic battles. Listed price: €205.92.
96. When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops? — George Carlin
    George Carlin’s irreverent observations on language, religion, politics, culture, euphemisms, and everyday absurdity. Listed price: €24.36.
97. Napalm & Silly Putty — George Carlin
    A collection of Carlin’s dark, playful, and frequently profane reflections on society, language, and human behavior. Listed price: €32.99.
98. First Platoon — Annie Jacobsen
    An investigation of military surveillance, biometric identification, and the expansion of identity-based targeting in modern warfare. Listed price: From €28.50.
99. Area 51 — Annie Jacobsen
    Annie Jacobsen’s history of Area 51, secret aircraft programs, intelligence operations, and Cold War experimentation. Listed price: €62.80.
100. Guinea Pig B — Buckminster Fuller
     Buckminster Fuller’s account of treating his own life as an experiment in design, service, and human potential. Listed price: €39.55.
101. Love and Math — Edward Frenkel
     Edward Frenkel’s personal introduction to modern mathematics, symmetry, the Langlands Program, creativity, and mathematical beauty. Listed price: €15.09.
102. This one is on eBay.de: 100,000,000 Guinea Pigs: Dangers in Everyday Foods, Drugs, and Cosmetics — Arthur Kallet and F. J. Schlink
     A landmark consumer-protection exposé arguing that inadequately regulated foods, medicines, and cosmetics turned the American public into unwitting test subjects. Listed price: €23.33.

In the meantime, I was very busy finishing two research papers, which are currently under review. Once they are published, I will write about them here on my blog, as I always do. They are both inspired by Psi-NNs.

On top of that, since March 2026, after finding myself a suitable host, I am tirelessly working on writing my very first grant proposal, more exactly, a MSCA-PF research proposaI, which I plan to submit at the end of August, the deadline being 09 September 2026. Yes, I finally decided to compete for research funding! If my proposal gets funded (I will find out the results by mid February 2027), maybe I give also the ERC Starting Grant a go, now that eligibility is 10 years after PhD, and not 7 years as it was until now.