dark matter essay
(C) 2013
  • about
    • values
    • competences >
      • china
      • intellectual property >
        • What is original?
        • talks & lectures
      • work & vocation
      • personal and organizational development >
        • definitions and techniques
        • syst lexicon
        • projection #1
        • projection #2
        • projection #3
  • book reviews
    • Boy by Roald Dahl
    • Digital Dementia by Manfred Spitzer
    • Evolution's Meaning and Objective by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
    • Focus - The Hidden Driver of Excellence by Daniel Goleman
    • Going Solo by Roald Dahl
    • Homo Deus by Yuval N. Harari
    • Iron John by Robert Bly
    • Irresistible by Adam Alter
    • Reinventing Organizations by Frederic Laloux
    • Steve Jobs by Walter Isaakson
    • The Idle Parent by Tom Hodgkinson
    • The Great Disruption by Francis Fukuyama
    • The Monk Who Sold His Ferarri by Robin Sharma
    • The Organized Mind by Daniel Levitin
    • The Practice of the Wild by Gary Snyder
    • Weltentwerfen by Friedrich Boerries
    • World Order by Henry Kissinger
  • film reviews
    • Alphabet (2013)
    • Around the World in 80 Days (1956)
    • Bad Santa (2003)
    • Captain Fantastic (2016)
    • Concussion (2016)
    • Demain | Tomorrow
    • East is East (1999)
    • Her (2013)
    • Kinsey (2004)
    • Laura Croft II - The Cradle of Life
    • Le Planete Sauvage (1973)
    • Pope Francis by Wim Wenders
    • Suzaku (1997)
    • SIlence (2016)
    • The Challenges of Rudolf Steiner (2011)
    • The Program (2015)
    • The Salt of the Earth (2014)
    • The Straight Story (1999)
  • topic essays
    • anthropology >
      • on economics >
        • Do we reward our contributions to society the way we should?
        • International Tax Evasion
        • capitalism
        • on profit, passion & purpose
      • on humor
      • on politics >
        • zur lage der nation: le grand peur II
        • Analyse NR Wahl 2013
        • zur lage der nation
        • Wutbürger - anger citizens
        • World Order - Book Review
      • Identity: Warum mich Trachten entfremden
      • on gender and sexuality
      • on religion
    • art
    • creativity >
      • Transforming the IP System
    • education >
      • Mindful Parenting
      • Alphabet - Documentary Review
      • Henry Kissinger on Education
      • learning environment
      • Musicalized - Rich Music for Poor Times
      • screen education
      • Sting on how he became to be what he is and creativity
      • On Bi- and Multilingual Instruction
      • A Playground of Growth
      • On Procrastination
    • neurology >
      • On Football and Oxytocin
    • on nutrition
    • psychology >
      • algorithm of love
      • art of loving
      • applied virtues
      • emotional intelligence
      • grundformen der angst
      • grit - key to success
      • happiness
      • on love and grief
      • triangular love
      • yale intro to psychology
    • quotes worth quoting
    • sports >
      • kiting
      • yoga
      • squash
    • writing
  • travel essays
    • one step into camino frances
    • journey to the center of the earth
    • Alto Adige - An Example how European Integration can Succeed
    • on the friendship highway
    • en viaje de andalusia
    • sawasdee krub - a quiet holiday in thailand
    • Viking Myths and Hanseatic Harmony
    • How Airbnb Explains Bureaucratic Futilism and Why the Chinese hukou System Could be a Solution to the European Migration Crisis
    • On Slovenia and Integration or Isolation in Post Nationalist Europe
    • who moved my swiss cheese?
    • On Taiwan and its Identity Crisis
    • On Nippon Sakoku
    • Expectations of and Deliveries in Down Under
    • Silence on Kumano Kodo
    • Zwischen der pannonischen und mandschurischen Ebene treibend
    • Thoughts on Freedom and Order While Dozing in Berlin
    • On Interrail and Climate Ticket
    • On Morroco, Islam and Faithfulness
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books I reviewed or recommend to read

non-fiction books are a source of wisdom that fills my intellectual well whenever there is such a drought surrounding me. reading a book requires in particular in our quick paced times a commitment in time and effort, and as for myself, I would rather watch entertaining TV series or smart commercials than bore myself with a mediocre book. this is a list of works that I dearly recommend to read, because the time investment pays off. I felt that reading these books helped me grow.

fiction books on the other hand are to me like a companionship of friends in mind, in times when there are no like minded friends available. Although they require a similar deal of commitment in time and effort, they supply not my mind, but my heart with the sense of being in good company. remember that indescribable feeling when a long novel like Dostoyevskys's Idiot or Irving's Garp comes to an end and the entire story settles as a closed chapter in your memory? It makes me feel sad like the last day of great journey with a good friend across the glaciers of Iceland, the desert of Oman or the mountain ranges of Tibet. But I know that that memory will nurture my soul for the rest of my days.

reviews

Seneca recommended focusing on a limited number of good books, to be read thoroughly and repeatedly. Too much information could be harmful to your mental health. The books I reviewed over the years felt like they contain knowledge or even wisdom which requires deep reading and a substantial confrontation with the author's arguments.

recommendations non-fiction

economics
  • Leopold Kohr: The Breakdown of Nations
  • E. F. Schumacher: Small is Beautiful - Ecomomics as if People Mattered
  • Niall Ferguson: The Ascent of Money

psychology
  • Daniel Levitin: The Organized Mind
  • Daniel Goleman: Emotional Intelligence
  • Daniel Goleman: Working with Emotional Intelligence
  • Ken Wilber: The Spectrum of Consciousness
  • Steven Pinker: How the Mind Works
  • Jean Liedloff: The Continuum Concept
  • Fritz Riemann: Grundformen der Angst
  • Erich Fromm: The Art of Loving
  • Erich Fromm: To Have or to Be
  • Peter Schellenbaum: Abschied von der Selbstzerstörung
  • Martin E. Seligman: Learned Optimism
  • Paul Watzlawick: Anleitung zum Unglücklichsein
  • Aldous Huxley: The Doors of Perception

anthropology
  • Carlos Castaneda: The Teachings of Don Juan
  • Gary Snyder: The Practice of the Wild
  • Andy Couturier: The Abundance of Less

history
  • David S. Landes: The Wealth and Poverty of Nations - Why Are Some Nations So Poor And Some So Rich
  • Niall Ferguson: Empire
  • Niall Ferguson: Colossus
  • Niall Ferguson: Civilization
  • Stefan Zweig: Die Welt von Gestern [the ultimate autobiographical account on the poisoning power of nationalism in Europe before during and in between WWI and WWII]
  • Yuval N. Harari: Sapiens - A Brief History of Humankind

personal development
  • Julia Cameron: The Artist’s Way
  • Daniel S. Sharma: The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari
  • Eckart Tolle: Now!
  • Eckart Tolle: A New Earth
  • Brigitte Fabian: Kraft durch innere Reinigung
  • The Princeton Language Institute: 10 Days to Faster Reading
  • Shakti Gawain: Creative Visualization
  • Joseph Murphy: The Power of Your Subconscious Mind [explaining the foundations of visualization]
  • Lin Yutang: The Importance of Living
  • Tan Chade-Meng: Search Inside Yourself [personal develompent boiled down to scientific instruction based on neuroscience and Buddhist meditation]

sociology
  • Pierre Bourdieu: Gegenfeuer
  • Erich Fromm: The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness

religion
  • Fritjof Capra: The Tao of Physics
  • William James: The Varieties of Religious Experiences
  • Mark Twain: What is Man?
  • Mark Twain: A Mysterious Stranger

philosophy
  • Richard Precht: Wer bin ich und wenn ja wie viele?
  • Jostein Gaardner: Sofies Welt
  • Jostein Gaardner: Maya

general sciences
  • Charles Darwin: The Origin of Species
  • Charles Darwin: The Voyage of the Beagle

biographies
  • Charles Darwin: Autobiographies [a great portrait of a scientific mind; inspires to admit one's own ignorance and stimulates to follow one's curiousity]
  • Barak Obama: Dreams from my Father
  • Jung Chang and Jon Halliday: Mao - The Unknown Story [compelling psychogram of an visonary leader turned tyrant]
  • Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson [must read about one of the most transformative tech gurus of the 20th/21st century]

china - check out my china blog for more china recommendations
  • Lin Yutang: My Country and my People [the single most important book to understand the Chinese heart, mind and soul]
  • Patricia Buckley Ebrey: The Cambridge Illustrated History of China
  • James Kynge: China shakes the World
  • Carl Crow: 400 Million Customers
  • James McGregor: 1 Billion Customers
  • Ma Jian: Red Dust
  • Adeline Yan Mah: Watching the Tree to Catch a Hare
  • Adeline Yan Mah: Thousand Pieces of Gold
  • Kai Strittmatter: Gebrauchsanweisung für China
  • Zhang Rong: Wild Swans

travel preparation
  • Edward Luce: In Spite of the Gods [ultimate introduction to India]
  • Orhan Pamuk: Istanbul [poetic guide to the great city at the Bosphoros]
  • David Pilling: Bending Adversity [ultimate introduction to Japan]


recommendations fiction

Drama
  • Fyodor Dostoyevsky: The Idiot
  • John Irving: Owen Meany
  • John Iring: The World According to GARP
  • Arno Schmidt: Das steinerne Herz
  • John Irving: A Widow for a Year
  • Thomas Bernhard: Auslöschung
  • Franz Kafka: Das Schloss
  • Franz Kafka: Die Verwandlung
  • Franz Kafka: Der Prozess
  • Robert Musil: Die Verwirrungen des Zöglings Törless
  • Robert Musil: Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften (1.Band)
  • Heinrich Böll: Ansichten eines Clowns
  • Bret Easton Eills: American Psycho

Thriller
  • John Grisham: The Firm
  • Mary Higgins Clark: All Around the Town
  • George Orwell: Nineteen Eighty-four
  • John Grisham: The Pelican Brief

Spiritual
  • Paulo Coelho: The Alchemist
  • Paulo Coelho: The Walkyries
  • Hermann Hesse: Siddharta
  • Hermann Hesse: Demian
  • Hermann Hesse: Narziß und Goldmund
  • Hermann Hesse: Der Steppenwolf
  • Marlo Morgan: Traumfänger
  • Noah Gordon: Der Medicus
  • Noah Gordon: Der Schamane
  • Michael Ende: Momo
  • Paulo Coelho: The Fifth Mountain
  • Paulo Coelho: Manual of the Warrior of Light
  • Ernest Hemingway: The Old Man and the Sea
  • Hanif Kureishi: The Buddha of Suburbia

Emotional
  • Neil Williams: Four Letters of Love
  • Siri Hustvedt: What I Loved

Non of the above, but nevertheless entertaining and enthralling
  • Douglas Adams: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
  • Michael Ende: Jim Knopf und Lukas der Lokomotivführer
  • Douglas Coupland: Generation X
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