recommended reading:

-Tao te Ching, Stephen Mitchell translation– what a mind, really brings it to life. I always keep a copy close to my computer, always offers me something useful. Excerpts

-Skipping Towards Gomorrah, by Dan Savage (of Savage Love fame, go right now if you don't know his column)- deliciously dead-on skewering of the right-to-panic anti-happiness zealots trying to subdue the Bill of Rights; goes off in search of the Seven Deadly Sins, to see how bad the danger really is. Very smart man, v-e-r-y funny, very wicked. Has a new book out about marriage, too.

-Seat of the Soul, by Gary Zukav– on the care and feeding of the soul, cuts right through a lot of long-standing unanswerables. I don't fully buy the whole package, but man it sure took some determination to chew it all down, really incredible. The sequel "Soul Stories" is also really excellent.

-Food of the Gods, by Terrence McKenna– a riot; on the true place of psychedelia in human culture- brilliant, hysterically funny at times, too. For the headcracking technical version, try Invisible Landscapes, tries to address the physical interface between mind and body.

-TRIPzine (magazine)– on drugs and culture, possibly THE most essential magazine for the survival/evolution of the species. Recently ceased publication, but buy all the back issues and check the newly-busy website from time to time.

-Breaking Open the Head, by Daniel Pinchbeck- a fine meditation on the implications of shaman plants and contemporary culture's realtionship to them. One of the least pretentious authors you are likely to encounter, with an integrity to which any clenched detractors would well aspire

-The Way of the Superior Man, by David Deida- I guess they could have come up with an even stupider title, but the book is just brilliant. Other books on this page may blow your mind, but this is the one that'll help you figure out how to actually turn your life on, especially when it seems to be resisting your best efforts. Basically, for men (or whoever is taking the masculine role at the moment), the way we approach life and the way we relate to women (aka the feminine) are very closely related; instead of trying to get something from them, seek instead to give your deepest gifts most fully, penetrate with your love, and watch what happens. Short punchy chapters, goes right to the point, and he's already heard most of the private little grumblings that will bubble up and has something to say about them, too.
Most highly recommended

-Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, by Betty Edwards– very popular and easy to find; woe to the person who says "gee I sure wish I could draw"; I challenge them to put up or shut up and check out this book. It's specifically designed for joe-way-average, and I'm quite confident anyone who makes half an effort with this book will make huge gains. Expect to draw a decent likeness in about a month. Don't be shy; I won't tell. See also my drawing tutorial.

-Art & Fear, by David Bayles & Ted Orlando- man if I had this book when I graduated art school, I might well have had a very different path. Full of insight about the personal struggle of artmaking, not the cliche mythology kind, but the real work that points into the new. In one fine anecdote, a pottery class is divided in two, one half graded by quantity of pots produced in the semester, the others on quality. At the end of the semester, the quality group had piles of notes and a few sad efforts, while the quantity people had piles of crap, then piles of progressively more competent work, then after a bit, increasingly stunning accomplishments. Well.

-Getting Things Done, by David Allen- my life is basically a slurry of screeching bits of papers with no context or address, and the aching lists they go to to be neglected. I am always trying to come up with some kind of a general structure for it, and this book really seems to be the missing key to getting it all ambulatory. He isn't writing from the point of view of an artist trying to herd ideas, so i guess I'll have to adapt it to include that other quantum, but it's a strong start. See also ZenHabits

-JUXTAPOZ- a juicy art magazine featuring counterculture/lowbrow/underground art, a mixed-bag genre once upon a time sneered at by the Arte Priests, but last I heard they were the NUMBER TWO in circulation for all art mags, so bite me. Lots of cliches (bikers and tattoos and big-eyed naifs in randomly surreal settings and label-whore collectible toys and general hipster-poser crap), but lots of trippy stuff that you just will not find anywhere else. And funny, now all the art-whores are scrambling to act like they were always down with it, and a lot of former outsiders are finding themselves treated like princes (often to the detriment of their continued development). About half of any issue is infuriatingly tired-ass herd following, but the other half is just perfect. Super inspiring.

-Psychedelic Information Theory, by James Kent, publisher of the dearly-missed TRIP magazine. I haven't read it yet, most of it seems to be excerpted on his too-essential site tripzine.com at the link given. He's been There and done That. oh, has he ever.

-Eckhart Tolle- books and spoken word, on stopping the mental noise and moving into the present moment from time to time. try a CD, just graze it over and over, let it slowly sink in. also, a new fan site.

-Reefer Madness, by Eric Schlosser- an exploration of the underground economy, namely marijuana, immigrant laborers, and porn, and how the bluenoses of the world drag things down for hypocritical reasons, condemning it out the front door while peddling it out the back; one of a leading anti-porn crusade's bigshots turned out to be the main man behind the savings & loan scandals, and another was a priest caught buying boy ass.

-PRANKS 2, by Vicki Vale et. al. The whopper sequel to the influential gigglefest of counterculture mirth and cleverness. Really a blast; if your compass needs calibrating, this should sort you right out.

-Ken's Guide to the Bible, by Ken Smith- short and very sweet demolishing of this tired social-control weapon. Any reformed Xtians will adore this, and especially so will anyone who wants a little ammo with which to respond to those smug zombies. The gospels agree on very little, there's contradictions throughout, and many popular 'truths" are nowhere supported. Stunning fun.

-The Sovereign Individual, by Davidson and Rees-Mogg- from the pair that predicted a lot of things nobody else saw coming, such as the fall of communism: a history of the nation-state, and thoughts on the coming collapse of that model. Hint: they won't go down without a huge fight, but they are soooo going down. really great reading of history, based upon "the returns on violence", as in what are the risks and possible gains at any one time, and how the prices fluctuate.

-Guns, Germs, and Steel, by Jared Diamond- on the history of humans and how they evolved, and why: geography, indigenous plants and animals, and the germs they carried. That's not much of a sell, but man, I just could not put it down, really an eye-opener.

-E for Ecstasy, by Nicholas Saunders– find out why thousands of therapists say it could put them out of business (thankfully, they're okay with that). Should be required reading

-Ketamine Dreams and Realities, Karl Jansen MD (see maps.org)– not only the definitive book on this far-beyond-mysterious substance, but an incredibly sober and thorough meditation on the state of drugs in our deeply fearful culture

-Programming and Meta-Programming in the Human Biocomputer, by John Lilly- the deliciously dry-academic report of his entheogen-assisted forays into the world of the isoaltion tank in search of a model of the General Purpose Mind. His other more colorful books are also glorious, but the plainness of this text gives it maximum impact.

-Stoned Free (how to get high without drugs), by Patrick Wells with Douglas Rushkoff- just got it, but the excellent introduction hits it right on the head: drugs don't make you high (though they'll tell you otherwise), they reveal a high that's already there. Exercises to reveal your own connection to the inner/outer life of the spirit, or whatever you want to call it. Non-dogmatic, nice one.

-Acid Dreams, Martin Lee & Bruce Schlain– on the history of LSD, including a lot of the heinous "research" by the bungling menaces at the CIA; they had it ten years before they started regularly supplying Timothy Leary with it

-LAB USA Kevin Pyle– an intense indictment of the US medical system, with details of many secret and very nasty experiments conducted without the participants' knowledge or permission. Originally inspired by Acid Dreams. Intensely illustrated; Kevin has long been one of my favorite artists.

Feral House- publishers of all kinds of darkside stuff, notably Adam Parfrey's mind-boggling Apocalypse Culture and its sequel

-Holy Blood, Holy Grail (and others in series) Baigent, Lincoln, et al– on the true history of the monstrosity that has become the christian church. For starters, Jesus wouldn't have had anything whatsoever to do with it; it descends from a convenient blasphemy intended to accomplish nothing more than keeping the temple priests in their jobs. In the first of many appropriating moves, Paul's followers exterminated Jesus' adherents and took his name. Easter was already a 2,000 year old fertility festival by the same name (cf estrogen), hence the bunny and egg motifs. Xtianity the biggest brainwashing cult in the world, and I don't want those bastards teaching any children. It's the paint-by-number version of spirituality, far more dangerous than the supposed drug menace; no wonder it's their favorite whipping boy. See also the Gnostic Gospels, by Elaine Pagels. Also check out Dagobert's Revenge, a chewy as hell magazine on the subject.

-This Perfect Day, by Ira Levin (author of Rosemary's Baby) a negative utopia, a tweaked meditation on the manufacture of consent, can't really describe it...but you won't ever see the world the same again

-Wishcraft, by Barbara Sher- part 1, how to figure out what you really want, not just what you think you want. part 2, how to make it happen, in the context of an actual mixed-bag human life, as opposed to some unrealistically ideal one. Full of techniques, exercises, and oblong wisdom, really choice and practical.

Death of Vishnu, by Manil Suri, just dreamy, set in India, with one of the best endings EVER

SCI FI authors: William Gibson, Bruce Sterling, Neal Stephenson, Greg Bear, Pat Cadigan. Mostly in the cyberpunk genre, which I just eat right up. Greg Bear's "Blood Music" (both as short story and novel) is perhaps THE definitive sci-fi story.

-Borges surrealism in the ordinary, delicious. Also, Julio Cortazar; Axolotl is an amazing bit of short story.

-Ocean of Sound, by David Toop– a lucid meditation on the history of transcendant sound, more or less a history of ambient

-GROOVES magazine– good source for keeping up with what is REALLY going on in sound these days, years ahead of most other mags

-Show and Prove (graffiti magazine) haven't been keeping up with it, and don't know where you'd find copies, but the first five issues (several years old now) are really outstanding, very twisted, a distinct cut above any other graffiti mags i've seen. I think when I first got them, I looked at every image, put it down, picked it up again, like six times, couldn't stop, just floored.

see also the books listed at the end of my narcissism paper

also check the rant on religion I found online, pretty unusual, very illuminating.