TAYLOR PARKER
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Books

I love reading. Below is my collection of reading-related things and stuff: list of favorites, list of books read, book places, and notes on some books. Updated as of December 2025

Favorite Fiction

  • Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
  • Master and Margarita by Bulgakov
  • Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
  • 100 Years of Solitude by Marquez
  • Baudolino by Umberto Eco
  • The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
  • Magister Ludi by Hesse
  • Narcisssus and Goldmund by Hesse
  • Steppenwolf by Hesse
  • The Agony and the Ecstasy by Irving Stone
  • House of Spirits by Isabel Allende
  • The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
  • Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins
  • Balthasar and Blimunda by Saramago
  • The Hummingbird's Daughter by Urrea
  • Poisonwood Bible by Kingsolver
  • Time Traveller's Wife by Niffenegger
  • American Gods by Neil Gaimon
  • Barkskins by Annie Proulx
  • Overstory by Richard Powers
  • The Dark Tower Series by Steven King
  • Killing Commandatore by Murakami

Favorite Theory and Rebelliousness

  • Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon
  • Black Skin, White Masks by Frantz Fanon
  • On Evil by Eagleton
  • After Theory by Eagleton
  • After Capitalism by Schweickart
  • The Coming Insurrection by the Invisible Committee
  • The Rebel by Albert Camus
  • Beyond Good and Evil by Nietzsche
  • ​On Disobedience by Eric Fromm
  • Discourse on Colonialism by Aimee Cesaire
  • TAZ by Hakim Bey
  • Trickster by Lewis Hyde
  • Create Dangerously by Albert Camus
  • Elite Capture Olefemi Taiwo

Favorite Psychology

  • A Psychology of Being by Abraham Maslow
  • On Becoming a Person by Carl Rogers
  • Give and Take by Adam Grant
  • Flow by Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi
  • Flourish by Martin Seligman
  • How Children Succeed by Paul Tough
  • Power of Vulnerability by Brene Brown
  • The Happiness Trap by Russ Harriss
  • Introduction to Internal Family Systems by Schwartz
  • Anger and Forgiveness by Martha Nussbaum

Favorite Anthropology

  • Social Conquest of Earth by EO Wilson
  • First Angelinos by McCawley
  • 1491 by Charles Mann
  • 1493 by Charles Mann
  • Story of the Human Body by Lieberman
  • Age of Empathy by Frans de Waal
  • Sapiens by Yuval Harari
  • Meaning of Life by EO WIlson
  • ​The Dawn of Everything by Dave Graeber and Dave Wengrow

Favorite Science Fiction

  • Accelerando by Charles Stross
  • ​House of Suns by Alastair Reynolds
  • ​Pushing Ice by Alastair Reynolds
  • Dune Series by Herbert
  • Cat's Cradle by Vonnegut
  • Sirens of Titan by Vonnegut
  • Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Adams
  • ​Seveneves by Neal Stephenson
  • Hyperion by Dan Simmons
  • Illium by Dan Simmons
  • Olympus by Dan Simmons
  • Mistborn Series by Brandon Sanderson
  • Cosmere Series by Brandon Sanderson
  • Wax and Wayne Series by Brandon Sanderson
  • Series by Craig Alanson
  • Sun Eater Series by Chris Ruocchio
  • ​Three Body Problem Series by Cixin Liu
  • Accelerando by Charles Stross
  • Bob Series by Dennis Taylor

Favorite Beginning of Infinity 

  • The Romance of Reality by Bobby Azarian
  • Reinventing the Sacred by Stuart Kauffman
  • Earth in Human Hands by David Grinspoon
  • Factfulness by Hans Rosling
  • Beginning of Infinity by David Deutsch
  • Fabric of Reality by David Deutsch
  • Better Angels of our Nature by Steven Pinker
  • Non-Zero by Robert Wright
  • Rational Optimist by Matt Ridley
  • The Inevitable by Kevin Kelly
  • Humankind: A helpful History by Rutger Bregman
  • Human Purpose and TransHuman Potential by Ted Chu
  • Utopia for Realists by Rutger Bregman
  • Moral Ambition by Rutger Bregman
  • The Prosperity Paradox by Christensens
  • Age of Sustainable Development by Jeff Sachs

Favorite Endangered Species/Biodiversity

  • Last Chance to See by Douglas Adams​
  • Listed by Joe Roman
  • 100 Heartbeats by Jeff Corwin
  • Half Earth by EO Wilson
  • Future of Life by EO Wilson
  • Where the Wild Things Were by William Stolzenberg
  • Wolfs Tooth by Eisenberg
  • The Carnivore Way by Eisenberg
  • Song of the Dodo by Quammen
  • Monsters of God by Quammen
  • Tangled Tree by Quammen
  • Death of our Planet's Species by Martin Gorke
  • Life in the Valley of Death by Rabinowitz
  • Jaguar by Rabinowitz

​Favorite Neuroscience

  • Being You by Anil Seth
  • Consciousness by Graziano
  • The Disordered Mind by Eric Kandel
  • Phi by Giulio Tononi
  • The Feeling of What Happens by Antonio Damasio

Favorite Spiritual Texts

  • Why Buddhism is True by Robert Wright
  • The Wisdom of Joseph Campbell
  • The Tibetan Book of the Dead 
  • Power of Vulnerability by Brene Brown
  • The Ecstasy of Being by Joseph Campbell
  • Power of Compassion by The Dalai Llama
  • Peace is Every Step by Thich Naht Hahn
  • Be Here Now by Ram Dass

Favorite Relationship Stuff

  • How to Improve Your Marriage without Talking About It by Pat Love
  • If You’re in my Office It’s Already Too Late by James Sexton

Favorite Big Books

  • 1Q84 by Murakami
  • Windup Bird Chronicle by Murakami
  • A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth
  • Sacred Games by Vikram Chandra
  • 2666 by Roberto Bolano
  • War and Peace by Tolstoy
  • Anna Karenina by Tolstoy
  • Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson
  • Reamde by Neal Stephenson
  • Kafka on the Shore by Marukami

Favorite Creativity

  • Make Your Art Everyday by Beth Pickens
  • Your Art Will Save Your Life by Beth Pickens
  • The Creative Act by Rick Rubin
  • Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert
  • War of Art by Steven Pressfield

Favorite Non-Fiction

  • ​Figuring by Maria Popova
  • Short History of Nearly Everything Bill Bryson
  • Reading Lolita in Tehran by Nafisi
  • Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman by Feynman
  • What Technology Wants by Kevin Kelly
  • The Tao of Physics by Fritjof Capra
  • The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff
  • Lost City of the Monkey God by Douglas Preston

Favorite General Science

  • Panarchy by Hollings and Gunderson
  • The Case Against Reality by Donald Hoffman
  • Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins
  • Future of Life by EO Wilson
  • Blank Slate by Steven Pinker
  • Time, Love, Memory by Weiner
  • Chaos by Gleick
  • The Information by Gleick
  • ​Growth by Vaclav Smil
  • Scale by Geoff West

Favorite Poetry

  • Collected Maya Angelou
  • Cadastre by Aime Cesaire
  • Collected Robinson Jeffers
  • Wild God of the World by Robinson Jeffers
  • Sunstone by Octavio Paz
  • Collected Pablo Neruda
  • Turtle Island by Gary Snyder
  • Collected Borges
  • Field Guide to the Haunted Forest by Jarod Anderson
  • Love Notes from the Hollow Tree by Jarod Anderson
  • In Search of Duende by Lorca

Favorite Bookstores

  • ​Malaprops
  • City Lights Bookstore
  • The non-existent-anymore Acres of Books
  • The non-existent-anymore Open
  • The Last Bookstore
  • ​Powells
  • Vromans

Favorite Book Websites

  • Book Riot
  • Library Thing
  • GoodReads

Favorite Environmental 

  • Should Trees Have Standing by Stone
  • Wizard and the Prophet by Charles Mann
  • Doughnut Economics by Kate Raworth
  • How Forests Think by Eduardo Kohn
  • The Future We Choose by Figueres and Rivelt-Carnac
  • Rambunctious Garden by Marris
  • Sacred Balance by David Suzuki
  • Blessed Unrest by Philip Hawken
  • Breakthrough by Shellenberger and Nordhaus
  • Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey
  • The Ecological Thought by Tim Morton
  • Realist Magic by Tim Morton
  • Hyperobjects by Tim Morton
  • Wild Ones by Mooallem
  • Whole Earth Discipline by Stewart Brand​
  • Ecology of Commerce by Paul Hawken​
  • Reindeer Chronicles by Judith Schwartz
  • Conservation Revolution by Buscher and Fletcher
  • Zen and the Art of Saving the Planet by Thich Naht Hahn                 
  • The Intersectional Environmentalist by Leah Thomas
  • Not The End of The World by Hannah Ritchie
  • Carbon by Paul Hawken
  • LoTek Series by Julia Watson

Favorite Art Books

  • Heinrich Kley
  • The Library of Esoterica Series by Jessica Hundley

Favorite Physics

  • Entanglement by Amir Aczel
  • Brief History of Time by Hawking
  • Theory of Everything by Hawking
  • Arrow of Time by Carroll
  • The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene
  • Higgs Boson and Beyond by Sean Carroll
  • Just Six Numbers by Martin Rees

Favorite Philosophy

  • Tim Morton
  • Graham Harman
  • Martha Nussbaum
  • Sartre
  • Nietzsche
  • Camus
  • Dennett
  • Marcus Aurelius

Favorite Adventures

  • The Serpent and the Rainbow by Wade Davis
  • One River by Wade Davis
  • Lost City of the Monkey God by Douglas Preston

Favorite Divine Masculinity

  • King Warrior Magician Lover by Robert Moor and Douglass Gillette
  • The Way of the Superior Man by David Deida

Favorite Choice Architecture

  • Misbehaving by Richard Thaler
  • How Change Happens by Cass Sunstein
  • Nudge by Thaler and Sunstein
  • Thinking Fast and Slow by Kahneman

Favorite Design

  • Design for a Better World by Don Norman
  • Pattern Language Series by Christopher Alexander
  • Elements of Choice by Eric Johnson

Book Places

  • ​Tor House
  • Neruda's House
  • City Lights
  • The Bourgeois Pig
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Favorite Movies and Shows (I don't know where else to put these)

  • Lord of the Rings Trilogy
  • Hobbit Trilogy
  • Firefly
  • The Expanse
  • The Wire
  • Top Gear
  • Indiana Jones
  • Game of Thrones series
  • Bourne Movies
  • Heat
  • Sicario
Enjoy the site!
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