Truly exceptional books

Chemistry
Mathematics
Photography
Nutrition and sport

Physics
Spirituality
Web, design, and typography

Chemistry : A General Chemistry Project of the American Chemical Society, by American Chemical Society, Jerry A. Bell

Dr. Euler's Fabulous Formula: Cures Many Mathematical Ills, Paul J. Nahin

The Equations: Icons of Knowledge, Sander Bais

Visual Complex Analysis, Tristan Needham. I have always wondered how to visualize integration in the complex plane (Cauchy integration formula), and purchased this book a few years ago in the hopes it would help. Then, reading in Penrose, The Road to Reality, the book was mentioned in just this context in a footnote. It turns out Needham was a student of Penrose.

I strongly recommend Mathematica Navigator, 2e, Heikki Ruskeepää, as your guide to working with Mathematica.

The DAM Book: Digital Asset Management for Photographers, Peter Krogh. This is an extraordinarily accessible and detailed tutorial on the importance of digital asset management, and its efficient and flexible implementation using using Adobe Bridge and iView Media Pro.

Photoshop LAB Color: The Canyon Conundrum and Other Adventures in the Most Powerful Colorspace, Dan Margulis. This books details the how and why of color correction in Photoshop, making use of all of its color working spaces (RGB, LAB and CMYK), with particular emphasis on the special capabilities of LAB. It, and his earlier book Professional Photoshop are the only Photoshop books I have read with a highlighter and marked up with margin notes! I consider this one of the very few exceptional books on Photoshop.

Professional Photoshop: The Classic Guide to Color Correction, Dan Margulis.

Science and Sanity: An Introduction to Non-Aristotelian Systems and General Semantics, Alfred Korzybski. The excerpt (page 60, online at Amazon) is both Zen wisdom and what I have come to understand as the way clear of phantoms in quantum mechanics. "Let us repeat once more the two crucial negative premises as established firmly by *all* human experience: (1) Words are not the things we are speaking about; and (2) There is no such thing as an object in isolation."

Into the Cool: Energy Flow, Thermodynamics, and Life, Eric D. Schneider and Dorion Sagan. A puzzle is how life---highly organized, *low* entropy, self sustaining structures---can come into being. This book discusses the view that "... life itself, far from conflicting with the second law of thermodynamics, is the quintessential example of complexity reducing a gradient, specifically "the immense gradient between a 5,800 K sun and the 2.7 K temperature of outer space."

Introduction to Electrodynamics (3rd Edition) , David J. Griffiths. The author has the gift of being able to distill the essence of electrodynamics to provide a scaffolding that helps to organize the techniques and tools. His students at Reed College are very fortunate.

The Road to Reality: A Complete Guide to the Laws of the Universe, Roger Penrose. An exceptionally ambitious account of what we know about physical reality. What sets this book apart is the fell mathematical framework is laid bare, with exceptional visualizations. If you want to glimmer the bottom of things, and what it takes to turn that glimmer into detailed understanding, this book is the best single volume guide I have seen.

What is Life? : With Mind and Matter and Autobiographical Sketches, Erwin Schrodinger, Foreward by RogerPenrose. If you are earnestly interested in how one may span physical and spiritual views of reality, this book may be helpful.

Science and Sanity: An Introduction to Non-Aristotelian Systems and General Semantics, Alfred Korzybski. The excerpt (page 60, online at Amazon) is both Zen wisdom and what I have come to understand as the way clear of phantoms in quantum mechanics. "Let us repeat once more the two crucial negative premises as established firmly by *all* human experience: (1) Words are not the things we are speaking about; and (2) There is no such thing as an object in isolation."

No Two Alike: Human Nature and Human Individuality, by Judith Rich Harris. William Saletan writes in The New York Times Book Review, "Hence the status system. Your socialization system figures out how to conform to your group. Your relationship system figures out how to get along with each person. Your status system figures out how to compete. It monitors people's reactions, gathering information about how smart, pretty, weak or talented they think you are. It looks for virtues, activities and occupations at which you're most likely to best your peers. It notices tiny differences between the way people regard you and the way they regard others in your peer group, or even your twin. By choosing pursuits based on these differences, it magnifies them. It drives you to be different."

Letters to a Buddhist Jew, Akiva Tatz and David Gottlieb. "I am a Zen Jew struggling to resolves these two indentities. ..." The first chapter is here, and the review here points to the depth of the book.

The Best Buddhist Writing 2005, by Melvin Mcleod

Extravagaria : A Bilingual Edition (Paperback), a collection of Pablo Neruda's works.

The Zen Teaching of Huang Po: On the Transmission of Mind

I Am That: Talks with Sri Nisargadatta, by Nisargadatta Maharaj, Sudhaker S. Dikshit (Editor), Maurice Frydman (Translator). The quote "The real does not die, the unreal does not live." goes to the heart of the universal teachings that shines through these talks. More, what we think we are, indeed what we think itself, is part of the unreal. Without these, what is there? These talks point the way to the answer.

What is Life? : With Mind and Matter and Autobiographical Sketches, Erwin Schrodinger, Foreward by Roger Penrose. If you are earnestly interested in how one may span physical and spiritual views of reality, this book may be helpful.

Think on These Things , Jiddu Krishnamurti

Thinking with Type: A Critical Guide for Designers, Writers, Editors, & Students, Ellen Lupton

Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability (2nd Edition), Steve Krug. Tools such as Dreamweaver and accommodating ISP's make it easy to build a web presence. The premise of this small book is that effective web sites are straightforward and uncomplicated to make, but that our unguided inclinations typically result in convoluted, complicated, and so ineffective designs and implementations. Following the simple strategies of this book can keep us on track and helpful to our audience.

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