Descending:

• In the Plex: How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives, Levy (review)
• Singularity Rising: Surviving and Thriving in a Smarter, Richer, and More Dangerous World, James Miller (review)
• Heisenberg and the Nazi Atomic Bomb Project, 1939-1945: A Study in German Culture
• Man's Search for Meaning, Frankl
• Dreamland: Travels Inside the Secret World of Roswell and Area 51, Patton
• Buddhist Ethics: A Very Short Introduction, Keown

The Guns Of August - Barbara Tuchman. Tuchman's classic book about the first month of World War I. It's written in a somewhat informal way, and Tuchman seems to be especially interested by the various character's mustaches, for some reason.It's a good introduction into that first month, when the German's got so close to winning, and then... didn't.

Moonwalking with Einstein - Joshua Foer. In short: a book a journalist how writes a story about the US memory competition, then decides to try himself, and wins the next year. While doing so, he discusses the various tricks that 'mental athletes' use (many of which are known since ancient times), the differences with the inborn talents of idiots savants and the little subculture of people taking part in these competitions. I liked the book -- it constantly tries to understand why things work the way they seem to work, leaves room for alternative explanations etc., while keeping the book fascinating.

Feeling Good - David Burns. This book is (mostly) about Behavioral Therapy (BT), a therapy for treating depressions. I happily do not suffer from those, but I was interested in what the field has come up with, a field which still has bit of a proto-scientific smell.

BT is based on the thought that depressions are often based on errors of thinking (such as being too negative, having unrealistic expectations, all-or-nothing thinking and so on), and that patients can be help by systematically exposing these thinking errors, and making them think in more realistic terms. One of the ways to do this is to keep lists of expectations what will be happen in many daily things ('it's going to be a disaster'), and then later adding what actually happened ('it wasn't too bad'). Sounds almost /too/ rational, but apparently it worked. The end of the book also discusses chemical treatments at length, and sees them as something that is sometimes necessary, but always in combination with other therapy. This part interested me less. Overall, I liked Dr. Burn's writing style -- concise, precise and self-critical, and he seems to anticipate this reader's "but what if" responses quite well.

Antifragile - Things That Gain from Disorder - Nassim Taleb. In this book, Taleb discusses antifragility, i.e., the property of flourishing in the face of randomness, rare events, and so one, and he contrasts this with many of the world's systems, which are fragile -- strongly depend on their environment being predictable.

Prime examples of this would be the world economy (fragile) and the human body (gets better at fighting pathogens the more it is exposed to them).

Taleb fills the book with this -- and even more with gratuitously throwing around references to ancient philosophers etc., and shamelessly adding anecdotes with himself being the hero (not just the smartest, but also an impressive weight-lifter 'looks like a body-guard'). If you can overlook that, it's an interesting book.

The Casual Vacancy by J. K. Rowling.

Yes, I picked it up because it's by the Harry Potter lady; but it's hard to imagine how a book could be further away from Harry Potter. This is an ultra-realist novel for adults. By ultra-realist, I mean that not only are there no magical or science fictional elements. There aren't even any implausible elements or plot devices. (OK, maybe one involving some SQL injection, but it at least falls into the realm of the possible.) That is, this is a book about people who behave pretty much exactly like real people do; no heroes or villains here, though there are more and less likeable characters.

If Rowling's name were not on the cover, I doubt anyone would ever have suspected this book was by her. It really is that different. The language is different. The point of view is different (third person omniscient instead of Harry Potter's less common third person limited omniscient view). The novel is far more character driven than the plot-centric Harry Potter novels. There are no big reversals where you discover the good guy is the bad guy and the bad guy is the good guy. (This would be quite hard to pull off in third person omniscient, in any case.)

However, there is one thing that really stands out; and both connects this novel to Rowling, and distinguishes it from most other fiction including the Harry Potter novels. The children are equally well-drawn as characters, and equally important to the story as the adults. Although this is an adult novel, it is not one that makes the mistake of treating children as set dressing. The children here are real and significant. In LessWrong speak, everyone's a PC. There are no NPCs. Most adult novels ignore children. Most children's novels ignore adults. It is rare to find a novel that treats both children and adults as characters in their own right.

Star Maker, by Olaf Stapledon

Last and First Men, by Olaf Stapledon

I've been on a post-rock binge. My favorite bands along this line are Godspeed You! Black Emperor, World's End Girlfriend, and, of course, Explosions in the Sky. I don't expect this music appeals to everyone though.

No-one has to die is a short online game with an emphasis on its story. I don't want to spoiler you, so just play if you want to (takes about 30 minutes), and you may find a few interesting topics in there.

Magical Diary -- it has puzzles, although they're only a small part of the game. Ellen reminded me of Less Wrong fairly quickly; I later found out that TV Tropes lists her subplot as a shout-out to Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality.

Journey Walkthrough-- this is a walkthrough of a remarkably pretty and peaceful game. Cloaked non-human needs to collect glowy coupons to add to his scarf so that he can leap on to the the higher places and eventually get to a mountain on the horizon.

The landscapes are open, and the running through sand is delightful, if implausible. So is the no-equipment skiing down sand dunes.

The narrator has a tone of peaceful, interested delight at the various events.

The walkthrough is more calming than any amount of New Age music with landscapes that I've seen. I've only watched three out of seven(?) episodes, but I'm expecting to like the rest.

I don't have any recommendations on the subject just yet, but I would like to start talking about textbooks at some point in the near future. I don't know if the monthly media thread is the best place for this, so I thought I'd throw the subject out in meta and see what came back.