Here are 100 books that The Emotional Significance of Imaginary Being fans have personally recommended if you like
The Emotional Significance of Imaginary Being.
Book DNA is a community of 12,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.
In 1990, I introduced the idea of emotional intelligence with my colleague Peter Salovey. This was followed, in 2008, with the introduction of the theory of personal intelligence. Emotional, personal, and social intelligence form a group I labeled the “people-centered intelligences,” which are partly distinct from intelligences focused on things such as objects in space and mathematical symbols.
One quality the diverse books I recommend here share in common is that they help us reason about who we are—a key element of personal intelligence.
Okay, this one could surely be part of a list of books on artificial intelligence, but it's more than that: it's about the effects of networks of information—both real and fabricated, hallucinated, or intentionally-distorted —and their evolution and spread over the history of human culture, and secondarily, perhaps, about AI and its growing role as part of those information networks.
Despite a few flaws I found maddening (a brief section early in the book argues that genes don’t carry information), it is a very thoughtful and provocative work.
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the author of Sapiens comes the groundbreaking story of how information networks have made, and unmade, our world.
“Striking original . . . A historian whose arguments operate on the scale of millennia has managed to capture the zeitgeist perfectly.”—The Economist
“This deeply important book comes at a critical time as we all think through the implications of AI and automated content production. . . . Masterful and provocative.”—Mustafa Suleyman, author of The Coming Wave
For the last 100,000 years, we Sapiens have accumulated enormous power. But despite allour discoveries, inventions, and conquests,…
It is April 1st, 2038. Day 60 of China's blockade of the rebel island of Taiwan.
The US government has agreed to provide Taiwan with a weapons system so advanced that it can disrupt the balance of power in the region. But what pilot would be crazy enough to run…
In 1990, I introduced the idea of emotional intelligence with my colleague Peter Salovey. This was followed, in 2008, with the introduction of the theory of personal intelligence. Emotional, personal, and social intelligence form a group I labeled the “people-centered intelligences,” which are partly distinct from intelligences focused on things such as objects in space and mathematical symbols.
One quality the diverse books I recommend here share in common is that they help us reason about who we are—a key element of personal intelligence.
Is it American History? Counterculture? Something else? To be sure what it is is a very engaging, detailed chronicle of the California Institute at Big Sur and its residents and visitors.
The book provides coverage of a profound and influential interlude of American culture in which drugs, folk-rock, psychology, transhumanism, and other philosophies intermixed with one another.
As a psychologist, I was interested in hearing about Aldous Huxley and Abraham Maslow’s visits; more generally, who knew that Joan Baez and Hunter S. Thompson both lived on the property before the institute was established!
Jeffrey J. Kripal here recounts the spectacular history of Esalen, the institute that has long been a world leader in alternative and experiential education and stands today at the center of the human potential movement. Forged in the literary and mythical leanings of the Beat Generation, inspired in the lecture halls of Stanford by radical scholars of comparative religion, the institute was the remarkable brainchild of Michael Murphy and Richard Price.Set against the heady backdrop of California during the revolutionary 1960s, "Esalen" recounts in fascinating detail how these two maverick thinkers sought to fuse the spiritual revelations of the East…
In 1990, I introduced the idea of emotional intelligence with my colleague Peter Salovey. This was followed, in 2008, with the introduction of the theory of personal intelligence. Emotional, personal, and social intelligence form a group I labeled the “people-centered intelligences,” which are partly distinct from intelligences focused on things such as objects in space and mathematical symbols.
One quality the diverse books I recommend here share in common is that they help us reason about who we are—a key element of personal intelligence.
This unusual book deserves to be included in some list or another; to that end, I have included it here.
It views cities, from their urban high rises to McDonald’s roadside eateries, from the standpoint of a burglar (with an architect’s eye), examining how to break in, steal, and make a clean getaway. Although I’ve never broken into a home (other than my own after locking myself out), I found the book eye-opening.
Don’t put it down until you get to the description of the movie Die Hard, which rethinks the skyscraper as one of the key characters of the movie. Okay, I admit it may not be central to who we are, but it is different!
At the heart of Geoff Manaugh's A Burglar's Guide to the City is an unexpected and thrilling insight: the city as seen through the eyes of robbers. From experts on both sides of the law, readers learn to understand the city as an arena of possible tunnels and picked locks and architecture itself as an obstacle to be outwitted and second-guessed. From how to pick locks (and the tools required) to how to case a bank on the edge of town, readers will learn to detect the vulnerabilities, blind spots, and unseen openings that surround us all the time. This…
A Duke with rigid opinions, a Lady whose beliefs conflict with his, a long disputed parcel of land, a conniving neighbour, a desperate collaboration, a failure of trust, a love found despite it all.
Alexander Cavendish, Duke of Ravensworth, returned from war to find that his father and brother had…
In 1990, I introduced the idea of emotional intelligence with my colleague Peter Salovey. This was followed, in 2008, with the introduction of the theory of personal intelligence. Emotional, personal, and social intelligence form a group I labeled the “people-centered intelligences,” which are partly distinct from intelligences focused on things such as objects in space and mathematical symbols.
One quality the diverse books I recommend here share in common is that they help us reason about who we are—a key element of personal intelligence.
It provides a historical perspective on our rapidly evolving technological world by looking at how technology influenced humanity’s era of evolutionary adaptation. Among the accounts are how fire promoted brain growth (by permitting humans to extract more calories from their food), and the almost certain early development of baby slings, that made it possible for human communities to migrate long distances.
Such reflections seem particularly useful today as we face working with AI—and as we wonder how it will affect us.
A breakthrough theory that tools and technology are the real drivers of human evolution. Although humans are one of the great apes, along with chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans, we are remarkably different from them. Unlike our cousins who subsist on raw food, spend their days and nights outdoors, and wear a thick coat of hair, humans are entirely dependent on artificial things, such as clothing, shelter, and the use of tools, and would die in nature without them. Yet, despite our status as the weakest ape, we are the masters of this planet. Given these inherent deficits, how did humans…
As a woman of color, impassioned reader, and author to boot, I'm always advocating for inclusion in my romance reads. All of my romances feature a lead or leads of color and I'm particularly drawn to books where I can identify myself in the heroines. I like to provide other readers of color with the same experience through my books, while writing compelling romances that can be enjoyed by anyone. I have published 12 novels, with 4+ coming out in 2022. I've hit the bestseller charts on Amazon in SciFi romances and multicultural romances with every new release. You can expect my Xiveri Mates series in audio, French, and German as early as March 2022.
I really enjoyed this book because it challenged my normal reading. I’m not a huge fan of reverse harem but with alien-looking aliens and a really tough heroine of color it was hard to pass up. The book is 700 plus pages and covers some of my favorite sci-fi romance tropes: alien abduction, space opera, and alien gladiator.
"She is mine to protect, mine to shelter, mine to feed and mine to cover. When she is weak, I shall be her strength. She was stolen from her world by our captors. Now her survival is my responsibility. It is her duty to endure my lust, respect my nest mates and honour our union with offspring. I revere this giver of life, as is the way."~ Venomous One, formerly of Rök, enslaved gladiator
Abducted from Earth and transported to a slave planet in an unknown galaxy, Lumen finds herself, shackled, naked and put on display before an alien horde.…
As horror writer, I’m often asked what scares me most, and almost every fear I have is, at its core, about the Unknown. Not just what we don’t know but the things we cannot know. In all my books, I’ve tried to lean into that personal fear as much as possible, and with Heavy Oceans, I was inspired by the cases Mulder and Scully investigated back when the idea of a government lying to and spying on its own citizens seemed almost quaint by comparison to the moments we’re living. And, as the show’s title credit often said, in glowing words that blazed over a darkened sky…"The Truth is Out There."
Most readers know this feeling well: when a book you love doesn’t seem to get the attention you feel it deserves. That’s exactly how I view Daniel Kraus’ excellent and suspenseful novel, Bent Heavens. Maybe because it was marketed as YA (whatever that means these days), or maybe because he’s so prolific that it can be hard to keep up with all his work.
Whatever the reason, this book features conspiracy theories, a missing father, government secrets, and exactly the kind of fog-shrouded abandoned places Mulder and Scully tend to explore during their investigations. Yeah, it’s creepy. Yeah, it’s mysterious. But more than that, it’s got characters you care about.
Liv Fleming is done with childhood fantasies. Done pretending she believes her missing father's absurd theories about alien abduction. Done going through the motions of checking the traps he set just for her friend Doug's sake. But on the very day she chooses to destroy the traps, she discovers in one of them a creature so inhuman it can only be one thing. In that moment, she's faced with a painful realisation: Her dad was telling the truth. And no one believed him.
Now she and Doug have a choice to make. They can turn the alien over to the…
The Duke's Christmas Redemption
by
Arietta Richmond,
A Duke who has rejected love, a Lady who dreams of a love match, an arranged marriage, a house full of secrets, a most unneighborly neighbor, a plot to destroy reputations, an unexpected love that redeems it all.
Lady Charlotte Wyndham, given in an arranged marriage to a man she…
Dr. Michael Brein earned a Ph.D. in social psychology and titles himself a “UFOlogist” as well as “The Travel Psychologist.” For a time, he has been the State Director for Hawaii for the MUFON UFO research organization, the largest investigative group in the U.S. to investigate UFOs (or UAP). He was also appointed Ambassador-at-Large for MUFON. As such, Michael Brein publishes books in two noteworthy series: 1) The Road to Strange (important books on UFOs and the paranormal) and 2)True Travel Tales (books on the psychology of travel emphasizing safety and security).
A classic study of Budd Hopkin’s thorough investigation using hypnosis as a tool in the study of nearly 2,000 people’s experiences of being subjected to so-called “alien abductions,” allegedly by aliens for hypothetically any of a variety of reasons ranging from medical evaluations of sorts to even possibly harvesting human fetuses! Budd Hopkins has been considered the father of modern alien abduction research. I knew Budd personally and respected him as a smart, thorough, and dedicated researcher.
So, if you believe the Betty and Barney Hill story so that at least their account most likely is true, what then can you conclude if you take the thousands of similar stories of UFO abduction researchers into account—thousands of them! If but one UFO abduction story is true—and there is little escaping the likelihood that Betty and Barney Hill’s story is true— what then must you think of Budd Hopkins’ (and the…
Originally published in 1981, this pioneering work by Budd Hopkins was the first focused study of an enigma that would come to captivate the world and challenge our understanding of the universe. The influence of "Missing Time" was such that its title is now deeply embedded into the lexicon of UFO studies—synonymous with that most controversial and troubling of topics: alien abduction.
At the time of its writing, Hopkins could not have predicted the impact of "Missing Time," not only within UFOlogy, but in popular culture worldwide. The facts, stories, and theories presented herein laid the foundation for the first…
I am an experiencer who has had a lot of experiences with otherworldly beings for the last several years now, and I am also an inventor in my own right with one patent. I feel I have the ability to pay attention to detail, and I'm very analytical when it comes to making sense of things I can read, see, and hear. In my book, I give detailed explanations of my experiences from my encounters, and I am a very practical person, where I have the tendency to analyze mostly everything I do.
I highly recommend this book because it is one of the most influential and thought‑provoking books ever written on the UFO phenomenon, blending personal experience with cultural impact.
Strieber recounts his chilling encounters with mysterious “visitors” in vivid detail, describing moments of paralysis, lost time, and hypnotically recovered memories that challenge the boundaries between dream, reality, and the unknown. His narrative is not just about alien abduction—it's about confronting the limits of human understanding, exploring whether these beings are extraterrestrial, interdimensional, or something entirely different.
I am an experiencer myself. Although our stories are very different, I can say that extraterrestrials are real without question, and his book is a good read!
Communion is the iconic classic in which Whitley Strieber describes his 1985 close encounter experiences. This book, which fundamentally changed the way we understand close encounters and alien abductions, is presented here with a new introduction by the author.
The message of Communion, that something unknown is really happening to people but that we have not studied it enough to understand it, remains as timely now as it was in 1987 when the book was first published. And Whitley Strieber's riveting account of what he experienced, along with his relentless and expert pursuit of the reality behind the experience, is…
I love young adult fiction. I especially love it when female characters face their fears and fight for what’s right. And if they’re not afraid to run headfirst into a battle, even better. I think it’s incredibly important for young women to have access to books that break free of female stereotypes. None of the heroines in these books are waiting for someone to save them. They’re in the thick of it, confronting their demons, and maybe slaying a few, too! My PhD explored power and belonging in YA fiction, and I’ve written and presented on the importance of strong female characters. Here’s to girl power!
In the Dark Spaces is a stunning YA novel breathed into life by its main character, Tamara, a heroine who grabbed my heart from the first lines and didn’t let go.
Tamara loves her family above everything else. And when she’s separated from them in a universe torn apart by war, she must draw on all her strength and smarts to survive. Her gift for languages and ability to adapt gives her an advantage when she’s captured by the enemy. But she’s also forced to do things that terrify her and break her heart. I love Tamara’s unique voice, and the way it expresses the deep bonds that tie us to friends and family made my heart sing. She’s truly a heroine that embodies the fighting spirit.
The latest winner of the Ampersand Prize is a genre-smashing hostage drama about 14-year-old Tamara, who's faced with an impossible choice when she falls for her kidnappers.
Yet this is no ordinary kidnapping. Tamara has been living on a star freighter in deep space, and her kidnappers are terrifying Crowpeople - the only aliens humanity has ever encountered. No-one has ever survived a Crowpeople attack, until now - and Tamara must use everything she has just to stay alive.
But survival always comes at a price, and there's no handbook for this hostage crisis. As Tamara comes to know the…
This book follows the journey of a writer in search of wisdom as he narrates encounters with 12 distinguished American men over 80, including Paul Volcker, the former head of the Federal Reserve, and Denton Cooley, the world’s most famous heart surgeon.
In these and other intimate conversations, the book…
I’ve been fascinated by UFOs since I was a kid, but it wasn’t until I met a Martian in 2016 that I started writing about them. To be more specific, I stumbled across a bizarre 1926 article about a man in telepathic communication with a Martian named Oomaruru. I then delved deeper into the beliefs about intelligent Martians at that time. It led to my writing The Big Book of Mars, which touched on the UFO phenomena in the 1940s and ‘50s. But knowing there was so much more to explore, I began writing We Are Not Alone, which is now my 8th book.
Fuller’s book captures the story of Betty and Barney Hill, who became the first nationally covered case of an alien abduction.
The book tells their tale and shares the hypnosis sessions they underwent to recall the many bizarre details of their experience. Fuller’s interviews with the Hills, along with the documented transcripts, make for a remarkable read.
TWO LOST HOURS ABOARD A UFO—THE ABDUCTION OF BETTY AND BARNEY HILL • One of the most extraordinary UFO tales of our time—a thrilling, otherworldly, and wildly entertaining adventure that enraptured America and stands as the quintessential extraterrestrial encounter
"True believers will see this as further evidence of the reality of UFOs" —The New York Times
On a summer night in 1961, Betty and Barney Hill were driving home through New Hampshire when a bright object appeared in the sky and began following them. When the couple finally pulled over to get a better look, the object vanished before their…
