What are your five favorite books, and why?

I will approach the subject by dividing books in categories, much like a library.

1) Borderline Conditions and Pathological Narcissism Otto Kernberg

In the science department, most specifically psychiatry, the first entry is Kernberg's seminal work on Personality Disorders. uilding on !reud, and interacting "and arguing# with Kohut, Kernberg builds what turned out to be the structure of the modern view on personality, and its borderline pathology. $naly%ing transference "the emotional e&change in the analyst'patient relationship# and its ramifications, delineating the descriptive and structural aspects of narcissism, describing the defensive operations and the prognosis(diagnosis(treatment process of the borderline, )tto Kernberg draws a map of the personality like nobody has done, since or after its publication.

2) On Writing Stephen King

$s far as biographies go, this one may not be the most e&citing one, but it is pretty entertaining, packed with stories and advice about his craft, and certainly the most useful one I've ever read. It is also the only one I have in mind that is a biography and an instruction manual simultaneously. *he first part of the book starts with a child's early e&periences as a writer, and ends with a worldwide'famous author's addiction. *he second part is a very comprehensive guide to reading and writing, as he calls it, 'a toolbo&'. $nd the third part is his e&perience as a victim of a nearly'fatal car crash. *he book can get you informed, inspired, laugh, and drop your jaw at times. )r at the same time. I am not a fan of King's fiction, but his non'fiction is something I am a fan of.

3)Tao Te Ching ao T!"

*he *aoist bible is a very short te&t, characteristic of an +astern scripture. Its study can lead you reading so many commentaries though, that can fill your reading hours with hundreds of pages of interpreting what this wise guy ,-.. years ago had to say. +ach verse is a meditation on dialectical monism and the spirit of life. +ach verse is so ambiguous and deflecting, that can take the form of several meanings. +ach verse is a koan, capable of taking you in a spiral of analy%ing for hours, and still not being sure of what its original intention is. *hat must have been /ao *%u's original intention. I could write a lot about his teachings, which I admire and try to act on, but as he said, '*he *ao that can be named, is not the eternal *ao.' 0o maybe I should just leave silence, or empty space, tell the rest.

#) Crime and P"nishment $%odor &osto%e's(%

1aving to choose between 0aramago, ukowski and Dostoyevski for fiction, I chose the latter because of his internal completeness as a writer and his stunning capacity of piercing inside you and looking at your innermost dark fears and desires. *he terror of being alive he imbues you with is unparalleled. In his classic work, he takes a very intelligent, capable young man, and drops inside him the seed of an idea, the idea of murdering somebody. 2hat follows is a uni3ue study of guilt, the testimony of a troubled mind, a strategy play, a terror story of internal turmoil. !yodor "we share the name# is so great a psychologist that leaves you with a certainty that every character in his books, is him himself. 1e knows the guilt and agony of a murderer. 1e knows the mania a police investigator is full with when he can't yet prove what is apparent to him. 1e even knows the pain of a mother, or a sister, seeing their son, or brother going south. )r in that case, east, far east, all the way to 0iberia, to suffer and cleanse himself of the crime he commited, with its becoming punishment.

)) *odels *ar( *anson

Kissing your ass as I may, '4odels' is the self'improvement book I've read the most ever, and it is the one that has helped me grow the most. $nd I've read 3uite a lot of them. I won't report much on what the book is about or how the book is structured, but will assert that it is *1+ guide of what matters in attraction and in many aspects of life, a treatise on honest being, the most comprehensive self'improvement guide one can hope for5 and its biggest shortcoming is that it's too short at times. Its structure could easily have supported ,.. more pages of detail. *hat it hasn't is what made me dig for obscure articles of the author's for hours on end, when not reading the book for the -th time.

*For a further sample of what I've been enjoying reading, you can check the ' ook !iscussion "hread' at the forum