A Programmer's Bookshelf
This is a personal list of books that I hope someone will find inspiring or at least useful, and for myself in the future in case I forget about them. At the end, I've added some tips I've found useful in my life.

Philosophy
Robert Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance about education vs. schooling, Quality, and living life. Motorcycle maintenance and software programming have a lot in common, and philosophy is more important than most people think. Lack of Quality comes from lack of care.
    Richard Feynman's two books "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!" and "What Do You Care What Other People Think" contain autobiographical stories about a curious character, indeed. He has Quality, like Pirsig.

Finances & Work
Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin about what money means, deciding what's worth it, budgets, simple living, and general tips on living.
    Peopleware by Tom DeMarco and Tim Lister. It has chapters entitled "The Furniture Police" and "You Never Get Anything Done Around Here from 9 to 5". Enough said.
    The Mythical Man-Month by Fred Brooks. More about managing software projects. Also, why adding more people to a late project will usually only make it more delayed.
    Decline & Fall of the American Programmer by Edward Yourdon. Don't be put off by the title. It has many tips on software projects, but its real resource is the recommended reading list in the appendix. This is where I found out about Pirsig's works.

Food
Cookwise by Shirley Corriher is more than just a cookbook with recipes. It also explains the why behind cooking and how to change the materials and methods to get different results.
    From Amish and Mennonite Kitchens by Philis Pellman Good contains many simple, traditional recipes for cooking from scratch.

The Built Environment
How Cities Work : Suburbs, Sprawl, and the Roads Not Taken by Alex Marshall. This is a book I highly recommend. It takes a good look at how cities and suburbs work, and why "New Urbanism" isn't all that it's cracked up to be. It uses four examples as case studies: the Silicon Valley, Portland (Oregon), Disney's Celebration in Florida, and the Jackson Heights area of NYC.

Tips
Don't take these statements at face value. Check your sources. Check your assumptions. Check wikipedia.

• Avoid HFCS (high-fructose corn syrup). Avoid refined sugars and refined foods as much as possible. Sugar tastes better than HFCS.
• Avoid trans-fats, made by adding hydrogen to vegetable oils, including regular Crisco shortening. Use the new shortening with 0 grams Trans Fat, or use butter. Butter is good.
• Life's too short to eat fast food.
• Do your own cooking and you will know everything that goes into your food. Prepared foods and packaged, frozen entrees have lots of salt and fats because they make the food taste good. Even many restaurants go overboard with the salt and fats.
• Cook extra portions and freeze the extras. You don't have to cook every day, and you'll have good food ready in the freezer. (See freezer cookery and once-a-month cooking.)
• Broccoli rabe (rapini) goes great with roast pork.
• Use a squeegee for cleaning windows, floors, countertops, and other flat surfaces. Use dish washing detergent and a sponge to wet the surface, then squeegee the water off. No need to use paper towels or synthetic chemical sprays (Windex, etc.), no allergic reactions, just a clean surface. Use a rag to clean up any remaining water.
• Vinegar removes hard water deposits.
• Clean the windows, clean the mirror, clean the sink. Small Quality improvements add up.
• Keep a food journal. Count the calories. But don't deny yourself what you need. Human memory is faulty. Human senses are easily deceived. Writing things down helps to keep yourself honest.
• When life becomes overwhelming and you have too much on your mind, write things out. Write not to remember but write to forget. Writing clears the mind of the clouds that surround it.