The Bedside Dream Dictionary

Book excerpt: Silvana Amar, a psychologist with extensive experience in dream studies, has created an invaluable guide with descriptions of hundreds and hundreds of the most important dream symbols. Her well-researched explanations cover our most common dream themes and symbols, including adultery, death, jail, money, running, smoking, water, worms, and zombies. Designed to be kept on the nightstand where users can reference it quickly first thing in the morning when their dreams are still fresh, it features a notebook for keeping track of those nightly reveries. In addition to definitions, there's additional important information on the science of sleep and sleep cycles; commentary on the influential dream theories of Freud and Jung; and poems on the topic by such writers as Whitman and Poe.