Books, - 'must reads'

Hey, just starting a thread for 'must reads' on philosophy in general.

If you would like to post a suggestion, post a brief description of the book/essay.

I am currently reading 'The Myth of Sisyphus' by Albert Camus, which covers what Camus' views (as a struggle) as man's desire for the absolute and the unreasonable universe, which can not possibly fulfill his 'nostalgia for unity'. Camus reasons against suicide, both physical and philosophical, championing reason and lucidity. At times i do disagree with some of his conjectures, but an interesting book none the less.

I know I've mentioned Dostoyevsky, so I won't go there again, but another Russian author I liked was Chekhov.

As for Must-Read books, I really am a fan of the classics. Some are more worth reading than others, but reading classical literature is where I got most of my education (I was homeschooled). Some of these are not truly "must-reads" but at least a cursory familiarity with them, I think, is important. Western Civilization is disappearing because people don't read it anymore.
I was going to make a really long post listing all my favorite classical and modern works, but I'll just list a few authors that stand, or stood rather, above the crowd.

The Greek Dramas, I read nine plays in a single day not too long ago. My favorites are Sophocles, Aeschylus, and for Comedy I like Aristophanes. Euripides, not so much.

Believe it or not, the Bible has some pretty interesting stories. Violence, sex, murder, war, deceit. The headiest stuff is in the OT, though.
Early novels, and books that everyone knows about but never actually reads. This includes novels like Robinson Crusoe, Don Quixote, Walden, Moby Dick, Ben-Hur, and even something more modern, such as Joyce's Ulysses.


I'm sure I'll think of a few more before long.

Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes, it's good everyone should read. I don't agree with everything he says but its still very well written. For other books at least where I live that the philosophy section is only one shelf and a lot of it is new age. So you can basically pick and choose the older more classic books and come away with a good collection.

Thus Spake Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche. I'm really a fan of what he's saying in this book (Still not quite a Nihilist ). It's difficult to understand at times but hey I'm not the brightest bulb in the bunch...

Basically an elaboration of his bold "God is dead" statement made in The Gay Science. Also he talks lot's about his idea of the Übermensch or Superman which is the supposed "human embodiment of divinity".

A good read by all means!

Speaking of Camus, The Stranger (possibly my favorite book of all), The Fall, The Plague, and The Rebel are also essential, I think.

There are lots of obvious authors that I don't need to list, but I think Michel Foucault is underappreciated. Discipline & Punish is an excellent and clear book devoid of the postmodern stigma that seems to haunt this philosopher.

K. wrote:

Speaking of Camus, The Stranger (possibly my favorite book of all), The Fall, The Plague, and The Rebel are also essential, I think.

There are lots of obvious authors that I don't need to list, but I think Michel Foucault is underappreciated. Discipline & Punish is an excellent and clear book devoid of the postmodern stigma that seems to haunt this philosopher.

Id say "The Stranger" and "The myth of sisyphus" go almost hand in hand. I havent read the rebel, but I have the fall and the plague.

Reflections on the guillotine is interesting as well, though it is on the argument against capital punishment. But this is just camus