Hello /lit/,I stand before you a man with lots of will but no follow through.Recently, following through is something I've become quite good at doing, trying to live by the fact we are only alive once and that I would rather not miss out on things and waste my time eventually becoming a disappointing man during my life.Over the years I've been lurking here and reading and picking up books here and there. But I have a huge stack of books that I have not finished reading, some of them have remained untouched after purchase, some of them are gifts.Pic related is the stack of books, I was wondering if you, well read, smart people could help me prioritize which books are most important to read first.Maybe you could even help me sort out the entire order of this stack.I would love to hear your thoughts on why I should read the books that you pick out from this stack.Thank you, I love you, I genuinely hope you random people all live great fulfilling lives despite life's hardships :(
>>24113154Exquisite bait.
>>24113157Not bait, am retard
>>24113154I will give you my detailed, sincere thoughts if you take another pic with timestamp to prove this is really your stack and not an elaborate bait
>>24113161Im gonna go do this.I wouldnt mind you naming books to read outside of this stack :)
>>24113161Here you go
>>24113180Not visible in the picture: Voltaire - Treatise on Toleration
>>24113154>>24113180oh my god this isn't bait. okay, here's my thoughts. I thought this was bait because you own both pop-science/pop-psych books and /lit/core pseud classics. The /lit/core books aren't inherently bad, that's not at all what I'm saying, but when they're typically found together it's because they're owned by someone who cares more about appearing intelligent than actually being so. couple that with the pop sci books and that's why everyone thought your post was bait at first. difficult to say what you "should" read first in this stack. I'm going to assume you haven't read anything pictured here. let's start by saying you can skip everything below Spinoza's Ethics without missing much. if you're interested in those books, feel free to read them. your life, your money, your attention, your time. I won't comment on them because I'm not interested in them As far as the rest of the books go; here's my thoughts, you might find them helpful you might not >Ethics -- SpinozaIMO, the greatest work of philosophy ever written. the first twoish books of metaphysics are really fucking difficult, but stick it out. the fifth book of the ethics possesses a warm crystalline beauty that I've never encountered in another philosophical work. your edition (Wordsworth Classics) is not a good one. get either the Hackett Classics or the Penguin Classics edition. >Machiavelli -- The Princeinteresting read. I don't remember much from it, if I'm being honest. it was interesting to learn how you had to survive in court society though.>Essays and Aphorisms -- Schopenhauer honestly it wouldn't be a bad idea to start here? schopy's an excellent writer with a knack for tight, memorable phrasing. I find his pessimism endearing but the women hate is tedious after a while. >Thus Spoke Zarathustra -- Nietzsche pyrotechnic treatise, parody, novel, tract, all in one. deceptively complex book. it's probably Nietzsche's least straightforward. by all means read it but just be aware that you're not understanding Nietzsche but experiencing him if that makes sense >Nietzsche ReaderI'm a fan of anthologies generally, not familiar with Penguin's though. It's probably fine. Nietzsche's so much fun to read if you've never read him before. If you're reading him as a philosopher and you plan to study him, start with The Genealogy of Morals. if you just want to see what he's about, read Beyond Good and Evil. either direction, read On Truth and Lying in a Nonmoral Sense, an unfinished early essay whose force still dazzles me >The Last Days of Socratesgood edition, also a good place to start. plato's dialogues are wonderful because they're well-written, fun to read, eternally relevant, and incalculably influential. this is as good a starting place as any. >The Cynic Philosophershaven't read this, can't comment. probably interesting though 1/2
>>24113220>>24113154>>24113180>Civilization and its Discontentsnice choice, freud's great. this is a good starting place because it's short, punchy, but not too theoretical. >Totem and Tabooit's interesting to watch freud think but I think this one can be skipped, it's not one of his more important works. the fourth essay's worth reading though >Meditations memed to death but for good reason. read it. it does help >The Denial of Deathnever read, can't comment>1984a tedious anticommunism allegory that's far more famous than it deserves. read it if you haven't, but this isn't orwell at his best -- you'll want Homage to Catalonia, his memoir about his time in the Spanish Civil War, his selected essays, and maybe Down and Out in Paris and London, another memoir?>Lord of the Fliesfine enough childrens' novel? I remember liking it when I read it in school shrug emoji >Madness and Civilization incredibly important work but it's a tough book to get through, I'd save this until you've read more philosophy>The Book of Five Ringsnever read, can't comment >The Happiness Projectnever read, can't commenthope this helps some OP. happy reading
>>24113220Thank you so much! I appreciate your kindness.Something I really struggle with is reading a writers book when I haven't read their previous works. It makes me think I am making a mistake and "skipping chapters" in a way.I am a psychology student so those pop science/pop psych books do interest me but I also like to think they are the books that lead me to the path of reading great things.I mean at some point, I was in possession of The Subtle Art Of Not Giving A Fuck, I read it and wow what a boring, annoyingly written book it was. I still think about how useless it is sometimes.>Ethics -- SpinozaMy father is a poet and very well read, he bought the book for me because he also thinks it is one of the greatest books ever written. When I tried to read it I had a really hard time getting past 30 pages. Same with Madness & Civilization or a little struggle while reading The Sickness unto Death.>NietzscheDoes it matter what order I read his work in? Should I try to challenge myself to start from his very first published work and work my way down the Nietzsche path like that?>Madness and Civilization Yeah I was going crazy with how difficult this one was.
I wish I had friends man.
>>24113309Go outside, touch grass, get a gf, simple as
>>24113256happy to help OP. if you're interested in pop-psych then you're interested in pop-psych, but don't make the mistake of thinking that pop psych or pop sci is actual psych or actual sci. don't worry too much about reading a writer "out of order." that doesn't really matter for most writers. it kinda-sorta matters for philosophers, but still, not really. like to your >Nietzsche question it both matters and doesn't matter. generally there are two camps; first one says you read FN chronologically, second one says you don't. I'm in the second camp. Nietzsche's first publication was a long essay on Greek tragedy, and while it's important for understanding his work as a whole, it's not the friendliest place to start. I would start with Beyond Good and Evil, then I would read The Antichrist, then The Genealogy of Morals. (well first I would read the short essay On Truth and Lying in a Non-Moral Sense, which is an excellent introduction to FN as a whole.) you can go in order if you want, that's fine. >Spinozayour father sounds like a beautiful man. he's right about spinoza, but if you haven't read much philosophy before I wouldn't start with Spinoza. I'd start with Plato. as far as philosophy goes you could also try >Meditations on First Philosophy: Descartes >An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding: Hume >Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals: Kant>On Liberty: Mill these are all pretty short, they're all clearly written, they're all foundational texts, and they're all still relevant to philosophy today >Madness and Civilization really good, important book, but very much not a beginner-friendly work
>>24113154THROW ALL THAT SHIT AWAY anon, and pick up something from this list instead.
>>24113159hmm, honestly, you should probably throw out of most of these not just shitting on the pop psych books, Marcus Aurelius is very approachable and subsumes anything Jordan Peterson will be able to tell you by like halfway through the first pageI would start there based on the fact that I see Goggins in your stack
