Discussion Recommend Me Books

[SoulWhisperer]

I like reading and back some time ago I asked for recommendations here, do y'all got any cool books you read you'd recommend to others?

I'm not looking for anything specific except it has to be a serious book and I overall usually prefer non-fiction. Themes can be autobiographies of interesting people or lives, books about psychology/human behaviour, books about LGBT, and yea.

For example, I loved No Longer Human by Dazai, if anyone has books similar to that I'd appreciate.

Drop book name, author and small description :D

 

[unluckysadness]

I'd recommend you a little book called "The Peaceful Pill Handbook" by Philip Nitschke & Fiona Stewart. Great book with nice stories !

Of course it's my dark sense of humour I hope it makes you laugh. And I'm sorry if it doesn't. I'm just so desperate these times

 

[getoutgirl]

Quite similar to No Longer Human I really liked reading Kokoro by Soseki, which is very popular also from that era maybe you've read it. It drags a bit in the third half cos he was publishing it serialized for a newspaper and he just kept writing instead of finishing it, but it's pretty worth it by the end and has the same vibe.

The Outsider by Colin Wilson, also has that vibe. It's like a multi biographical exploration of the trope and character of "the outsider", misfits, outcasts, world weirdos, both in media and real life historical people. + with some philosophy and general life perspectives. The guy wrote most of it while he was homeless living in a park himself, so it's a pretty interesting book. Me like.

Also Nausea by Sartre is very similar to those. First person melancholic french guy taking walks around places and smoking and rambling and having existential panic attacks and drinking coffee and smoking and rambling and panic attacks and smoking. Pretty good tho.

And anything by virginia woolf. I love Orlando, Very LGBT, but that's weird biographical fiction. I'm currently reading a non-fiction of hers, a collection of essays called The Death of the Moth and other essays. Some are pretty neat, the titular specially, some others I think require historical victorian context I lack, haven't finished it so can't recommend in full but thought I'd share :P

 

[Dot]

N.e bk b/ Erich Fromm

 

[Cosmophobic]

For psychology/human behaviour I recommend The Denial of Death by Ernest Becker. It's an analysis and re-focusing of psychoanalysis for the purpose of de-constructing the human condition down to its basic fears, the most basic and foundational according to Becker is the fear of death. From this fear, according to him, all human civilisation and cultural activity springs.

It doesn't brush over mental illness either but rather keeps it a central issue.

 

[princexhhn]

Veronika Decides To Die by Paulo Coehlo

 

[SoulWhisperer]

I'd recommend you a little book called "The Peaceful Pill Handbook" by Philip Nitschke & Fiona Stewart. Great book with nice stories !

Of course it's my dark sense of humour I hope it makes you laugh. And I'm sorry if it doesn't. I'm just so desperate these times

I thought it was a genuine suggestion till I remembered I read the name in another section here

 

[ElTopo]

books about psychology/human behaviour

Reading Jung got me into a rabbithole I never recovered from, but I'm glad for it.
Best starting point is "Man and His Symbols"

 

[karakoltriste]

Annie on my mind

 

[Al_stargate]

My favorite book is called Conference of the Birds by Attar who was 12th century sufi mystic from present day Iran. It's a collection of short stories or parables each one conveying a profound spiritual lesson, with an overarching theme of birds of this world embarking on a epic journey to find a mythical bird called Simorgh that resides in a faraway place called Mount Qaf. I recommend the translation by Shalop Wolfe, she really did a good job on it. It's just a profound book full of wisdom nuggets that leave you just amazed.

 

[TBONTB]

I like all the Michael Lewis books. He takes a number of stories and interlaces human background and an interesting social science topic.

Here's a favorite of mine.
Michael Lewis's The Undoing Project tells the story of Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky, two Israeli psychologists whose groundbreaking research reshaped how we understand human judgment, decision-making, and rationality.

 

[asaṅkhata]

The Sacred and the Profane and
The Myth of Etertnal Return by Mircea Eliade.

Best introductions to ancient symbolism and belief structures I've read so far. I will post some excerpts if anyone is interested, because I'm really not good at writing summaries.

 

[waqs]

Honestly one of my favorite books of all time is reverend insanity by Gu Zhen Ren, its really long but it feels like every payoff hits better then the last one. It has a lot of themes about rejecting the world's ideals and following your own path and overall psychology mixed with a cool power system, cool powers, and fights. Sadly the novel was forced to end early due to the Chinese government; the latest chapter is 2334 which isn't really the end of the story, so just keep that in mind if you do decide to read it.

 

[shampoo sniffer]

I'm fallen into a Seaworld rabbit hole at the moment. Just finished Death at SeaWorld: Shamu and the Dark Side of Killer Whales in Captivity. Very interesting read, although the lawsuit-y bits can be a dry read.

Also watched Blackfish.

 

[Mirelight]

Honestly one of my favorite books of all time is reverend insanity by Gu Zhen Ren, its really long but it feels like every payoff hits better then the last one. It has a lot of themes about rejecting the world's ideals and following your own path and overall psychology mixed with a cool power system, cool powers, and fights. Sadly the novel was forced to end early due to the Chinese government; the latest chapter is 2334 which isn't really the end of the story, so just keep that in mind if you do decide to read it.

Didn't expect to find a fellow daoist in the wild here!!