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Howdy! I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions for my reading list. I've taken a bit of an interest in expressionism and existentialism, so I think that's what I'm probably going to get into now.

Anything a bit more obscure I might not now about?

Currently reading: Prometheus Rising by Robert Anton Wilson

Reading List:

The Birth of Tragedy - Friederich Nietzsche
Thus Spoke Zarathustra - Friederich Nietzsche
Man and his Symbols - Carl Jung


I'm also thinking about reading Marcus Aurelius's Meditations, but I'm not quite sure yet.

Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, short but a classic for sure

Prometheus Rising by Robert Anton Wilson

Read that in hospital 27 years from now. I felt heavy.

If you are interested in Jung, Man and his Symbols is definitely the best book to start with.

For Nietzsche i would suggest starting with The Genealogy of Morality or Beyond Good and Evil.
Zarathustra, while beautifully written, may be hard to penetrate if you haven't read some of his other works already.

Not sure how much of the western canon you are familiar with, but having some Plato (Republic, Symposium, Phaedrus, Euthyphro), Aristotle (Nicomachean Ethics, Poetics), and Augustine (City of God - if you are up for a long read) under your belt will definitely help put Nietzsche's work in context.
Another one of big influences on Nietzsche is Schopenhauer (The World as Will and Representation especially).

A few more personal favourites for your existentialist reading-list:
- Dostoevsky: Crime and Punishment, The Brothers Karamazov, Demons
(Pretty much all Dostoevsky books but i may be a little biased here )
- Albert Camus: Myth of Sisyphus

That should be plenty to get you started!