Could you recommend some books for a 25 years old with existential crisis?

Notes From The Underground

Either/Or,
Sickness Unto Death,
The Stranger,
The Fall,
The Plague,
Der Steppenwolf,
Anything by sadboy Nietzsche,
The Ego and Its Own,
Notes from the Underground,
Notebooks of Albert Camus,
Studies in Pessimism,
the short stories by Oscar Wilde,
Siddartha,
Being and Time (if you can read it),
Straw Dogs (contemporary philosophy tho),
Better Never to Have Been.

Oh and literally ANYTHING by professional sadboy Emil Cioran.

Honestly OP, read your favorite genre fiction for escapism. I've never read a book that has made me feel better about my existence from its message or content. At best I have felt a sympathy and kinship with the characters due to mutual suffering, but that doesn't make you feel happy. Read something with an adventure and the prospect of the new in it. If you like westerns I would recommend Lonesome Dove or the Gunslinger, if you like SciFi I would recommend the Hyperion Cantos or Dune Series. If you like historical fiction I would recommend The Red and the Black or The Name of the Rose

Seriously, I'm in a worse position and I'm closing forty. No friends to speak of ether, but I'm well past that self pitty period. Get a thing that you like to do and do it. No matter if it's lame sport watching, fooling round internet, pets, mindless religion, or walks in nature. Just find joy in trivial things.

I spend few hours of every other day just running around. Slow, mindless running in my overweight body, like the jappies and fitness freaks, and it gives me joy just sitting on some field listening to the sounds around me. Hardest thing was starting it up. It's hard thinking what everyone would think when they saw me, it still is sometime, but mostly I just don't care. I have my own thing to do, let them worry about theirs.

alcohol will just make you more depressed. try smoking weed again, and do meditation, and get out more, and do some light exercise before you get in the shower, and stop browsing this site

ill second steppenwolf, it handles existential loneliness pretty well (which i think is at the heart of nearly every existential crisis/quandary)

The Castle
Notes from Underground
The Stranger
Stoner

it's my favourite book.
It's not just a matter of loneliness, but identity.

kekked

what about identity? Ride the Tiger is good if you feel unmoored from a sense of purpose

The only way to be happy is to love

If you want something about getting over an existential crisis The Foutainhead by Ayn Rand is great. All the characters have an existential crisis except Howard Roark who gives the rest of the protagonists the strength to fully embrace who they are. Atlas Shrugged is alright too seeing that the whole world has an existential crisis, but it's less about existential crises than The Fountainhead.

Rand has an blunt in your face writing style that some love while others don't so it's kind of hit or miss on whether or not you like it. Also they're quite long.

Fuck off with Evola, fascist.

>capitalist fascism by a B-list actor who no philosopher takes seriously

>fascism fascism by a guy who wrote a book on how to do magic

fuck outta here

Take stock of and embrace heritage, tradition, roots, place, family, ancestors, religion, country, myths, heroes. Obviously cast off what you truly feel is dead and gone. But DIY type identity creation is for bluehairs. You're a man.

To know your own value, you must first give value to the world.

seek knowledge, seek experience, knowing these things are value-creation and that your image of self and your life's 'meaning' will be constantly changing as you grow old.

say what you will about fascism, I think a strong sense of nationalism is a necessary evil for some when it comes to unregulated nihilism. It's not the only way that people involve themselves in the great struggle (other methods are religious fanaticism, overzealous hobbyism, scientism, etc.). It's all about feeling like you're taking part in something larger than yourself. The Bhagavad Gita is another good book

not him but I agree. To love and be loved in turn was the only time I felt what I would consider to be happiness

>Hating on Rand

Is this le fresh new meem?

Then I'm fucked
Thanks, user.

>it's the "lol we need something to protect us from nihilism" meme
>it's the "lol people need 2 feel like they're taking part in something greater than themselfs" meme
The two stalest memes in history. The horse has been beaten plenty, thank you very much.

What's your solution then? And how do you explain disproportionate levels of suicide among developed nations?

>What's your solution then? And how do you explain disproportionate levels of suicide among developed nations?
I don't have a solution because you haven't identified a problem. Nor do I have to explain anything about suicide among developed nations because I'm not concerned with it. If my friend is talking about killing themselves, then I'm concerned. But a bunch of people I don't know or care about, and who don't know or care about me? There is no necessity and no purpose. Nothing 'needs' to be done and there is nothing to drive people to do it.

I was arguing that a stronger sense of collective identity helps prevent nihilistic and idle-provoked self pity potentially leading to depressive tendencies and suicide. All you did was poison the well by intentionally misspelling quotes to disparage what I was saying, and then when asked for an alternative proposition to the one you childishly lashed out at, your response is 'le I don have to do nuffin' (see I can do it too). Yeah dude congrats you are so smrt

Steppenwolf is shit if you don't know Goethe/Nietzsche super well.

OP, read Conversations of Goethe with Eckermann. Best text on finding yourself that exists. Massively underrated.

this, happiness only exists when it is shared

Just go talk to people. People of your age need to be less critical. Go drown your sorrows in alcohol, have you tried that yet? Then learn how to fake being alpha to try to fill the hole with women. Then when you have some life experience you can actually have an existential crisis. Right now all of your thoughts are like Watts-kun says; based on other thoughts and are ultimately pure conjecture.

These will likely make you feel worse.
Good recommendations though.

Did you read the post, he wants something about existential crises and everyone else is posting kill yourself novels. I'm not going to discuss philosophy here but The Fountainhead is literally about existential crises, but its about beating them not succumbing to them. Your post has no relevance.

>you aren't allowed to be sad unless you try alcoholism first
are you baiting or retarded

Its the little pond big fish effect. Within developed nations is the stigma of happiness, so if you are not happy, you are inadequate to your fellow man. Higher happiness levels in a country means more suicide because of the severe contrast that one suffers within a society. Underdeveloped nations have lower levels of happiness, so when one becomes depressed, they look around and see everyone else along the same lines, so therfore they feel adequate, normal. Feeling a sense of listlessness, anomie, or inadequacy, causes suicide.

I'm totally fucking straight on. It isn't physically addicting like hard drugs, and virtually every good artist ever has boozed hard at at least one point in their lives. Do it! If you're questioning whether life has any inherent worth to it, or your ability to interact, or what being a "person" means etc. you need more life, not more squeamish "this is bad, that is bad".

If it won't kill you, or make you physically addicted, fuck it. Do it all.

lol more like how does anyone older than a teenager have an existential crisis? eventually you have to come to terms that you just need cognitive behavioral therapy and are no longer just pondering your meaning

Moon Palace by Auster

You sound like you just finished your first Henry Miller novel and think you had an epiphany

you're a fucking idiot

okay, you don't have money? try making some - who knows, you might like it. or go ahead and make up another excuse as to why there's no point in it.

>some predisposition that makes them feel isolated and different in the company of others

if this is true, then it is probably due to some chemical imbalance in your brain than some special outlook on life.

literally no one said anything about your race or gender but you've already spooked yourself into thinking that the world is out to get you based on ephemera

get help pussy. stop whining on 4chinz

>you've already spooked
I really hope you're just shitposting and didn't actually fall for the Stirner meme

i would go one step further. if one really craves an identity to draw upon themselves, then they should do it critically. do not treat your identity as an either/or scenario. you will not be perfect. learn that there will be a good and bad to whatever person you become. the moment you think you've arrived is the moment you stop growing in this world

>okay, you don't have money? try making some - who knows, you might like it. or go ahead and make up another excuse as to why there's no point in it.
>but you've already spooked yourself

Well, that's enough classical Veeky Forums hypocrisy for me tonight.

this user's worldview is a perfect example of an either/or outlook. his thinking is binary (he uses words such as necessary and only) and he deludes himself with believing his simple actions are actually symbolic of extreme struggles. they are not, not completely at least.

>didn't fall for the Stirner meme
It's like you haven't even gotten the memo that we're all about New Sincerity on this board.

Also,
>believing Stirner is a meme
literally kek.

Even Nietzsche describes the necessary delusion of struggle in becoming a part of something larger and, in effect, giving life purpose.

Are you new here or something?

Again with the language of the necessary. Oh ho ho, my friend. And you say even Nietzsche - the meme fruit eater? Golly jee,

>Are you new here or something?

how empty your inner-Nietzsche must be to take pride inthe lost time spent meming

sartre, anyone from the theater of the absurd, kafka

Read the later works of the oracle Martin Heidegger

lol

your mom has bruised lips stupid ass

Thiel's 0 to 1, there are several "whoa" moments in this book.

Neither optimism nor pessimism is not the answer. Instead one should focus on figuring out what is the answer, planning how to act on it, and acting on it.
> Extreme pessimism, or extreme optimism on their own terms, are not terribly healthy attitudes to have, because extreme pessimism tells you there’s no point in doing anything. Extreme optimism tells you there is no need to do anything. They converge on doing nothing.

Substance over status. Don't get caught up with appearances.
> Always prioritize the substance of what you’re doing. Don’t get caught up in the status, the prestige games. They’re endlessly dazzling, and they’re always endlessly disappointing.

also obligatory sperg quote
> What is it about our society where those of us who do not suffer from Asperger’s are at some massive disadvantage because we will be talked out of our interesting, original, creative ideas before they are even fully formed?

Just watch videos of brazillian torture executions and be happy you don't live there

OP, you're getting some depressive recommendations in this thread. The following are serious and optimistic tips:

The Power Of Now, by Eckhart Tolle
The Way of the Peaceful Warrior, by Dan Millman
A Path With Heart, by Jack Kornfield
The Three Pillars of Zen, by Philip Kapleau
Loving What Is, by Byron Katie.

you read WESTERNISED DILUTIONS

while CHAD reads 首楞嚴三昧經

And?

facesofsuicide.com

real cheery stuff there

here you go

binary thinking has no place in literature

No, Rand has been hated for ages

top shelf rage bait

it's funny how true it is though

but it's not. It's a stupid 9gag copypasta that tries to be edgy and profound

People on the right just donta complain as much, handle your crisis like a man and go fishing or something.

id recommend getting your head out of your arse and doing something useful with your life.

we had a fucking rule, pleb

It actually is
It's not trying to be profound at all, it just in a simple and humurous way clarifies the supposedly problematic existential crisis concept, so I so suppose only people like me who understand the more comprehensive clarification find it hillarious in its truthful depiction and uniformity
oh and it's not from 9gag btw

This book is salvation against nihilism.

>evola
>fascism

Pick one

What a shit image. Kinda shit you'd find on your uncle's Facebook profile. Be ashamed.

whoaah
insecurity = realized
nerve = hit

you = mad
butt = on fire

Gotcha, kid.

hauling out sweeping generalizations with cherrypicked images supporting each assertion isn't what someone with a brain would call a sound argument. If I gave enough of a shit about your opinion being wrong I would just cherrypick my own images and make a similar one with the captions reversed and it would be just as apt. But I don't care enough to put that kind of effort into debating a /pol/ teenager

Lol man I hate new Veeky Forums, everybody's a know-nothing edgelord.

Sage

Will Veeky Forums have time for my cheap existential crisis?

I'm 26 and before a couple of years ago I was ambitious and I wanted money and power. Since the last few years my whole vision of the world changed, but I'm no communist hippie, I want to like money I just realized is a vain thing but I really miss the drive I had before.

I lost interest in the things I liked before (computers and stuff) because now I consider them not as important in life, I think falling in love (but not doing anything because Veeky Forums) has something to do with it but now living with a friend's family I realize that is not the way I want to live.

TL;DR: Was ambitious but lost drive (and fell in love, never did anything with it) now I consider almost everything vain but I know I'm probably wrong.

that's not an existential crisis, it's middle-class r9k babbling

That's why I say it's cheap, I just want to like money like before. I've been traveling a lot for the last few months and everything feels the same and smaller than I expected

>Alcohol not physically addicting
>won't kill you
>"some artists did it too!"

Oh man, i hope you are actually baiting.
(Alcohol is a harddrug, that our society developped and distributes, which is why it cause relatively fewer problems in comparison to other harddrugs. But it is both more addicting than cocaïne and more demanding on your liver. So allthough it's relatively safe hard drug, it is not a safe 'problem solving tool' )

Well, you are kind of right. All life is suffering/unsatisfactory. That's the fist noble truth of buddhism. There is still a worthy goal to strive for though, namely enlightenment/liberation.

These are good books.

Best wishes.

Hahahahahahahaha How The Fuck Is Existential Crisis Real Hahahaha Nigga Just Walk Away From The Self Like Nigga Close Your Eyes Haha

Nobody was engaging you in an argument dude, you're the one who shit your pants when you saw the picture and took a reactive (slave) position replying to it

The picture makes a pretty good point though, it's ok if you don't see it though

That was a good one

The problem with measuring thing like that is that I have a hard time picking some activity I consider important enough to dedicate the rest of my life.

>prince william
>married a fucking commoner
>obama
>mixed race progressive liberal opportunist
>""""orthodox"""" jews
>recently invented religion
>mecca
>abrahamic revival 3: eclectic tourist trappery globalist savage remix
>any of this
>traditional national cultural and religious values
>implying

I too remember when I was 17 and thought I knew everything. It's ok kid, you'll grow up one day

You could become a monk then? : )

dedicating one's life to reaching liberation and then helping others is a worthy path. If that does not suit you, I'm afraid I can't tell you what you should do instead.

Meditation usually makes you happier though, whatever you do on the outside.

He I am 24, and kind of in a similar situation. Not exactly an existential crisis maybe, but a crisis of me not knowing which mindset I should pursue life with, to say broadly. I had quit my job after college a few weeks ago, and go to the library each day to read, and blew a large portion of my savings on a solo trip to puerto rico.
Would you wanna swap burner emails or something, and we can maybe stay in touch and recommend books, or give each other tips and stuff?

I lost my bestfriend and girlfriend around the same time a year ago, and haven't really quite found another good friend yet.

Just let me know bro!

>new
Don't kid yourself

>the later works
tfw poetically dwelling on this earth

I like the part of helping others, but I do still enjoy mundane things but it makes me sad that I realize they are not important.

Monk maybe is not for me, it seems like you are not actually participating in the world around you

Maybe it's not necessary to decide right now what you should dedicate the rest of your life to? Maybe you could just take some part time job and live cheaply and read and think and perhaps meditate until perhaps you get more clarity?

Things not being important can be liberating too. If nothing is that important, there's nothing to be afraid of. But you can still enjoy the beauty of life.

Talking about the beauty of life: a normal mind is like a house with very dirty windows. Meditation cleans the windows, and lets you see that the world is much more beautiful than you thought.

got me in tears, fantastic memeing friendo

Epicurus, Lucretius.

I mostly got through mine by bits and pieces from all around, but the ideas of the materialists impermanent life led me to a greater sense of my life and its place and allowed me to live a happier life despite it all.
My personal crisis, the I'm-going-to-die-&-it-means-nothing junk, was followed by a societal one when I read something very disturbing about climate change, but I live madly, happily now with long bouts of ataraxia. Life is blissful and fun for me now.

People have them at any age, and depending on how they react they may have relapses. I think pessimists and manic-depressives might actually wallow in them on purpose.

>Conversations of Goethe with Eckermann.
Okay, I'm gonna have to get this.

>Conversations of Goethe with Eckermann

I know fuck all about Goethe, will I be good to read this?

good job sid