Existential Book Club discussion

Feel free to introduce yourself! Tell us anything you like; your favourite authors, what you love/hate, where you're from, what you do for a living.

Also let us know of any existential texts you've read, any favourites you have or if there's anything you'd like us to read on here.

I'm Arslan Shahzad from Pakistan. Pursuing baccalaureate degree in Sociology. I have keen interest in existentialist literature, read several lines an quotes of existential writers but could not read any book. Looking forward to read.

Hi all, I am Britta, a lawyer/author, living in Amsterdam & Cologne. I write literary fiction, crime, and non fiction & I teach legal ethics at the University of Amsterdam. I read de Beauvoir & Sartre & Camus when I was young (which is a long time ago), and would like to revisit their books which I haven't read in over two decades. I would also like to discover existentialist novels from other writers.

You know you should introduce yourself Rachel.

I'm Michael, I am so excited for this bookclub and I will try to help out as much as possible. I'm the pretentious asshole that runs the blog at http://www.knowledgelost.org/ and I love it so much. I also have a booktube channel but I'm not proud of that, it is here if you don't know; http://www.youtube.com/c/Knowledgelos...

I'm planning to dedicate 2017 as the year to read up on philosophy, I have a buddy read with Britta planned for Either/Or: A Fragment of Life by Søren Kierkegaard and excited to see what this book club will help me discover. I've not read enough about existentialism but this will change that for me.

Hi all, I enjoy philosophy and I attend regular discussion groups run by Newcastle Philosophy Society in the North East of England. Although I am by no means an expert I have an interest in existentialism and have read a few books on the topic including 'At the Existentialist café's. I found it very enjoyable with its mixture of history, philosophy and pencil sketches of the personalities involved in the development of existentialism. I think I will have to re-read it to prepare for some hopefully interesting discussions on its contents in the new year.

Hi everyone, I am Hanaa. I have had a love for philosophy since high school, starting with Albert Camus. I long to read more philosophy so thank you for inviting me, Michael.
Either/Or: A Fragment of Life is a text I have been wanting to read, so I may self-invite myself to that buddyread ;)

Hanaa wrote: "Hi everyone, I am Hanaa. I have had a love for philosophy since high school, starting with Albert Camus. I long to read more philosophy so thank you for inviting me, Michael.
Either/Or: A Fragment..."

If you are not too busy, I'm ok with that

Finally remembered that I should say hi. (Thanks Michael.)

I'm Rachel, a student from York, UK and currently studying for a bachelor's degree in English Literature. I run a book blog and a booktube channel where I talk about the things I read and study. My favourite reads are usually post-war American texts but I basically love anything, especially Moby Dick, Chronicles of Narnia and Stephen King.

I created this book club because I recently discovered existentialism and want to learn as much about as I can. I've just finished Nausea and The Stranger and would love to read these here, as well as some essays written by Nietzsche, Sartre and others.

www.youtube.com/c/RachelLouiseAtkin
www.takeanotherbook.blogspot.com

Hello everyone, I'm Amy. I'm a master's student studying Canadian politics, and living in Ottawa. I'm a BookTuber as well: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPW-...
I read a lot of translated literature, some CanLit. and some non-fiction. I'm currently obsessed with Simone de Beauvoir and would like to read some more existentialist literature. I've read Sartre's Nausea, but have yet to read Camus.

Hi, my name is Amy. I am an English Literature student and I am currently writing my dissertation on the counter-culture poetry of Allen Ginsberg and Patti Smith. I love Oscar Wilde with all my heart and my favourite contemporary writer is Donna Tartt. I haven't really read much existentialist literature, but Sartre and Camus have been on my to read list for some time. I am excited to read more existentialist literature!

Hullo, I'm James. Just felt the need to use the pseudo-foreign form of hello. Well, I'm from the little known, but still relatively large (don't look at our population. Ignore those numbers. Focus on the stretch of desert, focus on the desert) country of Namibia. A student, but read a lot and widely, so maybe I can say something that won't bring tears to my eyes, two years on... Currently chewing on No Exit and Three Other Plays by Sartre - I think I'd prefer the Biblical hell. I'm just starting, as most people seem to be, on existentialism. Want to get more at Nietzsche, Camus and Sartre. Will start looking into de Beauvoir.

Hi my name is James. I've recently started writing some short stories and I'm thinking about doing a creative writing course. I don't claim to be an expert in existentialism but it's something I've been interested in for a while. I love the work of Nietzsche, Dostoyevsky and Albert Camus. I'm yet to delve into the work of Kierkegaard.

I'm Niels, working in finance/administration for a Dutch art institution (and doing administration for a theater group on the side).

My fascination for existentialism was fueled by many of my favorite writers and thinkers who deal with these themes (Camus, Dostoevsky, Kafka, Isaiah Berlin, Walter Kaufmann). As far as "original existentialist" texts go, I really only read the two brilliant essays from Camus; The Myth of Sisyphus and The Rebel.
I tried to get into Nietzsche in the past, but as someone who is not academically schooled, I found the numerous references to Greek mythologies very hard to get through (so one of my future goals is to learn more about the ancient Greeks, and then later in life pick up Nietzsche again).

For now, my goals are to get more into Kierkegaard (especially Either/Or), to learn more about Edmund Husserl (phenomenology) and read more from Hannah Arendt (who's views also have strong ties with existentialism I think).

Hi, I'm Ioana and I'm a teacher from Romania. I like all sorts of literature, especially the postmodern part of it.

Hi, I'm Lizeth and I'm an archivist and librarian in California. Read quite a bit and have always loved existentialism, tho I haven't read much beyond Camus, Sartre, and Kafka. So this is a good opportunity to read more. I like reading foreign fiction and have a soft spot for anything that skews sacrilegious or blasphemous.

Hi everyone! :) I'm Grey from Peru! I'm pretty new using Goodreads but enjoying it a lot! I studied Translation and Interpreting, although not my passion. Now I'm studying philosophy, I like books related to it but I'm actually open to any recommendation.

Hello, I'm Rick from Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. I first discovered The Stranger in 1965 and have dabbled with existentialism on and off ever since. Very much looking forward to comments on the Bakewell book. I'm about half way thru and have been intrigued by how she has intertwined life stories with pithy philosophical ideas.

I suppose I'm a bit behind schedule. Call me Krys. I hate introducing myself. Pleasure to make your acquaintance, though!

I'm Beatriz. I'm 19 years old and I live in Brazil. I got in touch with the beauty of philosophy just last year. I've read Simone de Beauvoir (which I grow to like more on every reading), Jean-Paul Sartre, Friedrich Nietzsche and Michel Foucault. I watched a documentary about Sartre and Camus' friendship (Sartre&Camus) and my next read will probably be Albert Camus. I would love to get any suggestions - I like philosophical and memoirs readings.

Olá Beatriz!

Comece sua leitura de Camus por "O estrangeiro".
Boa leitura!

Oi Beatriz, o Mito de Sísifo também é ótimo, trata-se de um ensaio filosófico feito por Camus e discorre sobre o absurdo existencial. Bom para refletir!

Hello,
I joined this group a week or two ago, but didn't instantly introduce myself because I wanted to read our current book, "The Stranger" first. Anyways, I am an eighteen year old high school student and I am currently unsure about what I want to go into in college, but I'm interested in psychology, writing and travel. I am getting back into reading a lot more after I was on a hiatus for a while. I'm interested in reading philosophy, classics, literary fiction, science fiction, graphic novels, science and history, plus more and I really want to spread out and read as much and as diversely as possible.

I've only read "The Stranger" before and started on "The Metamorphosis" once, but then I lost the copy.

I'm Michael. I have an unimpressive job in a humble city. I'm an artist, except when I'm not painting, and a poet, except when I don't write.

Once I had a friend whom I could talk to about existential and absurdist fiction, but I ruined that. I very much need friends like her, and I ache with the loss.

I've loved books by Sartre, Dumas, Becket, Duras, Dostoevsky, Buzzati, Hesse, Cortázar, Woolf, Hamsun, Jean Rhys, and Ernesto Sabato, and have collected books by a list of other such authors I'm eager to sample. For the most part, I've got no truck with any author who hasn't the professional grace to be long dead.

I'm happy to be here.

Hello everyone, I'm Debora.
I'm nineteen and I'm an Italian law student.
I joined this group because I love thinking and talking about life from an existentialistic perspective, but I find it hard to do that with the people I know.
I've read Nausea by Sartre and The Myth of Sysiphus by Camus, I haven't read any whole work by Leopardi but I love his poems and his Operette Morali. I also like a lot the idea behind Waiting for Godot by Beckett (but I haven't read it yet too) and Cesare Pavese in general.
I hope this group is the right place for me.

Hi Debora,

All three of the books you mention are seminal and have affected existential thought. I heard that Sartre was living a wildly active social life when he wrote it - quite a contrast.

Molto interessante!

Hi everyone, I'm Jamie.
Not a uni student but enjoy reading a variety of philosophy books.
I've read some Dostoyevsky and Camus but would like to read more existential fiction and have a group of people to discuss it with .
Looks to be an interesting mixture of people here

Hi all! I'm a 20 (soon to be 21) year old Brit who's just entering their final year at University, studying Philosophy. When I was around 16, I discovered Camus and Sartre (Namely The Outsider/Stranger, Nausea, and the Plague, even writing a paper on the final one for my English coursework), and I've been hooked ever since. Studying Philosophy at University has helped open me to the various schools, but Existentialism and Continental Philosophy are still my favourite fields. I joined this group because I love discussion about Existential Literature, but also because my dissertation thesis is explicitly surrounding Existentialism and its relation to Marxism, and I figured this would be a good place to pick up ideas and extra readings on the topic. I hope to continue my focus on Existential and Phenomenological philosophy into post-graduate and possibly PhD levels of study.

Pleased to meet you all!

Hi, I'm from Colorado in the US, a reader and book blogger. I don't know much about existentialism but the reading list looks great! I hope there'll be some good discussions along the way and maybe I'll learn something, too.

I'm Merry, a veteran English teacher, and relative philosophy novice. I'd read some Camus, Sartre and Dostoevsky in college, and I have just enough background knowledge to giggle at http://existentialcomics.com/, but I find that I'm a.) woefully underread, especially for a teacher, and b.) not in a social position to know many people who take an interest in reading philosophy. I've discovered recently that I adore Kierkegaard, and I'm working through Malcom Muggeridge's A Third Testament and Augustine's On Free Choice of the Will as well as Kierkegaard's journals now - lots of proto-existentialism and Christian existential thought going on. I've spent too long being intellectually complacent as teaching standards get dumbed down - time to walk the talk. I'd like to use philosophy more in my classroom.

Today on my 60th birthday people keep saying (via text, email and Facebook) to get crazy, and they convinced me, so I am joining an existentialist reading group, which sounds like a Douglas Adams novel.

I love books and love ideas, but my brain just can’t find enough space to make sense of either, so here I am. I always meant to read The Trial so finding this group at this point in time and my present state of mind works out wonderfully.

I hope to find an actual physical copy of the book version tomorrow (because I’m 60 and think that way).

I am a fat old guy from Texas who is a bit thick in the the head, so I am looking forward to seeing what other people figure out.

I'm Josafat, I'm a computer engineer, I started reading philosophy and psychology around 2 years ago, I listen to a lot of podcast (IE: http://www.scottbarrykaufman.com/podc... & http://www.philosophybites.com/) , I read a lot of different topics, mostly related to philosophy, I know Spanish and English and I'm studying French and Japanese. I don't read much Fiction. I'm hoping to know more and hopefully write something with it. Nice to meet you all!

Hi everyone, I am Laiba Jehangiri from Pakistan. I am in the final year of my medical degree and I have a certain passion for existentialist literature since I read deBouvoir and Camus. I started reading more and more and discovered Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Kafka and Pamuk. I look forward to reading many more and have some tantalising discussions with some like-minded people on this platform.

Hi All, I live in Waterford in Ireland. I recently became interested in existentialism when I read 'At the Existentialist Cafe' by Sarah Bakewell. I've read some Dostoyevsky,Beckett and Kaffka but would like to read more existential fiction and have a group of people to discuss it with.

Mark wrote: "Hi All, I live in Waterford in Ireland. I recently became interested in existentialism when I read 'At the Existentialist Cafe' by Sarah Bakewell. I've read some Dostoyevsky,Beckett and Kaffka but ..."

Did you like Existentialist Cafe, Mark? I'd read positive reviews on it, but I also heard that too many tangents made it a bit of a slog for a book that should have been an overview. Normally I'd rather read a primary work, but time's always an issue and this looked like a solid shorthand version of 20th century existentialism.

Hi all, my name's Robb, recent university graduate and budding existentialist. I've found the literature of existentialism to be clarifying, cathartic, even comforting in the Trump era. I read Dostoevsky's Notes from Underground and The Double last fall and fell in love immediately, and after the election I read Crime and Punishment, which plunged me into a very intense self-reflective state on violence, totalitarianism, masculinity, and whiteness. Since then I've explored more Dostoevsky, listened to lots of Wagner and Beethoven, and even started reading some Nietzsche (The Will to Power). These days, thinking about the impending doom of climate change and the rising wave of authoritarianism and autocratic governance in the world makes me very nihilistic, so it's nice to read these works and see how the great thinkers of the 19th/20th century explored the same feelings. I'm excited to find a community that shares an interest in these things, and I'm really looking forward to discussing some great literature with you all! :)

Hi Merry - i found 'At the existentialist cafe' difficult to get through but was sufficiently interested in the topic to listen to a lecture series called 'No excuses:Existentialism and the Meaning of life' by a Prof R Soloman which i would highly recommend (on audible).

At the Existentialist Café: Freedom, Being, and Apricot Cocktails played a big part in getting this bookclub off the ground. It also was the first book we picked. I've read it twice now (once as an audiobook) and think it is a good starting point.

Hi all, my name is Mariangel and I am an eighteen year old girl from Venezuela. I started feeling increasingly drawn towards the existentialism since I read The Stranger by Albert Camus some years ago, like many of you here (Which somehow makes me feel more comfortable).
Though I really like this topic, I can't say I know a lot about it. That's why I would like to finally start reading some books I've been always meaning to read, and also discover new books and authors.

I'm excited to be here and I look forward to reading your opinions! :)

Hi! I'm a 17 years old Romanian girl, named Lorena. I've been interested in existential literature for a year a half, I think and my first existential book was "Ecce Homo" by Nietzsche. I've also read: other books by Nietzsche, Camus, De Beauvoir, Kafka, Sartre, Cioran (he is a compatriot of mine, you should try reading his books :) ). Other existential writers are known to me, but I don't own their books (yet). I'm open to book suggestions and discussions on the topic of existentialism and maybe other topics if you like ^^

Hi~ I'm Marie, and I"m 58, and finally retired with some time to get back to pursuing my life-loves in earnest. I have read Crime and Punishment, Dostoevsky, Kafka, and Camus years ago and pinned existentialism as a favorite genre because it conjures a deep stirring that resonates with my nature. I look forward to checking some of the links from other participants listed here in the other comments so that I can do some cross-referencing and research. I'd like to thank in particular, Michael for the introductory link to "At the Existentialist Cafe: Freedom, Being, and Apricot Cocktails", Merry for http://existentialcomics.com, and to Robb for mentioning about this writing being "clarifying, cathartic, and comforting" particularly in this era of Trump, (and especially if you live in my home country, USA). I also find his music references to Wagner and Beethoven provoking and I will be pursuing other related examples!I yet have to view Rachel's YouTube book reviews as well as many other references from several of the others writing here, but am excited to launch back into discussions with all of you, and continue looking at all of your comments and reading more!

Hello, I'm James a current computer science major and USAF reserve. I'm a big movie fan, horror is my genre, so I'm an aspiring horror writer as well. I love perspective, and I'm hoping to learn from the interactions and discussions in the group.

I'm Jordan. I'm 32 and have an unhealthy obsession with things beyond me. I dropped out of college and have spent the past decade furiously searching for some larger meaning, some sense of truth. I had read a little existential fiction some years ago but when I read Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller everything changed for me. To learn that one can believe in nothing and feel, instead of despair, a sense of great relief, opened the world to me. So, that's my experience. Anyhow, I'm looking forward to reading some new books and rereading some old ones and talking them over on here.

J, you are turning up everywhere :P welcome

Hello everyone, My name is Blake. I just finished reading Sartre's "Existentialism and Human Emotions." I really enjoyed the opening chapters defining and defending existentialism, but found the later chapters to be a bit harder for me to appreciate. I find the general premise of existence before essence to be very liberating. That a person is utterly responsible for their actions is more appealing to me than determinism, if for no other reason than determinism appears to have a de-motivating effect on me personally and to my eyes in others as well. I am looking forward to discussing existentialism and expanding my knowledge!

Hi Blake, I look forward to having the opportunity to discuss existentialism with you.

Thanks Alain! Very nice to meet you.

Tell us about the existential aspects of working for McDonalds!

Interesting account. I read another by a girl who said it was her first time to feel totally instrumentalised by an organisation. She was so bummed out by the repetition in the job she felt reduced to being a pair of arms on legs -- depersonalised. I often think working for those companies can be very good for college students - an introduction to how little the world of work cares for the contents of college syllabuses and how dispensible we all can be.

Well, hello. My name is Fernando, and I am a chemical engineer from Caracas, Venezuela. I consider myself more of a scientist than an engineer, if I may add.

I started gaining interest on philosophic affairs a few years back, and now consider myself in a perpetual state of research, particularly in the fields of true human comprehension of the world and of phenomenological matters. I'd be willing to read pretty much anything related to psychology, philosophy or sociology that crosses my path (that is, given that I can understand it).

On a more personal note, I am a huge Murakami fan although I haven't read much of him as of now. I'm really, really into music, too. I love latin american modern composers such as Ginastera and Revueltas, being myself a die-hard fan of "La Noche de los Mayas".

I'm looking forward to reading books posted here and see what you all have to add to these topics, as the true value of knowledge almost always comes from debate and discussion.

Hello I am Miguel, but you can call me Mickey. I am 20 years, from Mexico, and sadly I am just beginning to enjoy literature more. I have always loved science and philosophy. I do not read a lot of "fiction," but who puts the lable on fiction and non-fiction, Well I study Medicine. I am excited to learn from this group, and hope I can contribute equally!