5 best books you read

[Hnv1]

as the title implies. philosophy, religion, theology, social critique, or anything similar

for me:
- Bernard Williams 'Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy'.
- Quine 'Word and Object'
- Broome 'Ethics out of Economics'
- Nozick 'Philosophical Explanations'
- Donald Davidson 'Essays on Actions'

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

All my religious reading is done in the form of allegorical (to use the term loosely) fiction. So basically Tolkein, Dante, and C.S. Lewis. This is not so much by design as it is a reflection of the fact that I do basically no religious reading. Only philosophy I wade into is political in nature, but I enjoy parts of Arendt (the first section of On Revolution is lovely stuff... if only she'd stopped there).

[°Leprechaun]

Right now I am reading Proverbs, chapters 6 and 8 so far are my faves.
(don't worry I'm still a default atheist)

[John Dule]

The Adventures of Captain Underpants by Dav Pilkey
Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney
Garfield Sits Around the House by Jeff Davis
Das Kapital by Karl Marx
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days

[LabourJersey]

From the broadest field of philosophy, religion, social critique:

Meditations, Marcus Aurelius

Perpetual Peace, Immanuel Kant (the 3 texts I read in philosophy class that stuck with me were this, Leviathan and The Prince, but Kant was the best writer IMO)

Darkness at Noon, Arthur Koestler (its mediations on truth, lies, trust and treason make it pretty philosophical in my opinion, and it tackles these better than Orwell did in 1984)

Billions and Billions, Carl Sagan

[Florian Geyer]

The Glass Bees - Ernst Jünger
Revolt of the Elites - Christopher Lasch
Culture of Narcissism - Christopher Lasch
Industrial Society and Its Future - Theodore Kaczynski
The Elementary Particles - Michel Houllebecq

[World politics is up Schmitt creek]

Religion:

The Karma of Words - William R. LaFleur
Gravity and Grace - Simone Weil
The Holy Fire - Kalonymus Kalman Shapira
The Idea of the Holy - Rudolf Otto
Revelations of Divine Love - Julian of Norwich

Philosophy:

Intention - G.E.M. Anscombe
Philosophy as Metanoetics - Hajime Tanabe
Mimesis - Erich Auerbach
Human Relations in the Vertical Society - Chie Nakane
Illuminations - Walter Benjamin

These aren't "objective best" books or even the books whose core arguments I agree with most, just the ones that have made the biggest impressions on me and that I think back to often. Because of my magpieish reading habits, very few of these books are "foundational" in the way that some of those that others have listed are.

[Statilius the Epicurean]

Keeping strictly to religion and ethics: Bhagavad Gita is the best religious text I've ever read. Beautiful, deep and most importantly practicable. The Analects - Confucius was probably the most humane person who ever lived. On the Genealogy of Morality, contains genius insights on every single page. Montaigne's essays is my permanent bedside book. Nichomachean Ethics.

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

I am not sure I have read five books at all on those topics in my life lmao

Broadening the scope somewhat I guess this:

The Betrothed - Alessandro Manzoni (fiction but also social critique and religion)
Flatland - Edwin Abbott Abbott (fiction but also social critique)
Intervista sul fascismo - Renzo De Felice (historiography)
Sophie's World - Jostein Gaarder (fiction but also philosophy)
Macbeth - William Shakespeare (drama but also moral philosophy)*

Bonus: literally anything by Italo Calvino?

*King Lear is better but arguably less philosophical. I haven't read or watched Hamlet yet.