[Ombrageux]

I personally am very attached to Marcus Aurelius' Meditations. It is not the most sophisticated or mind-blowing, but this book was written by an educated doer - not a professional NEET - which is what most of us can realistically hope to be. Marcus is really good for getting yourself in a positive frame of mind, ready to tackle the world, rather than getting bogged down in argument and speculation.

I think it's one of the few books which, kept at one's side, can help you live well.

More generally, ancient philosophy like Marcus' is astonishingly proto-Christian, and in general makes Christianity (many of the big doctrines, if not the details) appear a lot more true and sophisticated than one might have been led to believe.

[Potemkin]

I personally am very attached to Marcus Aurelius' Meditations. It is not the most sophisticated or mind-blowing, but this book was written by an educated doer - not a professional NEET - which is what most of us can realistically hope to be. Marcus is really good for getting yourself in a positive frame of mind, ready to tackle the world, rather than getting bogged down in argument and speculation.

Good choice, Ombrageux.

I think it's one of the few books which, kept at one's side, can help you live well.

General Gordon took only two books with him to Africa: a copy of the Bible and a copy of the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, both of which he valued more or less equally. He regarded himself as a 'Christian Stoic'.

More generally, ancient philosophy like Marcus' is astonishingly proto-Christian, and in general makes Christianity (many of the big doctrines, if not the details) appear a lot more true and sophisticated than one might have been led to believe.

This is hardly surprising - after all, Christianity could hardly have gained any traction at all in Roman society if it had not been at least compatible with Rome's pre-Christian culture. By the 3rd or 4th centuries AD, the Romans were searching for a religion like Christianity. They dabbled with Mithraism and Isis-worship (both of which have major similarities with Christianity), before finally settling on the Jewish millennarian sect called 'Christianity'. Needless to say, they adapted it to their own culture somewhat, but this would only have been possible if their own culture had already been pre-adapted to Christianity itself to some degree. Roman paganism didn't so much die out as be absorbed and adapted to the new monotheistic religion. General Gordon's instincts were correct.

[JohnRawls]

The Book of Five Rings perhaps. You just have to understand it from a perspective of any activity instead of just sword fighting. The proper name for it could be ' How to become the best at what you do! '.

[anasawad]

I don't think i have a specific favourite book.

Though in matter of philosophers. I recommend reading for Mullana Jalal al-din Belkhi. (Al-Rumi).
His works are amazing.

[Potemkin]

My own favourite philosophy book is probably The Book of Zhuangzi (the Inner Chapters only). It's like Marcus Aurelius on LSD.

[Hong Wu]

I'm reading the Tao te Ching right now. Poem 62 reminds me a lot of Christianity:

Why does everyone value the Tao so much?
Isn't it because you find what you seek and are forgiven when you sin?
Therefore this is the greatest treasure in the universe.

My favorite is either the Bible or the Yi Qing. In some ways I prefer the bible but I don't always like what people have done with it, whereas if you like the Yi Qing peole are like "what?"

Collected works of Aristotle are practically vital though, no matter what you're reading.

[mikema63]

Do books on rhetoric count?

[Hong Wu]

Do books on rhetoric count?

Might depend on what you mean by rhetoric.

Tracing the development of Michelstaedter's ideas is difficult: His philosophical vision seems to have formed suddenly, and his brief life didn't allow for time to explore other directions. For him common life is an absence of life, narrow and deluded as it is by the god of pleasure, which deceives man, promising pleasures and results that are not real, although he thinks they are. Rhetoric,—that is the conventions of the individual, the weak, and society—comprise social life, in which man overpowers nature and himself for his own pleasure. Only by living in the present as if every moment were the last can man free himself from the fear of death, and thus achieve Persuasion; that is, self-possession. Resignation and adapting oneself to the world, for Michelstaedter, is the true death.

If you mean books on how to win arguments with people, no definitely does not count.

[mikema63]

Well, Aristotle wrote the book on it.

Rhetoric isn't about winning arguments per se, it's about getting people to do what you want them to. You can lose an argument and win the war.

[Paradigm]

Deleuze and Guattari's A Thousand Plateaus is a treasure which continues to unravel new levels of meaning with each reading. Also a big fan of Bergson's Matter and Memory, one of the finest books on philosophy of mind I've ever encountered.

[Donna]

Meditations on the Tarot: A Journey into Christian Hermeticism played a significant role in my conversion to Roman Catholicism, approaching the questions of conventional philosophy (from antiquity through to Nietzsche and Marx) with concepts rooted in occult philosophy – both Eastern and Western – and Christian mystical theology. The end result is quite an exquisite work (it was anonymously published in the 1970's after the author's death, but his name is known today), with each chapter corresponding to one of the trumps of the Major Arcana.

[Godstud]

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy trilogy of 5 books, by Douglas Adams.

It's jam packed with wisdom and even the answer to Life, The Universe and Everything.