Recs if you like Nausea...

Based on the list/book published in 2006, general editor Peter Boxall.

For when you need to wallow in melancholy and misery: a collection of pessimistic, cynical, downbeat, depressing, doom and gloom fiction for my disillusioned friends.

More to come!

Got the holiday blues? Check out my list Christmas with the Cranks!

A collection of acclaimed classic and contemporary Francophone literature. I chose to classify as Francophone rather than French in order to include authors who wrote in French but were/are not of French nationality, especially authors from colonised countries. Non-exhaustive as I'm not an expert I am keeping this list to one book per author but suggestions very welcome! :)

Books shown or referenced in the tv show Buffy The Vampire Slayer - not including thematic references only direct references or books shown on screen.

Books where apathy, disengagement, and idleness are central themes.

Absurdist and existentialist fiction confronts the central tension of human life: our relentless search for meaning in a universe that offers none. These works explore freedom, alienation, responsibility, and the burden of choice. Characters often stand alone against indifferent systems, silent gods, or their own fractured consciousness. You can suggest works in comments section below

From the Book Leo's video! I really love her content and I want to read every book on this list.

French classics that are not 1500 pages long and written 200 years ago. They are accessible, modern and relevant ! In summary, this is a list of French books of the XX c. and XXI c. of less than 400 pages. (Except The Second Sex but it is too culturally important not to put it in a list like that...)

(This list is purely based on what I know and have read. Feel free to suggest new books to add.)

A collection of books about people who are lost inside themselves. Alienated, detached, depressed, searching, unraveling or simply trying to figure out what the hell it means to be alive.

Putting here all the books that I consider and that I am recommended as being essential regarding philosophical topics.

Ethel Cain’s bookshelf. Haunted churches, dirt roads, and hymns gone sour.

Books seen being read by (or on the bedside of) Louis onscreen in Anne Rice's IWTV/TVL

a collection of existential crises, surreal detours, grotesque little creatures, and the occasional philosophical cockroach. somewhere between the absurdity of being alive and the absurdity of trying to understand it.

Wander through stories that travelled across languages, borders, and cultures to find their way to you.

Trying to pass my exams

Books that capture or embody existential philosophy- can include nihilism and absurdism two branches of existentialism

books to finish in the early hours of the morning, begun the night before - books twisted in form and function, to disarticulate and piece back together in your head. To read in threes, to read in straight lines, to take one page when required

Books that delve deep into the very nature of knowledge. Ranging between discussing academia as an institution (Katabasis, Blood over Brighthaven, This Side of Paradise) and search for knowledge as deeply personal phenomenon (Nausea, Flowers for Algernon, Piranesi), these are the books that I have found to mirror an academic tone, transporting you back to uni days, and feel heartbreakingly real.

I'm going to Paris and this is my curriculum