Here is a comprehensive and tentative list of books that I have compiled over that last decade. Reaching from the depths of humanity and into “modern” day society. If you have any suggestions, I would love to hear them!

For any student studying philosophy, sociology, or even contemporary anthropology — these texts are the building blocks of literature that I used to further understand the art of humans, the art of ethics, and finally, the overarching art of living.

• The Epic of Gilgamesh
• Iliad & Odyssey by Homer
• The Oedipus Trilogy by Sophocles
• Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heros by Edith Hamilton

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• The Bhagavad Gita
• I Ching (Book of Change)
• Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu
• Zhuangzi
• The Diamond Sutra and The Heart Sutra, Edward Conze
• The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching by Thich Nhat Hanh
• A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy, Wing-Tsit Chan
• A Short History of Chinese Philosophy by Yu-Ian Fung

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• Complete Works of Plato
• The Metaphysics by Aristotle
• The Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle
• The Golden Verses of Pythagoras

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• The Lily of the Field and the Bird of the Air by Soren Kierkegaard
• Ethical Philosophy by Immanuel Kant
• Utilitarianism and Other Essays by John S. Mill & Jeremy Bentham
• Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Nietzche
• The Will to Power by Friedrich Nietzche
• The Wisdom of Life by Arthur Schopenhauer
• War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
• Being and Nothingness by John-Paul Sartre
• The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joesph Campbell

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• Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
• Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
• 1984 by George Orwell

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• The Secret by Rhonda Byrne
• Zen and the Art of Happiness by Chris Prentiss

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