The Myth of Sisyphus

Camus’ legendary work on the philosophical absurd, in the context of man’s relationship with suicide. His argument is simple, although his reasoning (beautifully) meanders across example stereotypes (the Don Juan), geographical profiles (North Africa in the 20th century) and much more. Camus believes that the central question of philosophy should be that of suicide because it forces one to confront whether life is worth living.

His answer is yes — that a naked and holistic acceptance of nihilism and the absurd (one’s failure to find meaning) constitutes a “revolt” allowing one to live with true passion. This book is extremely hard to get through. It’s dense, and its short page length can fool you into thinking it will be a quick read. But overall, it is a seminal work of the philosophy of the absurd, which I love reading about.