Existential Reading Lists

Existential Fiction Books

Now, it may be argued that existential messages can be found everywhere when you want to find them. Below is a never-complete list of books recommended by Existential Offerings community members that have stood out to them as being particularly impactful in their offerings of existential ideas.

Fight Club - Chuck Palahniuk
Carpe Diem Regained - Roman Krznaric
Freshwater - Akwaeke Emezi
The Unbearable Lightness of Being - Milan Kundera
1984 - George Orwell
The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho
The Trial - Franz Kafka
One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel García Márquez
The Stranger - Albert Camus
Nausea - Jean-Paul Sartre
The Metamorphosis - Franz Kafka
Animal Farm - George Orwell
Thus Spoke Zarathustra - Friedrich Nietzsche
No Exit and Three Other Plays - Jean-Paul Sartre
Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess
When Nietzsche Wept - Irvin Yalom
Invisible Man – Ralph Ellison
To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
Fahrenheit 451 – Ray Bradbury
The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
The Gay Science - Friedrich Nietzsche

Existential References & Non-Fiction Books

Drawing on the immense work of philosophers from across the globe, contemporary existential psychologists, psychotherapists, and philosophers have published a fantastic selection of must-read books. Each book offers a something unique to the reader, with some contributions staying closer to the European tradition whilst others expand the horizon of thought to include more global voices.

Existential Psychotherapy - Irvin D. Yalom

Existential Therapies - Mick Cooper

Man's Search For Meaning - Victor Frankl

Existential Psychotherapy and Counselling: Contributions to a Pluralistic Practice - Mick Cooper

Practising Existential Psychotherapy - Ernesto Spinelli

Everyday Mysteries - Emmy van Deurzen

Meaning in Life: An Evidence-Based Handbook for Practitioners - Joel Vos

One Beat More: Existentialism and the Gift of Mortality - Kevin Aho

Clinical Perspectives on Meaning: Positive and Existential Psychotherapy - Editors: Russo-Netzer, Pninit, Schulenberg, Stefan E., Batthyany, Alexander (Eds.)

An Existential Approach to Interpersonal Trauma: Modes of Existing and Confrontations with Reality - Marc Boaz

Positive Psychology Across the LifespanAn Existential Perspective - Edited by Piers Worth

The Discovery Of Being - Rollo May

The End of Belonging: Untold Stories of Leaving Home and the Psychology of Global Relocation
- Greg Madison

The Psychology of Existence: An Integrative, Clinical Perspective - Kirk J. Schneider and Rollo May

The Divided Self - Ronald David Laing

The Wiley World Handbook of Existential Therapy Paperback - Emmy van Deurzen (Editor), Erik Craig (Editor), Alfried Laengle (Editor)

The Courage To Be - Paul Tillich

Existential Migration - Greg Madison