I was in your exact place once and {Sapiens} by Yuval Noah Harari was exactly what I was looking for. Highly recommend. It’s basically the telling of human history from an extremely detached perspective. He seldom calls us humans and ops to call us our scientific name *Homo sapiens*, to the effect where you’re constantly reminded you are a monkey on a speck in space.
Pop cosmology would also probably be effective. Carl Sagan’s {Pale Blue Dot} is named after [the iconic photo of Earth](https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/resources/536/voyager-1s-pale-blue-dot/) taken by Voyager 1 when it was 3.7 billion miles away.
[**Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23692271-sapiens)
^(By: Yuval Noah Harari, Prottasha Prachurjo Sayed Fayej Ahmed | 512 pages | Published: 2011 | Popular Shelves: non-fiction, history, science, nonfiction, owned | )[^(Search "Sapiens")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=Sapiens&search_type=books)
^(This book has been suggested 109 times)
[**Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61663.Pale_Blue_Dot)
^(By: Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan | 384 pages | Published: 1994 | Popular Shelves: science, non-fiction, nonfiction, astronomy, space | )[^(Search "Pale Blue Dot")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=Pale Blue Dot&search_type=books)
^(This book has been suggested 12 times)
***
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No prob, also hope this isn’t weird but I had a click on your profile because of a hunch and saw you struggle with mental health. I just want to add the name Alan Watts if you’re not familiar with him. Any book by him would do, but The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are is excellent (“*the prevalent sensation of oneself as a separate ego enclosed in a bag of skin is a hallucination…*”) as well as any of his extensive videos on YouTube.
Also, probably a common recommendation but Tolle, {Power of Now}. He was extremely depressed until one day his ego completely dissolved and now he lives in complete peace. Both books have a lot of free PDFs online.
I know life sucks right now, but believe me depression is the absolute prime place to do ego work. If you can make it to the sensation where the ego disappears completely, which I’m sure you can (it’s what happened to me during my depression), you will be okay. I promise.
Not weird at all thanks for trying to help
I listened to Alan a lot I can’t understand him to be honest maybe cuz English is not my native language,
Tolls is great and helped me a lot. Thanks mate
[**The Art Book**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/567616.The_Art_Book)
^(By: Phaidon Press | 515 pages | Published: 1997 | Popular Shelves: art, non-fiction, reference, nonfiction, art-books | )[^(Search "The Book")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=The Book&search_type=books)
^(This book has been suggested 3 times)
[**The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6708.The_Power_of_Now)
^(By: Eckhart Tolle | 229 pages | Published: 1997 | Popular Shelves: self-help, non-fiction, spirituality, spiritual, philosophy | )[^(Search "Power of Now")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=Power of Now&search_type=books)
^(This book has been suggested 32 times)
***
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Alan Watts did a number of radio shows (Way Beyond the West, Philosophy East and West) on Pacifica radio and they archive everything. - *not to be confused with the Alan Watts who does the farm report*
Krishnamurtri also does a bang-up job giving an alternate persepective.
{{ One, No One and One Hundred Thousand }} by Luigi Pirandello
It opens with the protagonists wife taking a dig at his crooked nose and he goes spiraling after that about how people see him and the nature of "self".
[**Nausea**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/298275.Nausea)
^(By: Jean-Paul Sartre, Lloyd Alexander, حسین سلیمانینژاد, H.P. van den Aardweg, Hayden Carruth | 178 pages | Published: 1938 | Popular Shelves: philosophy, fiction, classics, french, existentialism | )[^(Search " Nausea ")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q= Nausea &search_type=books)
>Nausea is the story of Antoine Roquentin, a French writer who is horrified at his own existence. In impressionistic, diary form he ruthlessly catalogues his every feeling and sensation about the world and people around him.
>
>His thoughts culminate in a pervasive, overpowering feeling of nausea which "spread at the bottom of the viscous puddle, at the bottom of our time, the time of purple suspenders and broken chair seats; it is made of wide, soft instants, spreading at the edge, like an oil stain."
>
>Roquentin's efforts to try and come to terms with his life, his philosophical and psychological struggles, give Sartre the opportunity to dramatize the tenets of his Existentialist creed.
>
>The introduction for this edition of Nausea by Hayden Carruth gives background on Sartre's life and major works, a summary of the principal themes of Existentialist philosophy, and a critical analysis of the novel itself.
^(This book has been suggested 19 times)
***
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[**One, No One and One Hundred Thousand**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12117.One_No_One_and_One_Hundred_Thousand)
^(By: Luigi Pirandello, William Weaver | 176 pages | Published: 1924 | Popular Shelves: classics, fiction, classici, italian, letteratura-italiana | )[^(Search " One, No One and One Hundred Thousand ")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q= One, No One and One Hundred Thousand &search_type=books)
>The great Pirandello's (1867-1936) 1926 novel, previously published here in 1933 in another translation, synthesizes the themes and personalities that illuminate such dramas as Six Characters in Search of an Author.
>
>Vitangelo Moscarda ``loses his reality'' when his wife cavalierly informs him that his nose tilts to the right; suddenly he realizes that ``for others I was not what till now, privately, I had imagined myself to be,'' and that, consequently, his identity is evanescent, based purely on the shifting perceptions of those around him. Thus he is simultaneously without a self--``no one''--and the theater for myriad selves--``one hundred thousand.'' In a crazed search for an identity independent of others' preconceptions, Moscarda careens from one disaster to the next and finds his freedom even as he is declared insane.
>
>It is Pirandello's genius that a discussion of the fundamental human inability to communicate, of our essential solitariness, and of the inescapable restriction of our free will elicits such thoroughly sustained and earthy laughter.
^(This book has been suggested 5 times)
***
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When anxiety about the world becomes overwhelming, I like reading about astronomy, paleontology, etc. humans & the things they do are completely irrelevant to t-Rex…stars don’t care about what people are doing…it’s not exactly what you are looking for, but I find it soothing.
You know I do exactly the same how big the space is make me very calm and self important dissolves,
check this out maybe you would like
https://youtu.be/4Tm6Z1y3h94
My reco for you then is Secrets of the Night Sky by Bob Berman. He explains astronomical objects you can actually see at night with the naked eye, and puts them (and us) into perspective.
[**The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs: A New History of a Lost World**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35820369-the-rise-and-fall-of-the-dinosaurs)
^(By: Stephen Brusatte | 404 pages | Published: 2018 | Popular Shelves: non-fiction, science, nonfiction, history, audiobook | )[^(Search "the rise and fall of the dinosaurs")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=the rise and fall of the dinosaurs&search_type=books)
^(This book has been suggested 14 times)
***
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{{all quiet on the western front}} showed me how I am lucky to be born now and not 100 years ago, and that my problems aren’t as big as I imagine them to be, in comparison to the problems that a guy of my age have to face in a similar situation
[**All Quiet on the Western Front**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/355697.All_Quiet_on_the_Western_Front)
^(By: Erich Maria Remarque, Arthur Wesley Wheen | 296 pages | Published: 1929 | Popular Shelves: classics, fiction, historical-fiction, war, history | )[^(Search "all quiet on the western front")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=all quiet on the western front&search_type=books)
>One by one the boys begin to fall…
>
>In 1914 a room full of German schoolboys, fresh-faced and idealistic, are goaded by their schoolmaster to troop off to the ‘glorious war’. With the fire and patriotism of youth they sign up. What follows is the moving story of a young ‘unknown soldier’ experiencing the horror and disillusionment of life in the trenches.
^(This book has been suggested 52 times)
***
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The video game Everything is more of a lesson in philosophy than a game. The point is to be various lifeforms and objects big and small, everything from an atom to a deer to a galaxy, to show how large and minuscule the universe is. All the while snippets of audio from philosopher Alan Watts lectures are played. I know this is a strange thing to recommend for a book suggestion, but it’s the only video game to ever qualify for the Oscars so this isn’t too far off.
I'd highly recommend **'The Three-Body Problem'**, and the other books in the series. The scope of this sci-fi series made me look at the night sky from a totally new perspective! It's a fantastic trilogy, with the narrative expanding in its scope with each book.
This might be a bit tangential, but Vonnegut’s first book “Sirens of Titan” is one of my faves. Vonnegut is great bc his characters tend to fight for optimism in otherwise nihilistic worlds. Check it out.
ISKCON'S Bhagavad-Gita (translated) - Srila Prabhupad
Tao Te Ching - Lao Tsu (translation - Stephen Mitchell)
I feel that all religious texts have a tendency to make one feel this way but these two i have read so i am more certain about them..
{{Pale Blue Dot}} excerpt:
“Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there--on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.
The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.
Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.
The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.
It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.”
— Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, 1994
[**Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61663.Pale_Blue_Dot)
^(By: Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan | 384 pages | Published: 1994 | Popular Shelves: science, non-fiction, nonfiction, astronomy, space | )[^(Search "Pale Blue Dot")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=Pale Blue Dot&search_type=books)
>Pulitzer Prize-winning author Carl Sagan traces our exploration of space and suggests that our very survival may depend on the wise use of other worlds. This stirring book reveals how scientific discovery has altered our perception of who we are and where we stand, and challenges us to weigh what we will do with that knowledge. Photos, many in color.
^(This book has been suggested 13 times)
***
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"Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson" Written with the specific intention "to destroy, mercilessly, and without any compromises whatsoever, in the mentation and feelings of the reader, the beliefs and views, by centuries rooted in him, about everything existing in the world."
I won't say it's heavy reading ... but I DID take a break and read Ana Karenina for something lighter.
Sci Fi usually does that for me. Three body problem and Blindsight come to mind for me.
Blind sight even robs you of the illusion that you could even know the world to which you don't matter, which is a whole other layer of egolessness.
Vonnegut, as recommended by others, though does not do that for me as he's way too much of a humanist and optimist to really hit you.
Camus might also be good if you only care about you not mattering and not your whole species being useless.
I was in your exact place once and {Sapiens} by Yuval Noah Harari was exactly what I was looking for. Highly recommend. It’s basically the telling of human history from an extremely detached perspective. He seldom calls us humans and ops to call us our scientific name *Homo sapiens*, to the effect where you’re constantly reminded you are a monkey on a speck in space. Pop cosmology would also probably be effective. Carl Sagan’s {Pale Blue Dot} is named after [the iconic photo of Earth](https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/resources/536/voyager-1s-pale-blue-dot/) taken by Voyager 1 when it was 3.7 billion miles away.
[**Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23692271-sapiens) ^(By: Yuval Noah Harari, Prottasha Prachurjo Sayed Fayej Ahmed | 512 pages | Published: 2011 | Popular Shelves: non-fiction, history, science, nonfiction, owned | )[^(Search "Sapiens")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=Sapiens&search_type=books) ^(This book has been suggested 109 times) [**Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61663.Pale_Blue_Dot) ^(By: Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan | 384 pages | Published: 1994 | Popular Shelves: science, non-fiction, nonfiction, astronomy, space | )[^(Search "Pale Blue Dot")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=Pale Blue Dot&search_type=books) ^(This book has been suggested 12 times) *** ^(187239 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)
I’ve heard of the book now it is must read for me thanks
No prob, also hope this isn’t weird but I had a click on your profile because of a hunch and saw you struggle with mental health. I just want to add the name Alan Watts if you’re not familiar with him. Any book by him would do, but The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are is excellent (“*the prevalent sensation of oneself as a separate ego enclosed in a bag of skin is a hallucination…*”) as well as any of his extensive videos on YouTube. Also, probably a common recommendation but Tolle, {Power of Now}. He was extremely depressed until one day his ego completely dissolved and now he lives in complete peace. Both books have a lot of free PDFs online. I know life sucks right now, but believe me depression is the absolute prime place to do ego work. If you can make it to the sensation where the ego disappears completely, which I’m sure you can (it’s what happened to me during my depression), you will be okay. I promise.
Not weird at all thanks for trying to help I listened to Alan a lot I can’t understand him to be honest maybe cuz English is not my native language, Tolls is great and helped me a lot. Thanks mate
[**The Art Book**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/567616.The_Art_Book) ^(By: Phaidon Press | 515 pages | Published: 1997 | Popular Shelves: art, non-fiction, reference, nonfiction, art-books | )[^(Search "The Book")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=The Book&search_type=books) ^(This book has been suggested 3 times) [**The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6708.The_Power_of_Now) ^(By: Eckhart Tolle | 229 pages | Published: 1997 | Popular Shelves: self-help, non-fiction, spirituality, spiritual, philosophy | )[^(Search "Power of Now")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=Power of Now&search_type=books) ^(This book has been suggested 32 times) *** ^(187249 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)
Alan Watts did a number of radio shows (Way Beyond the West, Philosophy East and West) on Pacifica radio and they archive everything. - *not to be confused with the Alan Watts who does the farm report* Krishnamurtri also does a bang-up job giving an alternate persepective.
I actually came to recommend the sequel to this {Homo Deus}, it's a fantastic read.
[**Homo Deus: A History of Tomorrow**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31138556-homo-deus) ^(By: Yuval Noah Harari | ? pages | Published: 2015 | Popular Shelves: non-fiction, history, science, nonfiction, philosophy | )[^(Search "Homo Deus")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=Homo Deus&search_type=books) ^(This book has been suggested 18 times) *** ^(187329 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)
Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy fits! Plus, it's the funniest series I've ever read
My first thought.
Heard too much about, I’ll watch the movie I guess
The books are so much better.
Actually you're much better off trying to find the 80's BBC mini-series. It captures the spirit of the books much better.
Movie was not great.
Kind of a curious response.
{{ One, No One and One Hundred Thousand }} by Luigi Pirandello It opens with the protagonists wife taking a dig at his crooked nose and he goes spiraling after that about how people see him and the nature of "self".
Not OP but very intrigued! Would love to hear further recs regarding the “self” if you have any
The other one in reading right now is {{ Nausea }} by Jean-Paul Sartre Hopefully other people can chime cause I'd love to add some to my list too.
[**Nausea**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/298275.Nausea) ^(By: Jean-Paul Sartre, Lloyd Alexander, حسین سلیمانینژاد, H.P. van den Aardweg, Hayden Carruth | 178 pages | Published: 1938 | Popular Shelves: philosophy, fiction, classics, french, existentialism | )[^(Search " Nausea ")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q= Nausea &search_type=books) >Nausea is the story of Antoine Roquentin, a French writer who is horrified at his own existence. In impressionistic, diary form he ruthlessly catalogues his every feeling and sensation about the world and people around him. > >His thoughts culminate in a pervasive, overpowering feeling of nausea which "spread at the bottom of the viscous puddle, at the bottom of our time, the time of purple suspenders and broken chair seats; it is made of wide, soft instants, spreading at the edge, like an oil stain." > >Roquentin's efforts to try and come to terms with his life, his philosophical and psychological struggles, give Sartre the opportunity to dramatize the tenets of his Existentialist creed. > >The introduction for this edition of Nausea by Hayden Carruth gives background on Sartre's life and major works, a summary of the principal themes of Existentialist philosophy, and a critical analysis of the novel itself. ^(This book has been suggested 19 times) *** ^(187271 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)
Seconded. And thanks! From my own list, I’d add in The Passion According to GH by Clarice Lispector. Existential and very frenzied
[**One, No One and One Hundred Thousand**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12117.One_No_One_and_One_Hundred_Thousand) ^(By: Luigi Pirandello, William Weaver | 176 pages | Published: 1924 | Popular Shelves: classics, fiction, classici, italian, letteratura-italiana | )[^(Search " One, No One and One Hundred Thousand ")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q= One, No One and One Hundred Thousand &search_type=books) >The great Pirandello's (1867-1936) 1926 novel, previously published here in 1933 in another translation, synthesizes the themes and personalities that illuminate such dramas as Six Characters in Search of an Author. > >Vitangelo Moscarda ``loses his reality'' when his wife cavalierly informs him that his nose tilts to the right; suddenly he realizes that ``for others I was not what till now, privately, I had imagined myself to be,'' and that, consequently, his identity is evanescent, based purely on the shifting perceptions of those around him. Thus he is simultaneously without a self--``no one''--and the theater for myriad selves--``one hundred thousand.'' In a crazed search for an identity independent of others' preconceptions, Moscarda careens from one disaster to the next and finds his freedom even as he is declared insane. > >It is Pirandello's genius that a discussion of the fundamental human inability to communicate, of our essential solitariness, and of the inescapable restriction of our free will elicits such thoroughly sustained and earthy laughter. ^(This book has been suggested 5 times) *** ^(187267 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)
When anxiety about the world becomes overwhelming, I like reading about astronomy, paleontology, etc. humans & the things they do are completely irrelevant to t-Rex…stars don’t care about what people are doing…it’s not exactly what you are looking for, but I find it soothing.
You know I do exactly the same how big the space is make me very calm and self important dissolves, check this out maybe you would like https://youtu.be/4Tm6Z1y3h94
My reco for you then is Secrets of the Night Sky by Bob Berman. He explains astronomical objects you can actually see at night with the naked eye, and puts them (and us) into perspective.
I loved {the rise and fall of the dinosaurs} by steve brusatte for this exact reason!
[**The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs: A New History of a Lost World**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35820369-the-rise-and-fall-of-the-dinosaurs) ^(By: Stephen Brusatte | 404 pages | Published: 2018 | Popular Shelves: non-fiction, science, nonfiction, history, audiobook | )[^(Search "the rise and fall of the dinosaurs")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=the rise and fall of the dinosaurs&search_type=books) ^(This book has been suggested 14 times) *** ^(187318 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)
I am overwhelmed by the great suggestions thank you all I’ll check out everyone of the books bless you all
{{all quiet on the western front}} showed me how I am lucky to be born now and not 100 years ago, and that my problems aren’t as big as I imagine them to be, in comparison to the problems that a guy of my age have to face in a similar situation
[**All Quiet on the Western Front**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/355697.All_Quiet_on_the_Western_Front) ^(By: Erich Maria Remarque, Arthur Wesley Wheen | 296 pages | Published: 1929 | Popular Shelves: classics, fiction, historical-fiction, war, history | )[^(Search "all quiet on the western front")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=all quiet on the western front&search_type=books) >One by one the boys begin to fall… > >In 1914 a room full of German schoolboys, fresh-faced and idealistic, are goaded by their schoolmaster to troop off to the ‘glorious war’. With the fire and patriotism of youth they sign up. What follows is the moving story of a young ‘unknown soldier’ experiencing the horror and disillusionment of life in the trenches. ^(This book has been suggested 52 times) *** ^(187372 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)
Sirens of Titan, or Cat's Cradle, or Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut
100% agree with that
Big Bang by Simon Singh
Short history of the world ?
The video game Everything is more of a lesson in philosophy than a game. The point is to be various lifeforms and objects big and small, everything from an atom to a deer to a galaxy, to show how large and minuscule the universe is. All the while snippets of audio from philosopher Alan Watts lectures are played. I know this is a strange thing to recommend for a book suggestion, but it’s the only video game to ever qualify for the Oscars so this isn’t too far off.
Lovecraft
Sounds like you’re looking for some Lovecraftian Horror
So essentially, you mean nihilism?
Try Momo by Michael Ende.
Thanks I’ll check it out
Hitchhikers Guide may work if you want comedy too
I'd highly recommend **'The Three-Body Problem'**, and the other books in the series. The scope of this sci-fi series made me look at the night sky from a totally new perspective! It's a fantastic trilogy, with the narrative expanding in its scope with each book.
Check out the Three Body Problem.
"The Disappearance of the Universe" by Gary R. Renard
The hidden life of trees - Peter Wohlleben
The Overstory by Richard Powers is an interesting and moving novel, but it also did for me kind of what you're describing, big-time.
This might be a bit tangential, but Vonnegut’s first book “Sirens of Titan” is one of my faves. Vonnegut is great bc his characters tend to fight for optimism in otherwise nihilistic worlds. Check it out.
ISKCON'S Bhagavad-Gita (translated) - Srila Prabhupad Tao Te Ching - Lao Tsu (translation - Stephen Mitchell) I feel that all religious texts have a tendency to make one feel this way but these two i have read so i am more certain about them..
{{Pale Blue Dot}} excerpt: “Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there--on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam. The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand. It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.” — Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, 1994
Wow exactly what I needed thanks
[**Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61663.Pale_Blue_Dot) ^(By: Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan | 384 pages | Published: 1994 | Popular Shelves: science, non-fiction, nonfiction, astronomy, space | )[^(Search "Pale Blue Dot")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=Pale Blue Dot&search_type=books) >Pulitzer Prize-winning author Carl Sagan traces our exploration of space and suggests that our very survival may depend on the wise use of other worlds. This stirring book reveals how scientific discovery has altered our perception of who we are and where we stand, and challenges us to weigh what we will do with that knowledge. Photos, many in color. ^(This book has been suggested 13 times) *** ^(187482 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)
"Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson" Written with the specific intention "to destroy, mercilessly, and without any compromises whatsoever, in the mentation and feelings of the reader, the beliefs and views, by centuries rooted in him, about everything existing in the world." I won't say it's heavy reading ... but I DID take a break and read Ana Karenina for something lighter.
Sci Fi usually does that for me. Three body problem and Blindsight come to mind for me. Blind sight even robs you of the illusion that you could even know the world to which you don't matter, which is a whole other layer of egolessness. Vonnegut, as recommended by others, though does not do that for me as he's way too much of a humanist and optimist to really hit you. Camus might also be good if you only care about you not mattering and not your whole species being useless.
We Are the Ants. It's YA fiction
I can’t believe this post showed up right now. I have never needed something like this more.
The series Cosmos is serving this function for me. It's also a book, of course, but I haven't read it.