7 Books You MUST Read In 2025 (per Nietzsche)

Support us on Patreon, get access to exclusive videos:

BOOKS MENTIONED:

Thanks for supporting the channel!

TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 Happy New Year
00:18 Tristram Shandy
03:13 Conversations with Goethe
06:04 Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship
07:55 The Red and the Black
09:50 Julie, or the New Héloïse
12:07 Don Quixote
14:22 War and Peace

OUR ANALYSES:

[WeltgeistYT]

Happy New Year! How many of these have you read? Here are the books mentioned in the video, with Amazon links (if you buy through these, at no cost to you, you support the channel):

BOOKS MENTIONED:

Thanks for supporting the channel!

[krish]

Don Quixote is hilarious and the fact that Cervantes conceived it in a prison shows that inward happiness is more valuable than external objects. ---schopenhauer.

[AlaskaSpirit]

Books like Blood Meridian, The Red Badge of Courage, Moby Dick, White Fang and The Hero with a Thousand Faces are my favorite books.

[Völsung-ny]

My personal favorites:
1. The Iliad
2. The Aeneid (in the original Latin)
3. Faust Parts 1 & 2
4. Aeschylus' Oresteia
5. The Lord of the Rings
6. Don Quixote
7. Beowulf

Some close runners ups are Dune, The Argonautika, Le Morte d'Arthur, the Prose and Poetic Eddas, and The Book of the New Sun.
I'm starting off this year by reading The Gay Science for the first time; of Nietzsche's bibliography I have only read The Birth of Tragedy, Human All Too Human, On the Genealogy of Morals, Homer's Contest, The Case of Wagner, Twighlight of the Idols and The Antichrist. I can't wait to finish reading through his works this year.

[shivanshu]

Thanks for the recommendations. I guess I'll finally pick up War And Peace. Also as an aside, you have an endearingly polite demeanor. Happy new year welt!

[nikolab]

Nietzsche also liked Notes from Underground by Dostoyevski and The Frogs by Aristophanes.

[la]

Suprised & impressed that your french pronunciation is perfect lol

Usually other channels butcher the names

[SouthParkGaming]

Great recommendations. Tristam Shandy is wonderful, just wonderful. The others (that I've read) are great as well.

[Martyk]

All books available on Internet Archive

[unknowninfinium]

You should do a video on what are the common books your viewers commented and which of the uncommon ones deserve a spotlight.

[sethgaston]

Another great McCarthy joint ~ No Country for Old Men. The novel is like the master mortality version of the film. ESPECIALLY with Anton Chigurh (the antagonist). He’s much more humanized in the novel and has a philosophy VERY similar to Zarathustra.

[rasmussten]

My favourites are (in no particular order): Ride the Tiger, Blood Meridian, Faust, The Stranger, The Plague, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Crime and Punishment, Lord of the Rings and Brothers Karamazov

[roberttimofte]

Great books to look forward for. Some are already in my bookshelf or to added to my library. Thanks.

[konberner]

Top 7? Wow, not easy. _Beyond Good and Evil_, _Anarchy, State, and Utopia_, _Letters to a Young Poet_, _The Law_, _Human Action_, _Dao De Ching_, _Guide Lectures (unedited)_ .

[Jack-lgn]

You recommended "War and Peace" and I agree that its a masterpiece that they could love but I would also add "In search of lost time" by Marcel Proust which is even longer and is I would say most sophisticated and beautyful exploration of human inside, but thats just my opinion

[Aphorismenoi]

You forgot to mention "Upanishads" Schopenhauer's favorite book above all

[Zarathustraa-M]

I read War and Peace few years back, quite fascinating, i really thought this is a history book. Also read Dostoevesky, now i may read Stendhal.

[amur]

I think both Schopenhauer and Nietzsche would have chosen a different Dostoyevsky novel if they’d read them. For me the Idiot is the best - a beautiful piece.

[jmiller]

Absolute essentials, based on my reading:

War and Peace
Crime and Punishment
Notes from Underground (very short, no excuse not to read this one)
Brothers Karamazov

2nd Tier, but still Great:

On the Road
Sister Carrie
An American Tragedy

I started Tristram Shandy once, but it didn't grab me. Still have the book, need to give it another try. My ratio of reading is 98% non-fiction, 2% (if that) fiction, so it takes me years to accumulate five completed fiction works. Thanks for a great list and video, wishing Weltgeist a rewarding 2025.

[SoundTasteLifestyle]

Give me War and Peace, Behold A Pale Horse, Kitchen Confidential, The Prophet, Today I Wrote Nothing, The Essential Rumi Collection, and The Measure of Man. A few that I'm starting off the year with.