2026 Reading List: Philosophy, Reality, Reasoning
- Pen Edit
- Dec 21, 2025
- 2 min read
Updated: Jan 30
This annual reading list explores the ideas that shape how we understand reality, reason through complexity, and make meaning of our place in the world.
This list features 12 books, one for each month, centered around themes of existentialism, psychology, philosophy, ethics, politics, society, metaphysics, critical reasoning, etc. These books will challenge how you think, question what you assume to be true, and examine how one should navigate systems, morality, and uncertainty.
Enjoy these works by philosophers, novelists, scholars, psychologists, scientists, cultural critics, and thought leaders. They invite deeper reflection on the nature of reality and existence, offering frameworks for clearer thinking and deeper self-awareness.
Existentialism Is a Humanism
Author: Jean-Paul Sartre
Topic: Existentialism, Responsibility, Theory
Published July 24, 2007 | My Review to Come
Crime and Punishment
Author: Fyodor Dostoevsky
Topic: Fiction, Psychology, Crime, Philosophy
Published August 22, 2001 | My Review to Come
The Woman Destroyed
Author: Simone De Beauvoir
Topic: Existentialism, Short Stories, Vulnerability
Published January 1, 1967| My Review to Come
Why: The Purpose of the Universe
Author: Philip Goff
Topic: Philosophy, Cosmology, Consciousness
Published October 10, 2023| My Review to Come
Resisting Scientific Realism
Author: K. Brad Wray
Topic: Philosophy, Argument, Science
Published November 1, 2018| My Review to Come
The Myth of Sisyphus
Author: Albert Camus
Topic: Mythology, Existentialism, Philosophy
Published January 1, 1942 | My Review to Come
A Discourse on the Method
Author: René Descartes
Topic: Philosophy, Reasoning, Theory
Published January 1, 1637| My Review to Come
The Denial of Death
Author: Ernest Becker
Topic: Philosophy, Psychology, Death, Society
Published December 31, 1973| My Review to Come
Utilitarianism
Author: John Stuart Mill
Topic: Ethics, Politics, Society
Published January 1, 1861| My Review to Come
The Problem of Pain
Author: C. S. Lewis
Topic: God, Suffering, Human Condition
Published January 1, 1940| My Review to Come
At the Existentialist Café
Author: Sarah Bakewell
Topic: Memoir, Existentialism, Biography
Published March 3, 2016| My Review to Come
The Will to Power
Author: Friedrich Nietzsche
Topic: Nihilism, Ethics, Free Will
Published January 1, 1901 | My Review to Come
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