Author Picks: The Cult Favorites Of Philosophical Fiction
We all love meeting new authors and their books especially independent or as we call them indies. And no prize for guessing what my first question would be to any newly found author – yes their favorite books!
So here I have Greg answering that ‘not so totally random’ question through a guest post. Don’t we love a good book list?
Greg Hickey is the author of the accessible, philosophical, grown-up choose-your-own-adventure novel The Friar’s Lantern and the curator of The 105 Best Philosophical Novels. You can contact Greg through the following social media profiles.
Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads | LinkedIn
Passing over to Greg!
Philosophical novels use fictional stories to explore thought-provoking questions that are often challenging, overlooked or controversial.
The collection of philosophical novels listed below range from contemporary science fiction to inspirational to a mind-bending thought experiment to a few literary stalwarts, all of them devotedly enjoyed by a group of die-hard fans.
These books delve into topics like the existence of God, the nature of self-hood, humanity’s place in the world and more in ways that have inspired thousands of devoted readers.
The Cult Favorites of Philosophical Fiction
1) Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
Nominated for both the British Science Fiction Award and the Arthur C. Clarke Award, Stephenson’s popular sci-fi novel follows pizza delivery boy and computer hacker Hiro Protagonist as he fights a nefarious virtual villain.
Along the way, it taps into virtual reality, Sumerian myth and the burgeoning information age and explores other topics in history, linguistics, anthropology, archaeology, religion, computer science, politics, cryptography and philosophy.
2) The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari by Robin Sharma
This fable by a litigation lawyer-turned-motivational speaker and author follows Julian Mantle, a dissatisfied attorney who sells his vacation home and titular car and undertakes a life-changing spiritual journey through the Himalayas.
Sharma originally self-published this book, but it proved so popular that it was picked up by HarperCollins a few years later.
3) God’s Debris: A Thought Experiment by Scott Adams
The first non-humor book by the creator of the comic strip Dilbert introduces readers to a being who claims to know “literally everything” and explains the mysteries of quantum physics, evolution, God, gravity and more in a way that seems to make perfect sense.
Skeptical about the appeal of a non-Dilbert book by Adams, his publishers first released the novel as an ebook but quickly produced a hard copy version after its rapid success.
4) Pontypool Changes Everything by Tony Burgess
A virus spread through the use of language devastates the small Canadian town of Pontypool, causing victims to lose their linguistic abilities and devolve into madness, rage and animalistic violence.
Burgess adapted the novel into a screenplay for the 2008 film Pontypool, which was nominated for three Canadian film awards, including Best Adapted Screenplay.
5) The Moviegoer by Walker Percy
A favorite in literary circles that never seemed to achieve the same level of popular appeal, this novel about a New Orleans stockbroker’s quest to find his inner self won the 1962 U.S. National Book Award in fiction.
It was ranked sixtieth on Modern Library’s list of the 100 best novels of the twentieth century and was included in Time’s 100 best novels from 1923 to 2005.
6) The Book of Disquiet by Fernando Pessoa
Pessoa, who attributed his prolific writing to several alternate selves with different biographies and ideologies, left behind this posthumously published “autobiography” of one those selves.
This incomplete collection of 500-plus fragments of essay, diary, poetry and narrative touches on many of life’s essential questions in what Electric Lit called “the weirdest autobiography ever.”
What are your favorite philosophical fictionalized books? Do you like fiction coupled with philosophy or do you read for just pleasure? Let us talk.
