informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

I looooooved this book. I’ve been curious about phenomenology and existentialism since grad school - but reading primary texts with no context and little pre-existing knowledge is a slog. This provided rich insight into the history and personalities of existentialism while providing (what I imagine is) a high-level overview on the philosophy itself. A good book like this always sets my brain ping-ponging around in excitement.

Aside from being intellectually fun - I felt really connected with the ideas and people the author talked about. It a bit less lonely in my existentially-inclined brain, where I often find myself wondering how people get on life without constantly obsessing over meaning and being. I’m in (mostly) good company, it seems!
informative inspiring reflective medium-paced
informative slow-paced
funny informative inspiring reflective relaxing medium-paced
informative reflective medium-paced

Boring. Almost finished the book and I still don’t know what existentialism is. Instead I’ve been bombarded with the history of existentialist thinkers, which is useless when I don’t know or care who they are yet.
challenging hopeful informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

still don't understand what phenomenology is ;((

The author has managed to make intellectual history both riveting and beautiful. I loved the book and learned a great deal about the lives and ideas of its colorful cast of characters: Sartre, Beauvoir, Heidegger, Camus, Husserl, Merleau-Ponty, and many others.
challenging informative inspiring reflective slow-paced