Quote:
Originally Posted by Frownland
Siddhartha - Damn I wish I read this when I was like, 14. Still really rad though. Excellent, simplistic prose filled with neat philosophical meanderings and beautiful descriptive passages about rebirth n ****. Bit of orientalizing going on but whatcha gonna do, it was the 20s and all. 4/5
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This book (along with Suzuki’s „The Introduction to Zen Buddhism”) quite literally saved me from sinking into deep depression. Or worst.
When living my first few months in Paris, every time I felt like killing myself, every time I was starting to cry out loud in public, or when any other weird and unpleasant **** was happening to me, I’d pick up Siddhartha, and Hesse’s wisdom, along with the impossibly soothing and poetic way it’s written would get me out of my misery.
This might be the single most important book in my life.
As soon as I returned to Poland I’ve bought a copy for all of my friends.
It resulted in pretty much all of them becoming Hesse fanatics, and many interesting conversations.
The only books by Hesse I don’t enjoy are the german-small-town-lifestyle stuff he liked to write from time to time for whatever reason.
Demian, Siddhartha, Journey to the East, Steppenwolf, The Glass Bead Game, Fables, The Book of Dreams are all among my favourites though