Why am I passionate about this?

For as long as I can remember, it has been of the utmost importance to find meaning in life, both for myself and for everyone else sharing this planet. I have spent much of my time over the course of the past few years pushing for a continued level of discourse in the field of philosophy. I have studied at and attended various educational institutions including Eastern Florida State College, The Florida Institute of Technology, Harvard University, and The University of Cambridge – the studies at such range between philosophy, psychology, behavior analysis, and engineering. I hope that my work will be of some assistance in pushing humanity towards positive progress.


I wrote

Manipulating Nature: An Existential Essay Regarding Humanity's Impact on the World Around Us

By Zachary Austin Behlok,

Book cover of Manipulating Nature: An Existential Essay Regarding Humanity's Impact on the World Around Us

What is my book about?

This text looks at humanity’s effect(s) on nature and the wildlife within it in a phenomenological and existential approach –…

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of Existentialism Is a Humanism

Zachary Austin Behlok Why did I love this book?

This text provides the readers with a brief, yet in-depth look at the ideology behind the field of existentialism. In regard to the author, Jean-Paul Sartre, is deemed as one of the founders of modern existentialism, with it being his main focus throughout most of his life. This text, which was initially a speech, was used to provide a backbone to the field and bring about a heightened sense of understanding of the meaning of human existence.

By Jean-Paul Sartre, Carol Macomber (translator),

Why should I read it?

4 authors picked Existentialism Is a Humanism as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

It was to correct common misconceptions about his thought that Jean-Paul Sartre, the most dominent European intellectual of the post-World War II decades, accepted an invitation to speak on October 29, 1945, at the Club Maintenant in Paris. The unstated objective of his lecture ("Existentialism Is a Humanism") was to expound his philosophy as a form of "existentialism," a term much bandied about at the time. Sartre asserted that existentialism was essentially a doctrine for philosophers, though, ironically, he was about to make it accessible to a general audience. The published text of his lecture quickly became one of the…


Book cover of The Metamorphosis

Zachary Austin Behlok Why did I love this book?

This text, by Franz Kafka, can be interpreted in many ways – some of which can be referred to as existential whereas others can just be interpreted as eye-opening. The Metamorphosis provides an in-depth analysis of our lives in the eyes of those around us, with the example being of a man who works to provide for his family. This book made me realize that for me to be a provider for those around me, I need to first be there for myself and become comfortable with whom I am. Whereas the main character was unhappy in his life, and in the pursuits he put himself through to provide for his family, such unhappiness engulfed him and turned him into a being which he, and those around him, could not comprehend, nor continue suffering to be around.

By Franz Kafka, Stanley Corngold (translator),

Why should I read it?

8 authors picked The Metamorphosis as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 13, 14, 15, and 16.

What is this book about?

“When Gregor Samsa woke up one morning from unsettling dreams, he found himself changed in his bed into a monstrous vermin.”

With this  startling, bizarre, yet surprisingly funny first sentence, Kafka begins his masterpiece, The  Metamorphosis. It is the story of a  young man who, transformed overnight into a giant  beetlelike insect, becomes an object of disgrace to  his family, an outsider in his own home, a  quintessentially alienated man. A harrowing—though  absurdly comic—meditation on human feelings of inadequacy, guilt, and isolation, The  Metamorphosis has taken its place as one  of the most widely read and influential works of  twentieth-century…


Book cover of What Is Existentialism?

Zachary Austin Behlok Why did I love this book?

This book is more or less a collection of excerpts from some of Simone de Beauvoir’s best works. In this text, her foundations in the field of existentialism are laid forth for the reader to read and interpret very easily. These excerpts provide the reader with an analysis on the field in a more fictional way, as opposed to much of the other works relating to such, yet maintain the same, if not a higher, level of emphasis on the positive influences it can bring about in any given individual’s life.

By Simone de Beauvoir,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked What Is Existentialism? as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

'It is possible for man to snatch the world from the darkness of absurdity'

How should we think and act in the world? These writings on the human condition by one of the twentieth century's great philosophers explore the absurdity of our notions of good and evil, and show instead how we make our own destiny simply by being.

One of twenty new books in the bestselling Penguin Great Ideas series. This new selection showcases a diverse list of thinkers who have helped shape our world today, from anarchists to stoics, feminists to prophets, satirists to Zen Buddhists.


Book cover of Beyond Good And Evil

Zachary Austin Behlok Why did I love this book?

This text is one of the most pivotal pieces written by Friedrich Nietzsche. This text was my main influence at the beginning of my searches for truth in human existence. I find it very easy to find a common ground in Nietzsche’s work, with him providing a very simple, straightforward analysis of the world around him, which heavily relates to the contemporary era. In this work, Nietzsche criticizes the past work of various philosophers, which allows the readers to gain insights into just how different yet similar different subject-matter-experts in the field of philosophy can be.

By Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked Beyond Good And Evil as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Unabridged English value reproduction of Beyond Good And Evilby Friedrich Nietzsche and translated by Helen Zimmern. This philosophical classic is a must read because of its fearless approach to how knowledge is formed.

Beyond Good And Evil asks, is truth absolute? Do humans invent ways to fortify already held views or truly seek the truth? Are the powerful more ‘right’ than the weak? Or is Nietzsche writing down page after page to hear himself talk?

Let the reader decide in this slim volume with full text and footnotes, produced at an affordable price.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PREFACE              3
CHAPTER I.…


Book cover of The Undiscovered Self: The Dilemma of the Individual in Modern Society

Zachary Austin Behlok Why did I love this book?

In this text, the famed clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst Carl Jung, gives his analysis on the world around us, in a way that aims to provide the reader with a higher level of understanding of the effects of such a world on our minds as individuals. For me, this piece really highlighted the ways in which the governmental powers above us have a grasp on the ways in which we live our lives, and are subsequently affected mentally. 

By C.G. Jung,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Undiscovered Self as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Written three years before his death, The Undiscovered Self combines acuity with concision in masterly fashion and is Jung at his very best. Offering clear and crisp insights into some of his major theories, such as the duality of human nature, the unconscious, human instinct and spirituality, Jung warns against the threats of totalitarianism and political and social propaganda to the free-thinking individual. As timely now as when it was first written, Jung's vision is a salutary reminder of why we should not become passive members of the herd.

With a new foreword by Sonu Shamdasani.


Explore my book 😀

Manipulating Nature: An Existential Essay Regarding Humanity's Impact on the World Around Us

By Zachary Austin Behlok,

Book cover of Manipulating Nature: An Existential Essay Regarding Humanity's Impact on the World Around Us

What is my book about?

This text looks at humanity’s effect(s) on nature and the wildlife within it in a phenomenological and existential approach this is being written in the hopes of bringing about a newfound sense of realization of the issues regarding our environment(s) (living and non-living) which surround us on a daily basis. In our own search for meaning and ease in life, we have removed the meaning of an existing being, the being in this case meaning nature, and our own selves as beings need the existence of nature in order to form our meaning. We are negating ourselves as a result of negating the essence of the existing natures which we were originally given. We can fix this, granted we put in the effort. 

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The Yamanaka Factors

By Jed Henson,

Book cover of The Yamanaka Factors

Jed Henson Author Of All In

New book alert!

Why am I passionate about this?

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Jed's 3 favorite reads in 2023

What is my book about?

Fall 2028. Mickey Cooper, an elderly homeless man, receives an incredible proposition from a rogue pharmaceutical company: “Be our secret guinea pig for our new drug, and we’ll pay you life-changing money, which you’ll be able to enjoy because if (cough) when the treatment works, two months from now your body will be youthened to twenty-three years old.”

When his treatment proves more difficult than expected, and corporate espionage turns deadly, Mickey finds himself flanked by internal corruption and powerful external enemies, including Chinese operatives desperate to reverse their country’s aging demographics and amoral U.S. government officials who fear the…

The Yamanaka Factors

By Jed Henson,

What is this book about?

Fall 2028. Mickey Cooper, an elderly homeless man, receives an incredible proposition from a rogue pharmaceutical company: “Be our secret guinea pig for our new drug and we’ll pay you life-changing money, which you’ll be able to enjoy because if (cough) when the treatment works, two months from now your body will be youthened to twenty-three years old.”

When his treatment proves more difficult than expected and corporate espionage turns deadly, Mickey finds himself flanked by internal corruption and powerful external enemies, including Chinese operatives desperate to reverse their country’s aging demographics and amoral U.S. government officials who fear the…


5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in existential philosophy, isolation, and existentialism?

Isolation 21 books
Existentialism 67 books