What is your fallback book?

Not for me.. Upmanyu chatterjee leaves me with a strange feeling which could last for hours.. going by the thread intro, english august would lead to more disillusionment than comfort

Et tu, Caesar ? :P

When I need a pick-me-up, I go to The 13½ Lives of Captain Bluebear. Gorgeously lighthearted and wonderfully complex, a bit like The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. 

When in existential crisis(cough), I find reading Siddhartha by Herman Hesse or Ikigai or anything by Thich Nhat Hanh clears my head.

For a push, a few pages of Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance. 

But really, about any writing that is beautiful to read( not to imply there’s non beautiful writing, just that some writing is more beautiful than some others) does it for me. 

I had very high expectations from Ikigai. I bought the hard copy as well. While I am of the opinion that every book teaches you exactly one thing ( not because they don’t have other lessons, but because our limited faculty let’s us observe one thing in the end ), and I did get that one thing from Ikigai, I was honestly greedy for more from the book.

Maybe, I will need a second read some months / years later for a second revelation.

Anyway the same book appears to give a different message depending on when we are reading it - which influences our capacity to absorb things.

Far better to read Epictetus' or Seneca's works than to read their life stories. They themselves would have advocated thus.

As for Diogenes, I have to admit, I don't really understand what he was trying to do. From most of his actions, it seems like he was really hungry for attention and fame, because of which he underwent suffering. On realizing this, Plato, his famous contemporary rival once made a clever remark:

Diogenes was once standing outside and got a soaking, and when the bystanders took pity on him, Plato, who also happened to be present, exclaimed, ‘if you really want to have occasion to pity him, simply walk away!’

(Diogenes Laertius 6.41; G57)

(Extracted from Diogenes The Cynic: Sayings and Anecdotes)

And about self-help books, I agree most of them are quite shallow (haven't read Ikigai, so can't comment, actually I am looking forward to reading it some day), but there are quite a few gems as well. Take for example, 'Ego is the enemy' by Ryan Holiday, which would be considered in the self-help category I think. It has quite some fascinating insights on success in professional life and life in general.

As a fan of Stoic philosophy, I prefer philosophy which can be lived, not philosophy which is limited to mental games. Diogenes didn't live with nature. That is a Stoic concept, not a cynic one. I haven't seen a man or even an ape living in an urn, or hugging cold statues to show the nearby men that he could bear cold. He underwent extreme hardships to get attention and fame. I think that is contradictory to philosophy. What would you achieve by such stunts? Clearly not happiness or mental peace. So, it seems rather futile as a long term strategy. Along with that, some of his acts were really outrageous, any self-respecting man would agree. I think you haven't read Diogenes' works (collected by ancient Greek historians, of course, he didn't write), in the book that I refer in my previous message, it is mentioned that he used to masturbate in public view, 'to release tension from his body'. I find that disgusting.

And if you find living in nature a virtue, the land of India has no dearth of such men. A great many sanyasins have lived and died in the forests, and the entire initial and final stages of the Hindu system of life (brahmacharya, vanaprastha and sanyasa) were supposed to be spent in the natural surroundings, collecting naturally avalaible food, firewood and sustaining life using them, without interacting with cities. Diogenes was just a hypocrite, who while preaching to be abandon shame, (and thus one would logically expect, the ego too) was full of ego, and picked up silly verbal fights with people, to show that he was some awesome brave man to be worshipped.