Basically themes of existentialism. To expand a bit more, I love it when reading a book gives me a feeling of agency over myself and my actions; a book makes me feel like I do have some or most control over my life. Character arcs that motivate me to move/take initiatives instead of just going with the flow of a stagnant situation in life. And no pop self help with a bunch of platitudes written by smug CEOs, please.
Some books/parts of books from which I extrapolated this regardless of the overall theme of the book for me before: (mild spoilers)
- Existentialism is humanism,
- East of Eden: the timshel/ thou mayest discussion part
- The tartar steppe: This one might be me reaching a lil bit but the charcter's stubbornness to remain stagnant in order to get to share the glory of the upcoming battle actually leading him to do nothing most of his life inspired me to not be that way… if that makes sense?
- Crime and punishment: I do realize this wasn't necessarily the intention of this quote but right at the beginning in my translated edition was something along the lines of "Man has remedy in his own hands but still lets life go it's own way."
- Slaughterhouse five: The prayer inscribed on the locket that goes, "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom always to tell the difference".
by Weirdobutnotweird