Part intellectual autobiography, part annotated reading life, this is Colin Wilson mapping the books that shaped him — the thinkers, novelists and visionaries who built the scaffolding of his inner world.

He argues, defends, dismisses and resurrects his own literary history. Dostoevsky, Nietzsche, Shaw, Hesse, Sartre, all become companions, rivals, provocations. 

For anyone interested in existentialism, outsider thought, or the strange seriousness of being young and discovering literature for the first time. A book about reading that reminds you reading is not neutral. It is a force.