We can map these works around 7 answers to “What makes life meaningful?”

 VIRTUE – become good

Socrates, Aristotle, Marcus Aurelius, Confucius

DUTY – Serve something larger than yourself

Bhagavad Gita, Confucius, Marcus Aurelius

LOVE & RELATIONSHIP – Meaning exists between people

Gilgamesh, Aristotle, Gospels, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Frankl

TRANSCENDENCE – Discover a reality beyond the individual ego

Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita, Augustine, Quran, Dante

ACCEPTANCE – Stop demanding that reality conform your desires

Tao Te Ching, Zhuangzi, Ecclesiastes, Marcus Aurelius

CREATION & SELF-OVERCOMING – Make something of your existence

Goethe, Nietzsche

DEFIANCE OF THE ABSURD – Live even without a final answer

Camus, Kundera

…or one can follow this reading path:

The Upanishads (India): understand the true self 

The Bhagavad Gita (India): perform your duty without attachment

The Dhammapada (Buddha): free yourself from craving

Confucius (China): cultivate character and relationships

Laozis (Taoism): stop trying to force the world

Aristotle (Greece): cultivate virtue and flourish

Stoicism: govern yourself rather than trying to govern events

Nietzsche: question the values you’ve inherited

Viktor Frankl: find meaning through responsibility