Drawn and Quartered

Paul Williams once said that, after hearing a Bob Dylan tune called JUST LIKE A WOMAN, he wanted to mail it to everyone. I feel the same way about Cioran's stuff. And coincidentally enough, Emil touches on this very topic in DRAWN AND QUARTERED: "To send someone a book is to commit a burglary---a case of breaking and entering. It is to trample down his solitude, what he holds most sacred, for it is to oblige him to desist from himself in order to think about your thoughts."

This is a good introduction to Cioran. It's split into two major sections, the first being a collection of brilliant short essays and then another section of aphormisms. I believe the essays are among the finest he ever wrote and the aphormisms are also excellent, if not quite as profound as those in The Trouble With Being Born.