You really read those two gloomsters in high schoolfor pleasure? Heck, you may as well throw in the Marquis de Sade and hit the trifecta ;-) Influence, certainly. But for pleasure? Really?

The Marquis de Sade was not an Existentialist, so he is not relevant in this context. Yes, I did read them for pleasure. Back in those days, during my philosophical period, I read as much Existentialist philosophy and American Transcendentalism as I could. I think that I am the only person that I know who laughed all the way through Sartre's "Nausea".

Quite frankly, I think that Sartre and Nietzsche were much less depressing that Kierkegaard. After reading "Fear and Trambling", I was depressed for days....