/lit/ - Literature

I had this friend. He passed away due to a drunk driver. He was 29. Whenever he entered a room, it became better. I got to know him when we were both kids, we were pretty much best friends but then studied at different uni's and got different jobs and friends.
The first few years I knew him, he was gaming all the time (that's how we became friends, we both played Wolfenstein Enemy Territory) and was basically your average male, not very good looking, not very well taken care of, but a good, decent person.
A few years later there was more than a year inbetween our meetings, and this was when we were at different universities. I was shocked when I saw him. He had gotten ripped, he wore clothes that fit, he lost all excess weight, his hair was looking great. He looked great I was so happy for him. He told me he read loads of books by several philosophers, names I have now all forgotten. That was a a while ago. A few months after that he found a girl, a true beauty, and they married. Unfortunately he passed not long after that.
I remember him telling me how reactionary he became, he said he was striving to become a light in an ugly world. I was very impressed by how 'philosophical' the things he said were. He was going to send me a reading list he used but unfortunately he never got to that.
Now I come to you /lit/ to please help me out. I'm looking to follow the path of my passed bro, and I realize many of you will think 'him being it should be enough to inspire you' but don't underestimate how much this rational modernist world has gotten to me. I want to finally get it right and actually change my mind based on a philisophical foundation.
I'm looking for books that instill a sense of purpose in you to become better, to strive for beauty. Books on the meaning and essence of beauty, keeping in mind that I am pretty agnostic and 'modern' in that I can't immediately see beauty as something divine or something like that.

I hope at least one of you understands what I mean. It is my goal to become that which my friend was, a beacon of light in an ugly world.
Thank you