Your Top Ten Favorite Books (Beat & Otherwise)

What are the books you can't do without? Want to turn others on to your favorites? Jot down your top ten, and send them our way. We'll feature your list on this page. Lists can be either ranked or in no particular order, and feel free to add comments if you like. And, just let us know if you'd like us to link to your website.

K. Collins

1. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
2. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
3. The Cather in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
4. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
5. Montana 1948 by Larry Watson
6. Ellen Foster by Kaye Gibbons
7. Running With Scissors by Augusten Burroughs
8. A Separate Peace by John Knowles
9. All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
10. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury



L. Kolobe

1. No Longer at Ease - Chinua Achebe
2. Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe
3. Akenfield - B. Blythe
4. When Rain Clouds Gather - Bessie Head
5. Serowe - Bessie Head
6. The Collector of Treasures - Bessie Head
7. Aké - Wole Soyinka
8. Chaka - T.M. Mofolo
9. The Canterbury Tales - Geoffrey Chaucer
10. Lobatse Train - Hope Dube

Ian Regnier

1. The Catcher in the Rye - J.D Salinger
2. American Gods - Neil Gaiman
3. On the Road - Jack Kerouac
4. The Dharma Bums - Jack Kerouac
5. The Story of B - Daniel Quinn
6. The Fountainhead - Ayn Rand
7. Underworld - Don Delillo
8. Girlfriend in a Coma - Douglas Coupland
9. The Perks of Being A Wallflower - Stephen Chbosky
10. Bonfire of the Vanities - Tom Wolfe

Tariq Bedgood

1. Tristessa - Jack Kerouac
2. The Sheltering Sky - Paul Bowles
3. Beasts - Joyce Carol Oates
4. Desolation Angels - Kerouac
5. Howl - Allen Ginsberg
6. The Talented Mr. Ripley - Patricia Highsmith
7. Lonesome Traveler - Jack Kerouac
8. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
9. Ring of Bone - Lew Welch
10. Junkie - William Burroughs

Peter

• Dune - Frank Herbert
  A magnificent creation, we come back for the religion, the politics and the myths, which are so much more powerful precisely because he does not expound them. .
• The Collector - John Fowles
  Frederick/Ferdinand troubles us, but we empathise with his lonely pitiful existence until we read Miranda's account and realise the full horror of the situation.
• Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - Hunter S. Thompson
  Paranoia, 5 blotters of acid, a salt shaker of cocaine, Gonzo journalism, bats, a pint of ether, open road to Vegas, a knife, two bags of dope, a Samoan lawyer pouring beer on his chest to facilitate tanning, a two pound grapefruit, a large red convertible, a hitch hiker, 75 mescal pellets, thrashing in the bath like a shark after meat and how to deal with the California Highway Patrol. Madness.
• Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand
  The opus that the Fountainhead only hinted at. Immensely frustrating, as we are powerless to stop the looters, this is the essence of capitalism.
• Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
  Surely THE fantasy novel. A wonderful journey.
• Jitterbug Perfume - Tom Robbins
  Eternal life is attainable through love, sex and regular warms baths. A mythical tale of a Bohemian king popping up in New Orleans. Plucking grey hairs, Pans rank smell stopping him being smuggled to the new world, scent in Paris and individuality.
• Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
  One of the most complex characters in fiction, Heathcliff enthralls. Passionate and vindictive, sullen and bitter, his anger drives him avenge himself on the entire family.
• Good Omens - Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
  Hilariously funny and unusually perceptive. What happens to Armageddon if the Antichrist got an English country schoolboy upbringing?
• Crime and Punishment - Dostoyevsky
  Morality and conscience, a surprisingly readable classic.
• Watchmen - Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons
  The only graphic novel to have won a Hugo award. Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

Eric D. Lehman

1. Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
2. The Magus by John Fowles
3. On the Road by Jack Kerouac
4. Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller
5. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
6. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
7. The Snow Leopard by Peter Matthiessen
8. Far Away and Long Ago by W.H. Hudson
9. Green Hills of Africa by Ernest Hemingway
10. The Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac

J. Glassow

1. Hunchback of Notre Dame - Victor Hugo
2. On the Road - Jack Kerouac
3. Wise Blood - Flannery O'Connor
4. Passage to India - E. M. Forester
5. Lord Jim - Joseph Conrad
6. Dharma Bums - Jack Kerouac
7. Moby Dick - Herman Melville
8. The Sheltering Sky - Paul Bowles
9. The Razor's Edge - W. Somerset Maugham
10. Women in Love - D. H. Lawrence

Ryan

1. On the Road by Jack Kerouac
2. Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe
3. Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
4. Rum Diaries by Hunter S. Thompson
5. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
6. Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe
7. Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller
8. Fear and Loathing by Hunter S. Thompson
9. Slaughter House by Kurt Vonnegut
10. Junkie by William S. Burroughs

Michowel

1. On The Road by Jack Kerouac
2. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson
3. Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
4. The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe
5. Siddartha by Hermann Hesse
6. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
7. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
8. Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller
9. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
10. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey

Lila

1. Realm of Algebra by Isaac Asimov, 1961
2. Moby Dick by Herman Melville, 1851 (forget about symbolism and metaphors, just enjoy the descriptive language and let yourself react to the story and the imagery)
3. The Illuminatus! Trilogy by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson, 1969-1971
4. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig, 1974
5. Lila, an Inquiry into Morals by Robert M. Pirsig, 1991
6. Still Life with Woodpecker by Tom Robbins, 1980
7. Another Roadside Attraction, Tom Robbins, 1971
8. Erections, Ejaculations, Exhibitions, and General Tales of Ordinary Madness by Charles Bukowski, 1972
9. Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry, 1985
10. Welcome to the Monkey House by Kurt Vonnegut Jr., 1968

Strangely B. Stranger:

1. The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe
2. Four Letters of Love by Niall Williams
3. A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
   (My license plate reads "Dr Nut"!)
4. Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter Thompson
5. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
6. The Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac
7. In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash by Jean Shepherd
   (especially "Hairy Gertz and the Forty-Seven Crappies"!)
8. Love and the Abyss by Ralph D. Ellis
9. It Came From Memphis by Robert Gordon
10. The Road Less Travelled by M. Scott Peck

Leah

1. Desolation Angels by Jack Kerouac
2. Big Sur by Jack Kerouac
3. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
4. A Defense of Poetry by Gabriel Gudding
5. Complete Poems by Anne Sexton
6. Hamlet by William Shakespeare
7. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
8. Off the Road: My Years with Cassady, Kerouac, and Ginsberg - Carolyn Cassady
9. The Plays of Anton Chekhov by Anton Chekhov (Paul Schmidt trans.)
10. Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie

Marti:

1. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
2. The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck
3. Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
4. Mrs. Dalloway by Virgina Woolf
5. Animal Farm by George Orwell
6. Johnney Panic and the Bible of Dreams by Sylvia Plath
7. Media Control By Noam Chomsky
8. Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress By Dai Sijie
9. The Graduate by Charles Webb
10. Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris

Mark Winchester

• Under the Volcano, Malcom Lowry
• The Sheltering Sky, Paul Bowles
• Siddhartha, Hermann Hesse
• Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
• Foucault's Pendulum, Umberto Eco
• Leaving Las Vegas, John O'Brien
• Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Hunter S. Thompson
• The Razor's Edge, Somerset Maughham
• Cosmos, Carl Sagan
• A Moveable Feast, Ernest Hemingway

D. Raphael

(an all-Beat list in no particular order)

• Desolation Angels by Jack Kerouac
• Scratching the Beat Surface by Michael McClure
• Points in Time by Paul Bowles
• Gasoline by Gregory Corso
• Pieces of a Song by Diane di Prima
• Our Thang by Ted Joans & Laura Corsiglia
• Pieces by Robert Creeley
• September Blackberries by Michael McClure
• The Secret Meaning of Things by Lawrence Ferlinghetti
• The Mexican Night by Lawrence Ferlinghetti

Anetra

1. On the Road by Jack Kerouac
2. Darkness At Noon by Arthur Koestler
3. Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh
4. Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson
5. Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs
6. The Informers by Bret Easton-Ellis
7. Books Of Blood vol. 1-3 by Clive Barker
8. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
9. Howl & Other Poems by Allen Ginsberg
10. Cranial Guitar by Bob Kaufman
    Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut (tie)

John W.

1. V. by Thomas Pynchon
   Opened my eyes to what modern writing could do
2. Little, Big by John Crowley
   The best American magic-realist novel ever
3. Dhalgren by Samuel R. Delany
   Blew my mind
4. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
   Deceptive simplicity
5. Texasville by Larry McMurtry
   Pure pleasure; the most fun I've ever had reading a book
6. All We Need of Hell by Harry Crews
   He captures a reasonably happy life so well
7. Last Resort by Scott Sommer
   A 25 year old loser goes home to his family's decaying seaside house; fun and true
8. Desolation Angels by Jack Kerouac
9. Strange Wine by Harlan Ellison
   Would be perfect book with the addition of The Deathbird and a few other Ellison classics
10. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

Richard

1. Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
2. Desolation Angels by Jack Kerouac
3. Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac
4. Apocalypse by D.H. Lawrence
5. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
6. Ask the Dust by John Fante
7. Road to Los Angeles by John Fante
8. Ham on Rye by Charles Bukowski
9. Sense of Beauty by George Santayana
10. Ulysses by James Joyce

Christina C.

1. Desolation Angels by Jack Kerouac
   Ahhhh Ti Jean...in my eyes you're best
2. Still Life With Woodpecker by Tom Robbins
   Zany and great
3. The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran
   One of those life books you can always refer back to
4. On The Road by Jack Kerouac
   The first to open my eyes to a whole new world
5. Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac
   It just keeps you hooked
6. The First Third by Neal Cassady
   Oh the man behind the curtain....how interesting
7. Kerouac: A Biography by Ann Charters
   very informative, exactly what you're kind of wondering while reading his books
8. Off the Road by Carolyn Cassady
   A woman's point of view of some very interesting men
9. SMUT (aka Trashy Romances) by certain authors
   Always have to have a no brainer here and there
10. The Hungry Ocean by Linda Greenlaw
    Living in Downeast Maine...Fishing is a part of life

Little

1. Complete Fiction by Bruno Schulz
   As close to a dream as writing can get.
2. Cages by Dave McKean
   The safety of illusions, the golden cage of lost hopes. McKean is the Stanley Kubrick of his medium.
3. Dr.Sax by Jack Kerouac
   Kerouac´s highest high.
4. Beneath the Wheel by Hermann Hesse
   Moved me in many ways. Still does, always will.
5. Woodcutters by Thomas Bernhard
   (ditto)
6. The Nature of Time by G.J. Whitrow
   Phenomenal!
7. El Aleph by Jorge Louis Borges
   "I can't see Borges anywhere!" (Donald Cammell)
8. Dreams and Dead Ends by Jack Shadoian
   The American Gangster/Crime genre from Shadoian´s POV: Poetic, essential, passionate.
9. London Fields by Martin Amis
   Flawless, perfect!
10. Panegyric by Guy Debord
    The society of the spectacle couldn't make it here!

Hammond Guthrie

1. The I-Ching (original translation)
2. The Tibetan Book of the Dead (original translation)
3. Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
4. Scripture of the Golden Eternity by Jack Kerouac
5. Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth by Buckminster Fuller
6. The Rosy Crucifixion = Sexus, Plexus and Nexus by Henry Miller
7. Sometimes a Great Notion by Ken Kesey
8. Ulysses/Finnegans Wake (as a 2 Vol. entry) by James Joyce
9. The Wasteland by T.S. Eliot
10. The Elements of Style by Richard Strunk

Jean-Marie S.

1. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
2. On the Road by Jack Kerouac
3. Vanity of Duluoz by Jack Kerouac
4. Ask the Dust by John Fante
5. Basketball Diaries by Jim Carroll
6. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
7. Ninety-two in the Shade by Thomas Mc Guane
8. Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs
9. Less than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis
10. Rules of Attraction by Bret Easton Ellis

Michael

1. The Arabian Nightmare by Robert Irwin
2. Film As A Subversive Art by Amos Vogel
3. Franz Kafka by Max Brod
4. The Air Conditioned Nighmare by Henry Miller
5. Demian by Herman Hesse
6. Do What Thou Wilt: A Life of Aleister Crowley by Lawrence Sutin
7. The Happy Birthday of Death by Gregory Corso
8. Malina by Ingeborg Bachmann
9. As Serious As Your Life by Valerie Wilmer
10. Kain's Book by Alexander Trocchi

A.D. Winans

1. Steppenwolf by Herman Hesse
2. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
3. Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller
4. Catcher In the Rye by J.D. Salinger
5. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
6. On the Road by Jack Kerouac
7. Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
8. Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man by Fannie Flagg
9. All My Friends Are Going To be Strangers by Larry McMurtry
10. Memoirs Of A Shy Pornographer by Kenneth Patchen

Gary A.

1. Steppenwolf by Herman Hesse
2. The Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac
3. A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway
4. Ask The Dust by John Fante
5. Sixty-Seven Poems for Downtrodden Saints
6. The Winter of Our Discontent by John Steinbeck
7. The Subterraneans by Jack Kerouac
8. White Trash
9. Cities of the Red Night by William S. Burroughs
10. It Catches My Heart In Its Hands by Charles Bukowski

Mark A.

1. The Book Of JOB in the OT, La Bible de Jerusalem preferably
   There was once a man in the land of Uz & the final word was with Yahweh.
2. A Season In Hell by Arthur Rimbaud
   Emotion, Images, Hallucinations, a soul in torture on the spiritual path to....
3. Tristessa by Jack Kerouac
   Nothing like junky romance in the fellaheen streets.
4. Junky by William S. Burroughs
   More Junk...Junk Sick..Junk....
5. Factotum by Charles Bukowski
   & yes, by the sweat of your brow....
6. Down & Out in Paris and London by George Orwell
   Spend a night with the tramps in the 'spike.'
7. Really the Blues by Mezz Mezzrow
   take a rapid ride on the jazz train to.....
8. Ask the Dust by John Fante
   Be a writer...The Gamble for a Lifetime...
9. -10. (Let's Break The Rules) (Books by some new ones....)
   Rope Burns by F.X. Toole...Get this book.
   Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By In America by Barbara Ehrenreich...Get this book.
   Doghouse Flowers by Steve Earle....Get this book....
   Carp Fishing on Valium by Graham Parker...Get this book...

A William Burroughs top ten from Jed B. with his comments

comment: So you have read Naked Lunch and Junkie and maybe even paged though the Nova Trilogy of Soft Machine, The Ticket That Exploded and Nova Express, you think you know William Burroughs. Well that is only the tip of the iceberg. Here is a list of ten Burroughs to sink your teeth into after you have gotten your feet wet.

As with any list, this list has biases. The most notable one is the favoring of material written in the 1950's and 1960's. My interest in Burroughs falls in that era, but by no means does yours have to. Many people swear by The Western Lands, Cities of the Red Night, Place of the Dead Roads, etc. They are just not my cup of tea. So enjoy this list and run out and find these books. >

1. Literary Outlaw: The Life and Times of William Burroughs by Ted Morgan
   After scratching the Beat surface, it is time to dig into the grime of the life of el hombre invisible. A truly fascinating life. Until the Grauerholz bio comes out (a projected two part monster), the Morgan bio is the definitive account of Burroughs' life.
   
2. The Letters of William Burroughs 1945-1959 edited by Oliver Harris, Letters to Ginsberg 1953-1957, or The Yage Letters
   Read all the letters of Burroughs' you can get your hands on. All the Beats were great letter writers and their correspondence is rich and always interesting. To understand Burroughs' development as a writer you have to read his letters to Allen Ginsberg ("Perhaps the real novel is the letters to you"). The letters also show the more human, vulnerable side of Burroughs. The man who desperately needs human contact from his position at the edge of the world, both physical and mental.
3. The Burroughs File
   The cut up trilogy of Soft Machine, The Ticket That Exploded and Nova Express are no easy road. Try The Burroughs Files which collected Burroughs' short cut ups from the early 1960's into the 1970's. The cut up was Burroughs major creative innovation throughout the 1960's and a key to his output of this time. These pieces mostly appeared in the little magazines of the period and a tough to get a hold of, but the Burroughs File does all the work for you. All included are photocopies of Burroughs' journal and chapbooks which are works of art in themselves which brings one to:
4. Time
   This one is extremely difficult to get a hold of but it show that Burroughs' interest in art began before his shotgun paintings. Burroughs' cut up version of Time magazine is a beautiful example of Pop Art and Fluxus of the 1960's. Time sells for several hundred dollars as does the 1970's piracy, but if you can get a look at it, it shows Burroughs at the forefront of 1960's Art.
5. Ports Of Entry: William Burroughs and the Arts.
   The exhibition catalog to a Burroughs art show which further highlights Burroughs' connection to Art. A neglected facet of Burroughs' achievement.
6. William S. Burroughs: A Bibliography 1953-1973 by Maynard and Miles
   How in the hell do you keep track of all these obscure little magazines and underground, avant garde presses that kept Burroughs in print. The bibliography of course. Essential if you want to start collecting Burroughs. Maynard and Miles only goes to 1973 but Eric Shoaf published a checklist in 2000 that goes into the late 1990's. You can find it on eBay or AbeBooks.com.
7. The Best of William Burroughs from Giorno Poetry Systems
   You have not gotten the full Burroughs experience until you have heard him read. His midwestern, nasal deadpan is one of a kind. This collection brings together the earliest voice experiments from the Beat Hotel to readings from The Cat Inside. An entire career in four priceless CDs.
8. Queer
   Let's get back to the novels. An underground classic written in the 1950's which was whispered about until its publication in 198.A book about sexual addiction and a precursor to the issues of control in Naked Lunch. The preface alone is worth the price of admission. In it, Burroughs makes one of the few statements he would ever make on the death of his wife and the statements are shocking.
9. Wild Boys
   A shift in style and content for Burroughs. A relaxation or greater integration of the cut up technique coupled with a change in subject matter makes for in my mind Burroughs' best book after the Naked Lunch Word Horde. The book ushers in Burroughs' literary occupations for the next decade plus.
10. Dr. Sax by Jack Kerouac
    Kerouac had always envisioned writing a Visions of Bill but never truly got around to it. This book written in the bathroom of Burroughs' house in Mexico City is as close as he got. Burroughs lurks in the fleeting figure of the sinister Dr. Sax.

Josechu C.

1. The Artificial Paradises by Charles Baudelaire.
   In perfect style the author praises the marvelous effects that wine and hash have on him.
2. Stomping the Goyim by Michael Disend.
   How to be gay, jew and a dealer in the Lower East Side in the 60s.
3. Novel With Cocaine by Ageyev.
   The addiction to sex an cocaine of a young Russian in St Petersburg before and during the revolution.
4. A Scanner Darkly by Phillip K Dick.
   Using his own drug experience in the 60s. Dick builds a sci-fi novel that will capture you from the beginning.
5. London Fields by Martin Amis.
   Amis goes deeper than what Wolfe and Ellis went in Bonfire of the Vanities and American Psycho.
6. The Psychedelic Prayers by Tim Leary.
   If you want to read a different Tao here it is. Tao and LSD!
7. Burning Chrome by William Gibson.
   Gibson surprises again with his short stories including "Johnny Mnemonic".
8. Bobok by Dostoevsky.
   Dark tale about a drunk and the voice that he hears in the cemetery.
9. Coin Locker Babies by Ryu Murakami.
   Murakami´s style is violent and his obsessions dark as night.
10. Story of the Eye by Georges Bataille.
    One of the best erotic novels ever writen, to say the least of this masterpiece.

Jim Camp

1. You Can't Win by Jack Black
   Here's a book that was way ahead of its time, and right now, it's my all-time favorite. Next week, I'll have another new favorite...in fact, probably by next week I'll reread this list and wonder what in the world I was thinking.
2. The Burroughs Reader by William S Burroughs, edited by James Grauerholz
   I love this book, much better than any one of his novels when they stand alone; I'm not sure why.
3. Rock Salt & Glissandos by Steve Fisher
   The best book you're never going to hear about, much less read. And the best book of prison literature pulled off by an American. Big statement, but it's the truth.
4. Jesus' Son by Denis Johnson
   For my money, the best book on the drug experience since Naked Lunch.
5. Semina (entire run of 9), Wallace Berman, editor
   If little mags count...and I am assuming so, then how about an entire run? A magazine you couldn't buy? It just showed up ion your mailbox?! From an editor that was also one of the greatest -- and underrated -- artists of his time? Art is Love is God.
6. Sniffing Keyholes by Harold Norse
   Jack Micheline called it "the greatest piece of erotica ever written by an America." I agree.
7. Kaddish & Other Poems by Allen Ginsberg
   Everyone pays attention to Howl. This is what they should read.
8. The Violent Bear it Away by Flannery O'Connor
   Who needs Faulkner when we have Flannery?
9. The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
   Forget Viet Nam. Hands down the best fictional account of war, ever.
10. The Outsider #3 by various authors
    Yea, the award to Bukowski for Outsider of the Year makes this the best of the run...but wait. What about #1?!

John G.

• Tropic Of Cancer by Henry Miller
  
• Tropic Of Capricorn by Henry Miller
• The Thief's Journal by Jean Genet
  
• Journey To The End Of The Night by Celine
• Death On The Installment Plan by Celine
• Desolation Angels by Jack Kerouac
• Last Exit To Brooklyn by Hubert Selby Jr.
• The Book Of Laughter And Forgetting by Milan Kundera
• A Dreambook For Our Time by Tadeusz Konwicki
• Nadja by Andre Breton

Bill S.

1. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson
2. Flashman by George MacDonald Frasier
3. On the Road by Jack Kerouac
4. Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell
5. Journey to the End of the Night by Celine
6. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
7. A Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
8. The Year of Living Dangerously by CJ Koch
9. The Razor's Edge by Somerset Maugham
10. The Quiet American by Graham Greene
    A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway (tie>

Allison M.

1. The Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac
2. On the Road by Jack Kerouac
3. Big Sur by Jack Kerouac
4. Maggie Cassady by Jack Kerouac
5. Demian by Hermann Hesse
6. Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
7. Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
8. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
9. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
10. The Little Prince by Antoine De Saint-Exupery

Brian E.

1. The Magus by John Fowles
2. The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles
3. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig
4. The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
5. Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
6. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
7. Under the Volcano by Malcolm Lowry
8. The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus
9. The Beach by Alex Garland
10. The Lord of the Rings (can it count as one?) by JRR Tolkien