Best Beat book ever

I'd say it Trout Fishing in America by Brautinga, it's simply great, it's a book about which you can easily say you haven't read anything like it.

 

A great topic; I'm surprised more people haven't responded. I know of lots I haven't read, so I suppose I can't make a fair judgement. However, I'd have to mention (authors) Tom Wolfe, Allen Ginsberg, Ken Kesey, William S. Burrows, Charles Bukowski (I think), J.G. Ballard, and Anthony Burgess. I'm sure there are more. Look up "cult fiction" in a search engine, and you find a great many of these authors and their best works.

 

someone give me some good books to read! I've always be into reading out crazy stiuations that happen to a person..things like that I guess...

 

What kind of book would you like? Cryptic, pathetic, beautiful or dark?

 

anything, just as long as its interesting...and I like to read books that I can put myself in the character(s) place

 

oh ok then I suggest reading Andrei Makine(french), "The sky and the earth of Jaques Dorme", I'm not sure it's the exact translation, but it's really with a lot of psychological insight, you feel that he's writing the book just there in front of your eyes, it's amazing

 

thats easy.. Matilda by Roald Dahl.

 

personally i like On The Road which is the main book of the beat generation. But some other off beat books to check out would be the electric kool aid acid test by tom wolfe. Naked lunch is a good one. ummmm Some authors and poets to look at would be Kerouac, Ginsberg, Mclure, Burroughs, and some others but i hope this helps some people

 

Kesey wasn't a beat, more of a proto-hippie. Brautigan was a fringe beat who made it big during the hippie movement. Best beat book should therefore belong to either Kerouac or Burroughs for prose, or Ginsberg for poetry.

http://www.bellinghamherald.com/lifestyle/story/269986.html

 

South of No North - Bukowski
Junk - Burroughs
Labryinths - Borges
1933 Was a Bad Year - Fante

 

The Dharma Bums by Kerouac - read it and you'll know why...

Another great classic by the trancendentalists of the 19th century would be Thoreau's WALDEN....

 

Well, I would say he bridged the gap between the two movements.

As for a "beat" book, I would find some Michael McClure, or Ginsberg. "Kaddish and Other Poems" is an interesting one.

But there is a book called "The Beat Reader" which is an anthology of the writing of all of these guys and all the writers considered to be "beats." It's definitely worth finding.

 

First of all there is no "Best Beat Book" that's all subjective. If you had asked favorites then you have something.

 

you guys gotta read dharma bums by jack kerouac or umm another would be the Subterreans by him. they are an awesome Kerouac read.

 

Some of the authors mentioned here are definitely not beat or hippie authors. Borges dabbled with magical realism and metaphysical philosophy and Anthony Burgess was a modernist with some pretty "unhippie-ish" sentiments. Plus, they're not from the location and the time period. Both good authors though. People have already mentioned the main figures/texts over and over -Jack Kerouac / William Burroughs /Allen Ginsberg.

There were proto-hippies and semi-beats and artists/writers who just generally didn't like to be labelled; friends of the "big three" - (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beat_generation#As_a_large_group_of_writers). There was influence from authors like Aldous Huxley (Doors of Perception [psychedelics]) and Carlos Castaneda (Teachings of Don Juan [mysticism/shamanism]) who weren't parts of the movements themselves, but wrote books that the counterculture embraced.

I just really want to encourage people to look beyond the main figures because there were a lot more under-appreciated writers who built on the foundations those key authors laid. I'd give another recommendation to Michael McClure. His poetry and writing, while a little hard to find sometimes, is really good. Thankyou to whoever recommended Thoreau. Those much older influences really help you understand the heart of the philosophy.

 

I adored Dharma Bums by Kerouac. Loved it.
and yeah, On the Road is good too by him.

 

Thanks for the link rl9x. There is a lot of good information on beat authors.
Now I'm going to tweak my summer reading list a bit.

 

electric kool-aid acid test!

 

homage to catalonia

i still gotta read that shit

 

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