The 50 Coolest Books of All Time

[JamesSavik]

Shortlist.com

 

The 50 Coolest Books of All Time

 

SourceLink: http://www.shortlist...lest-books-ever

 

Away with thee Harry Chamber-Potter

 

Films you can quote for cheap giggles down the pub; records (vinyl, natch) earn you kudos among a select coterie of like-minded obsessives; but nothing – absolutely nothing – says understated cool (always the coolest cool) like a well-thumbed copy of A Confederacy of Dunces.

Want in on the action? Get yourself down to your local bookstore immediately and get acquainted with the following 50 tomes. Gallons of cool guaranteed.

 

American Psycho

Less Than Zero

A Clockwork Orange

On the Road

Naked Lunch

Catch 22

Slaughterhouse 5

Gravity's Rainbow

The Smartest Kid on Earth

The Dice Man

Generation X

A Confederacy of Dunces

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Everything is Illuminated

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius

Fear of Flying

Crash

Money

On A Winter's Night A Traveler

The Sun Also Rises

Perfume

Nuromancer

Factotum

The Wind Up Bird Chronicle

Atlas Shrugged

Trainspotting

Black Hole

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

The Wasp Factory

The Fountainhead

Morvern Callar

Nineteen Eighty-four

Fight Club

The Secret History

Middlesex

In Cold Blood

The Crying of Lot 49

Watchmen

Diary

Ghost World

Bonfire of the Vanities

Last Exit to Brooklyn

Howl

The Dharma Bums

The Great Gatsby

Blood Meridian

The Corrections

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay

American Tabloid

Underworld

 

 

______________________________________

 

 

How many have you read? I'm down for 14.

[TetRefine]

I've seen a lot of the movies, but I've never actually read any of the books listed. Most of them aren't my types of read anyway.

Edited January 26, 2012 by TetRefine

[Tomas]

Made it to 12 fully read, some of them more than once, and I count 5 only partially read for one reason or another.

[Krista]

None.. lol.. I shall remedy that..

[Andy78]

Have read none of those. None of those really appeal.

 

I'm a Dickens, Twain or Stephen King reader.

[Cyhort]

If Watchmen is the graphic novel then that's the only one. I kinda hated it though I've seen a bunch of the movies though. None of the books are really my thing, I'm more of a sci-fi/fantasy/romance/combination of the three guy.

[Gene Splicer PHD]

About 20. Standouts : a confederacy of dunces, a heartbreaking work, fight club, middlesex, American psycho, blood meridian, crash

 

MY VALVE IS PALPITATING MOTHER

[JamesSavik]

The Naked Lunch is awesome. I like Burroughs stuff. He's one of the original gay hippies that had the guts to write about his sexuality- WAY before Stonewall and it cost him. He lived outside the United States for many years before it was safe to live here.

[Daddydavek]

Some interesting reads of which I've finished 11, some read a couple of times. I've started another 7 and put them down without finishing. While it is an interesting list, it is hardly comprehensive and there ares some very cool books missing. For instance, Catcher in the Rye, The Old Man and the Sea, The Heart of Darkness....I could go on ad nauseum.

[Adam Phillips]

I've read twenty of them. I'm always reading, all the time--usually on multiple books--and appreciate others' lists of books (or music, for that matter) that they recommend highly, so thanks.

 

I read indiscriminately. I don't like sticking with types of books that I think I'll like. If I did that, I'd miss all the really fine stuff out there that I wouldn't ordinarily go to. Sometimes I go to the fiction shelf in the library and close my eyes and grab. I've discovered some really good stuff that way. Some really awful stuff too, but hey, nothing ventured, etc.

 

Right now I'm on a Hemingway binge. People go on about The Sun Also Rises and some of the other novels, and for good reason, but the short stories are compelling.

 

I'll also give an enthusiastic thumbs-up with you regarding The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay.

[Zolia Lily]

Have read none of those. None of those really appeal.

 

 

I'm with you. I started one and couldn't finish it.

 

Also.... I think there's a whole lot of people out there who pick these up because they're "hip" (yes, i did just say that) and have that "understated cool" thing going on... but in that case it makes them try-hards and makes me want to throttle them. Great if you actually enjoy these books - any books! But if you pick up a book because you think it's going to make you look cool?

...no.

 

Just. NO.

[rustle]

I've only read 8, but I'd like to add a few to the list:

 

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Brave New World

The Mosquito Coast

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle

 

Thanks for the List, James. It reminded me of several I've meant to read for some time.

[JamesSavik]

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Brave New World

 

YES!

[Nastasha]

I have read exactly four of those books, three of them for English classes in high school. I'm really surprised not to see Lord of the Flies on the list, I have to say. Or Catcher in the Rye. Or Of Mice and Men. I thought those were pretty great, too.

[colinian]

I've read 14 of these books. I read five of these in high school, including A Confederacy of Dunces; they were on our required reading lists for English.

 

Colin

[Graeme]

Nuromancer

 

I'm guessing that that's supposed to be "Neuromancer" - a SciFi classic. by William Gibson.

[Dee]

Out of those, I have read these ones:

 

American Psycho

A Clockwork Orange

Catch 22

The Great Gatsby

Slaughterhouse 5

 

However, I have read a ton of books, just not too many on those lists, lol. I think I absolutely adored Bret Easton Ellis' American Psycho.

[Jasper]

I've read... None of them. And I'm meant to be a Lit student.

 

Jeez, my self esteem just took a beating

 

One book I have read and loved though was Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude--that book I'll recommend to anyone who'll sit still long enough, it was incredible.

 

Recently read Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children, thought I'd see what all the fuss was about. That's pretty good too.

[W_L]

A few, but I am kind of surprised Ayn Rand got on the list before so many others, plus Buroughs and Capote (both gay authors ) were on the list, so I wonder who compiled it.

 

I also would like to add one more that probably speaks more to my generation than the older guys and probably would seem strange to the younger guys, but it is still cool today:

 

The Perks of being a Wallflower

 

It's a good book and the movie hopefully will do it justice, so it can become a symbol not only of my generation struggles to find meaning and sort through our tangled lives, but also be part of the current generation.