| Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - Thompson, Hunter S. |
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Annotation
An electric piece of work that takes off like a screaming rocket about the world of drugs in Las Vegas.
From the Publisher
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is the best chronicle of drug-soaked, addle-brained, rollicking good times ever committed to the printed page. It is also the tale of a long weekend road trip that has gone down in the annals of American pop culture as one of the strangest journeys ever undertaken.
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| Jitterbug Perfume - Robbins, Tom |
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From the Publisher
Jitterbug Perfume is an epic. which is to say, it begins in the forests of ancient Bohemia and doesn't conclude until nine o'clock tonight [Paris time]. It is a saga, as well. A saga must have a hero, and the hero of this one is a janitor with a missing bottle. The bottle is blue, very, very old, and embossed with the image of a goat-horned god. If the liquid in the bottle is actually is the secret essence of the universe, as some folks seem to think, it had better be discovered soon becaused it is leaking and there is only a drop of two left.
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| Last Temptation of Christ - Kazantzakis, Nikos |
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Synopsis
A fictional reinterpretation of the story of the Gospels explores the human component of Christ's being.
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| Naked Lunch - Burroughs, William S. |
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Annotation
A classic of modern literature for over 35 years, Naked Lunch is the unnerving tale of Bill Lee, addicted to hustlers and narcotics, and his monumental descent into Hell. His journey takes him from New York to Tangiers, as he runs from the police and searches for a place to buy and take drugs.
Ultimately, he enters the hallucinatory fantasy world of the 'Interzone,' a nightmarish urban wasteland where individual freedom confronts the forces of totalitarianism.
From the Publisher
Naked Lunch is the unnerving tale of a monumental descent into the hellish world of a narcotics addict as he travels from New York to Tangiers, then into Interzone, a nightmarish modern urban wasteland in which the forces of good and evil vie for control of the individual and all of humanity. By mixing the fantastic and the realistic with his own unmistakable vision and voice, Burroughs has created a unique masterpiece that is a classic of twentieth century fiction.
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| On the Road - Kerouac, Jack |
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Few novels have had as profound an impact as On the Road, and Kerouac's vision continues to inspire: three generations of writers, musicians, artists, and poets cite their discovery of On the Road as the event that "set them free." This hardcover edition commemorates the fortieth anniversary of the original publication of an American classic. On the Road chronicles Kerouac's years traveling the North American continent, from East Coast to West Coast to Mexico, with his friend Neal Cassady, "a sideburned hero of the snowy West." As "Sal Paradise" and "Dean Moriarty," the two roam the country in a quest for self-knowledge and experience. Kerouac's love of America, his compassion for humanity, and his sense of language as jazz combine to make On the Road an inspirational work of lasting importance.
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| Portable Beat Reader - Charters, Ann (ed.) |
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Synopsis
This is an anthology of poetry and prose pieces from the Beat generation of writers. "Arranged chronologically in six sections, it includes excerpts from {Jack} Kerouac's On the Road {BRD 1957}, Allen Ginsberg's Howl, and William S. Burroughs's Naked Lunch {BRD 1963}, as well as work by Herbert Huncke {and} Ray Bremser {among others}." (Libr J)
Annotation
The most comprehensive anthology available of the writing that electrified and, at times, outraged America. In poetry, fiction, essays, letters, song lyrics, and memoirs, this forceful collection captures the energy, rudeness, and exhilaration of the works of Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, Bob Dylan, Diane Di Prima, and other prominent voices of the Beat Movement.
From the Publisher
Beginning in the late 1940s, American literature discovered a four-letter word, and the word was "beat." Beat as in poverty and beatitude, ecstacy and exile. Beat was Jack Kerouac touring the American road in prose as fast and reckless as a V-8 Chevy. It was the junk-sick surrealism of William Burroughs, the wild, Whitmanesque poetry of Allen Ginsberg, and the lumberjack Zen of Gary Snyder.
The Portable Beat Reader collects the most significant writing of these and fellow members (and spiritual descendants) of the Beat Generation, including Neal Cassady, Gregory Corso, Diane DiPrima, Bob Dylan, Leroi Jones, and Michael McClure. In poetry, fiction, essays, song lyrics, letters, and memoirs, it captures the triumphant rudeness, energy, and exhilaration of a movement that swept through American letters with hurricane force.
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| Robinson Crusoe - Defoe, Daniel |
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From the Publisher
Who has not dreamed of life on an exotic isle, far away from civilization? Here is the novel which has inspired countless imitations by lesser writers, none of which equal the power and originality of Defoe's famous book. Robinson Crusoe, set ashore on an island after a terrible storm at sea, is forced to make do with only a knife, some tobacco, and a pipe. He learns how to build a canoe, make bread, and endure endless solitude. That is, until, twenty-four years later, when he confronts another human being. First published in 1719, Robinson Crusoe has been praised by such writers as James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, and Samuel Johnson as one of the greatest novels in the English language.
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| Siddhartha - Hesse, Hermann |
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From the Publisher
In the novel, Siddhartha, a young man, leaves his family for a contemplative life, then, restless, discards it for one of the flesh. He conceives a son, but bored and sickened by lust and greed, moves on again. Near dispair, Siddhartha comes to a river where he hears a unique sound. This sound signals the true beginning of life - the beginning of suffering, rejection, peace and, finally, wisdom.
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| Slaughterhouse-Five - Vonnegut Jr., Kurt |
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From the Publisher
Launched in November, Dell's Kurt Vonnegut reissue program continues with one of the world's great anti-war books. Centering on the infamous firebombing of Dresden, Billy Pilgrim's odyssey through time reflects the mythic journey of our own fractured lives as we search for meaning in what we are afraid to know.
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| Still Life With Woodpecker - Robbins, Tom |
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Annotation
One of Robbins most popular novels, this is a sort of love story that takes place inside a pack of Camel cigarettes. It reveals the purpose of the moon, explains the difference between criminals and outlaws, and paints a portrait of contemporary society that includes powerful Arabs, exiled royalty, and pregnant cheerleaders. It also deals with the problem of redheads.
From the Publisher
Still Life with Woodpecker is sort of a love story that takes place inside a pack of Camel cigarettes. It reveals the purpose of the moon, explains the difference between criminals and outlaws, examines the conflict between social activism and romantic individualism, and paints a portrait of contemporary society that includes powerful Arabs, exiled royalty, and pregnant cheerleaders. It also deals with the problem of redheads.
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| The Creators: A History of Heroes of the Imagination - Boorstin, Daniel J.. |
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From the Publisher
By piecing the lives of selected individuals into a grand mosaic, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Daniel J. Boorstin explores the development of artistic innovation over 3,000 years. A hugely ambitious chronicle of the arts that Boorstin delivers with the scope that made his Discoverers a national bestseller.
Note
I read this when I got back home and was working on my Social Studies Teaching Certification. - Pete
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| The Hero with a Thousand Faces - Campbell, Joeseph |
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Annotation
A look into the variety of hero myths and the similarities that run through different cultures by making use of psychology and folklore.
Description from The Reader's Catalog
This best-seller attempts to discover an archetypal "monomyth" within the myths of various cultures
From the Publisher
The amazing, best-selling exploration of world myth and the individual soul's development that has changed millions of lives and was the focus of the recent Bill Moyers special on PBS.
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| The Tao of Pooh - Hoff, Benjamin |
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From Library Journal
Author/narrator Hoff calls Winnie the Pooh a "Western Taoist'' and uses the unassuming bear to introduce Eastern philosophical principles. Pooh epitomizes the "uncarved block,'' as he is well in tune with his natural inner self. Pooh enjoys simple pleasures and the daily progress of life. Hoff contrasts this unpretentiousness to other characters created by Winnie - the - Pooh author A.A. Milne, including Owl, whom he describes as a "mind that tries too hard,'' and Eeyore, the eternal pessimist. In a clear and crisp voice, Hoff explains the central tenets of Taoism and further illustrates them with familiar excerpts from The House at Pooh Corner stories (1923), Chinese proverbs, maxims, and tales from Lao Tzu and others. The result is at once thought-provoking and charming. This is a small literary event that will leave all who experience it a little more serene. For most collections.-- Jeanne P. Leader, Western Nebraska Community Coll. Lib., Scotts bluff.
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| Tropic of Cancer - Miller, Henry |
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From the Publisher
Now hailed as an American classic, Tropic of Cancer, Henry Miller's masterpiece, was banned as obscene in this country for twenty-seven years after its first publication in Paris in 1934. Only a historic court ruling that changed American censorship standards, ushering in a new era of freedomand frankness in modern literature, permitted the publication of this first volume of Miller's famed mixture of memoir and fiction, which chronicles with unapologetic gusto the bawdy adventures of a young expatriate writer, his friends, and the characters they meet in Paris in the 1930s.
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These are just a few of books that helped warp our minds as we
walked.