is the number of titles i've read which appear on this list from the Telegraph of the 50 best cult books. Their selection is not quite optimal though, as it is missing some seemingly obvious texts - such as Ballard's Crash, the Illuminatus! trilogy by Shea and Wilson, and Big Bill's Naked Lunch.
damn, i've only read FOUR of them: Slaughterhouse Five, On The Road, Electric Kool-aid Acid Test, and The Stranger. Many of them i should have read, such as Siddhartha and Catcher in the Rye. I have started some of them, only to drift off halfway through, such as Catch 22, and Gödel, Escher, Bach (which has a great explanation of the structure of a Fugue).
the idea of 'cult' anything usually turns me off. it the same as the notion of 'hip', which becomes more hollow i grow older. For instance, The Right Stuff is Wolfe's best book in my view, but since it doesn't deal with the so-called 'counter-culture', it is not 'hip' or 'cult'.
i have a copy of Siddhartha. it's probably time to check it out.
Posted by: Gauleiter Rodine | 27 April 2008 at 17:33