I realise that most people probably won’t even read this whole article let alone any of these books, but here’s a few more:

The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch by Philip K. Dick:

Published in 1965, this science fiction novel features corporate psychics and satanic takeover artists.

An author with a profound philosophical mind and wit.

Diary of a Mad Old Man by Junichiro Tanizaki:

Published in 1965, the novel is the journal of Utsugi, a 77-year-old man of refined tastes who is recovering from a stroke.

Other great books include The Key.

There is a lot of quiet humor in these works, and Richard Brautigan dedicated one of his novels to this author.

The Tin Drum by Gunther Grass:
The autobiography of 30-year-old Oskar Matzerath, who at age three is given a tin drum and also, disgusted at the obtuseness of the adult world, decides to stop growing.

He experiences the Nazi era, all the while treasuring his tin drum.

Homeboy by Seth Morgan: A novel of the San Francisco underworld.

A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole:

Published in 1980, 11 years after the suicide of the author, the novel is set in New Orleans in the early 1960s.

Ignatius J.Reilly, a slothful, intelligent 30-year-old living with his mother, sets out to get a job.

Along the way he has adventures with colorful characters from the French Quarter.

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath: A semi-autobiographical novel about a young girl working as a guest editor at a New York fashion magazine, whose mental breakdown and suicide attempt parallel the author’s own.

Ice by Anna Kavan (1967): A dream-like novel about a man on a quest for a woman he sees in dreams and hallucinations, while a doomed world heads into a new ice age.

Complete Short Stories, Flannery O’Connor: A Southern Gothic writer.

Comics:

Viz (the English satirical comic): Sometimes hit-and-miss, occasionally puerile, yet often intelligent satire.

Too much so-called satire these days is partisan: just people from Party A attacking the ideological follies and vices of Party B.

Of course, if anyone attacks the ideological follies and vices of Party A they quickly lose their sense of humor.

To borrow a phrase, that sort of one-sided satire is the work of “ideological opportunists and moral hypocrites”.

It’s mundane at best.

Viz has taken swipes at the follies and vices of all sorts of people, left, right and otherwise.

Robert Crumb anthologies, like Carload O’ Comics:

Autobiographical and other comics drawn in an old fashioned style.

He pulls no punches with his honesty about his life and in his social criticism.

Underworld by Kaz.

Schizo by Ivan Brunetti.

Eightball by Dan Clowes:

These three comics artists are some of the best around, although there are many other great comics artists these days.

Raw: Anthologies of interesting comics, published by Penguin.

Mr. Arashi’s Amazing Freak Show by Suehiro Maruo:

A grim manga about a little orphan ensnared in a traveling freak show.

Biographies:

Wired, The Short Life and Fast Times of John Belushi, by Bob Woodward:

This has been criticized by some close to John Belushi, but it’s still good.

No-one Here Gets Out Alive by Jerry Hopkins and Danny Sugarman: The biography of Jim Morrison and The Doors.

Dylan Thomas in America by J.M. Brinnin:

An account of the great poet’s reading tour of the U.S., up to his last days.

Poetry:

French Symbolists: Many rock musicians, including Jim Morrison, Bob Dylan, Steve Kilbey and Patti Smith, have been greatly influenced by the French Symbolist poets.

Symbolists believed that words could not adequately express reality, which the realists believed, and they sought to recreate reality through symbols to express what is seen and felt.

The best-known Symbolists include Arthur Rimbaud (A Season in Hell) and Charles Baudelaire (The Flowers of Evil).

At the risk of sounding like an old Catholic: The Bible (maybe starting with The New Testament):

This also is a favorite of some rock musicians known for the quality of their lyrics.

But besides the great language, it’s an inspiring and wise guide to living and thinking.

Also, check the interviews in Readersvoice.com for more reading suggestions.

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