Great Books

Incendiary and non-incendiary material that at least one of the kids has completely read ( 95%), partially read, or plans on reading, and is convinced it will absolutely make your eyes light up:

Literature:
The Catcher In the Rye -  J. D. Salinger

The Perks of Being A Wallflower – Stephen Chbosky

Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas – Hunter S. Thompson

Fight Club – Chuck Palahniuk

Choke – Chuck Palahniuk

Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck

The Pearl – John Steinbeck

I Am the Messenger – Markus Zusak

Girl, Interrupted – Susana Kaysen

My Father’s Scar – Michael Cart

The Chocolate War – Robert Cormier

Monster – Walter Dean Meyers

1984 – George Orwell

Animal Farm – George Orwell

A Raisin In the Sun – Lorraine Hansberry

To Kill A Mockingbird – Harper Lee

Lord of the Flies – William Golding

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl

The Outsiders – S.E. Hinton

On the Road – Jack Kerouac

Macbeth – William Shakespeare

Romeo & Juliet – William Shakespeare

Julius Caesar – William Shakespeare

Hamlet – William Shakespeare

Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead – Tom Stoppard

A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens

A Story A Day Till Christmas – Various Authors

Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoevsky

Naked Lunch – William S. Burroughs

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest – Ken Kesey

A Separate Peace – John Knowles

The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald

Death of A Salesman – Arthur Miller

The Crucible – Arthur Miller

The Things They Carried – Tim O’Brien

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn – Mark Twain

Brave New World – Aldous Huxley

The Shining – Stephen King

Carrie – Stephen King

The Call of the Wild – Jack London

In Cold Blood – Truman Capote

Youth In Revolt By: C.D. Payne

A Clockwork Orange – Anthony Burgess

Last Exit to Brooklyn -  Hubert Selby Jr.

The Jungle – Upton Sinclair

Uncle Tom’s Cabin – Harriet Beecher Stowe

All the Pretty Horses By: Cormac McCarthy

Peter Pan – J.M. Barrie

Trainspotting – Irvine Welsh

Inherit the Wind – Jerome Lawrence and Robert Edwin Lee

Biographies, Autobiographies, Memoirs:
From Yale to Jail: An Autobiography of A Moral Dissenter – Dave Dellinger

Electric Kool Aid Acid Test – Tom Wolfe

Bill Hicks: Agent of Evolution – Kevin Booth with Michael Bertin

The Autobiography of Malcolm X As Told to Alex Healy

Heavier Than Heaven – Charles R. Cross

Soon to Be A Major Motion Picture – Abbie Hoffman

Flashbacks – Timothy Leary

Hell’s Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs By: Hunter S. Thompson

Kingdom of Fear By: Hunter S. Thompson

Black Boy By: Richard Wright

Living My Life By: Emma Goldman

Live From Death Row By: Mumia Abu-Jamal

Soul On Ice By: Eldridge Cleaver

Get In the Van By: Henry Rollins

Fugitive Days By: Bill Ayers

Underground By: Mark Rudd

Andy Warhol: Prince of Pop By: Jan Greenburg

Cash: The Autobiography of Johnny Cash

The Motorcycle Diaries By: Ernesto “Che” Guevara

Politics/Social Justice:
A People’s History of the United States: 1492-Present By: Howard Zinn

Do iT!: Scenarios of the Revolution By: Jerry Rubin

We Are Everywhere By: Jerry Rubin

Recipes for Disaster: An Anarchist Cookbook By: Crimethlnc

No Logo By: Naomi Klein

The Shock Doctrine By: Naomi Klein

Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media By: Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky

Failed States: The Assault of Power and the Abuse on Democracy By: Noam Chomsky

The Chomsky Reader

Media Control By: Noam Chomsky

Chomsky On Anarchism

Noam Chomsky: A Life of Dissent

Profit Over People By: Noam Chomsky

Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion By: Gary Webb

Why Our Drug Laws Have Failed and What We Can Do About It By: Judge James P. Gray

The Communist Manifesto By: Karl Marx and Fredrich Engels

Walden and Civil Disobedience By: Henry David Thoreau

The Declaration of Independence By: Thomas Jefferson

The Constitution of the United States of America By Various Authors, even if it is a basterd in the Chomskyian sense, know it, it’s your only defense!

Letters From Birmingham Jail By: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Port Hurron Statement By: Tom Hayden

Black Panthers Speak By: Phillip S. Foner and various Panthers

Malcolm X Speaks

Revolution For the Hell of It By: Abbie Hoffman

Steal This Book By: Abbie Hoffman

Lies My Teacher Told Me By: James W. Lowren

Prison Writings By: Leonard Peltier

Helter Skelter By: Vincent Bugliosi and Curt Gentry

Crashing the Party By: Ralph Nader

Cutting Corporate Welfare By: Ralph Nader

Revolutionary Nonviolence By: Dave Dellinger

Anarchism and Other Essays By: Emma Goldman

My Disillusionment In Russia By: Emma Goldman

Now and After: The ABC of Communist Anarchism By: Alexander Berkman

Guerrilla Warfare By: Ernesto “Che” Guevara

Sacco & Vanzetti: Murderers or Murdered? By: Harold Blummenfeld

The FBI and the Berrigans By: Jack Nelson

The Gonzo Papers By: Hunter S. Thompson

Music/Entertainment/Pop Culture:
Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes From the Indie Underground 1981-1991 By: Michael Azzerad

Here, There, and Everywhere: The 100 Best Beatles Songs By: Stephen J. Spignesi and Michael Lewis

American Hardcore: A Tribal History By: Stephen Blush

Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs By: Chuck Klostermen

The Greatest Album Ever Made By: Lestor Bangs

We Owe You Nothing: Punk Planet, the Collected Interviews By: Various Authors

Humor:
The Simpsons: A Complete Guide to Our Favorite Family By: Various

The Simpsons Forever By: Various

The Simpsons Beyond Forever By: Various

Bart Simpson’s Guide to Life By: Various

Love All the People By: Bill Hicks

Philosophy:
The Antichrist By: Friedrich Nietzsche

The Simpsons and Philosophy By: Various

Psychology:
The Simpsons and Psychology By: Various

High Priest By: Timothy Leary

The Interpretation Of Dreams By: Sigmund Freud

Psychology and Religion By: Carl Jung

Religion/Spirituality:
The Doors of Perception By: Aldous Huxley

The Satanic Bible By: Anton Lavey

The Holy Bible By Various Authors

Siddhartha By: Herman Hesse

Poetry:
Howl and Other Poems By: Allen Ginsburg

The Odyssey By Homer

William Blake: The Complete Poems

And Hundreds of others…

Short Story:
The Portable Poe

“An Occurence At Owl Creek Bridge” By: Ambrose Bierce

A&P By: John Updike

The works of O. Henry

Several Others…

Children:
The works of Dr. Seuss, Judy Blume, Shel Silverstein, Louis Sacher, and various others.

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*Anyone and everyone is free and encouraged to add their favorites!