What’s the “coolest” book you’ve ever read? The Web site ShortList.com tried to answer that question recently with a very cool best-of books list called “The 50 Coolest Books Ever.” These books guarantee “gallons of cool,” according to the compilers of the list, and it’s hard to argue with them when you take a look at some of the titles that made the cut.
Without further ado, here’s the complete list:
1. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon (2000)
2. American Psycho by Brett Easton Ellis (1991)
3. American Tabloid by James Ellroy (1995)
4. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand (1957)
5. Black Hole by Charles Burns (1995)
6. Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy (1985)
7. Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe (1987)
8. Catch 22 by Joseph Heller (1961)
9. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess (1962)
10. A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole (1980)
11. The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen (2001)
12. Crash by J.G. Ballard (1973)
13. The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon (1966)
14. The Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac (1958)
15. Diary by Chuck Palahniuk (2003)
16. The Dice Man by Luke Rhinehart (1971)
17. Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer (2002)
18. Factotum by Charles Bukowski (1975)
19. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson (1971)
20. Fear of Flying by Erica Jong (1973)
21. Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk (1996)
22. The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand (1943)
23. Generation X by Douglas Coupland (1991)
24. Ghost World by Daniel Clowes (1993)
25. Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon (1973)
26. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1925)
27. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
28. Howl by Allen Ginsberg (1955)
29. If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino (1979)
30. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote (1966)
31. Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth by Chris Ware (2000)
32. Last Exit to Brooklyn by Hubert Selby Jr. (1964)
33. Less Than Zero by Brett Easton Ellis (1985)
34. Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides (2002)
35. Money by Martin Amis (1984)
36. Morvern Callar by Alan Warner (1995)
37. Naked Lunch by William Burroughs (1959)
38. Neuromancer by William Gibson (1984)
39. Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell (1949)
40. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey (1962)
41. On the Road by Jack Kerouac (1951)
42. Perfume by Patrick Suskind (1985)
43. The Secret History by Donna Tartt (1992)
44. Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut (1969)
45. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway (1926)
46. Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh (1993)
47. Underworld by Don DeLillo (1997)
48. The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks (1984)
49. Watchmen by Alan Moore (1986)
50. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami (1997)
In the end, how many of these books have you had the chance to read? Which did you like or dislike and why? Which was your favorite and why? Let us know in the comments section below.
Hi Lee, I must not be very cool, I've only read 11 of the books on the Cool list. I don't know if I agree about their being "cool", but most of the books on this list are dark, with depressing subject matter with the exception of "Confederacy of Dunces" and that was one of the funniest books I ever read. I believe it won the Pulitzer, but unfortunatly, the author died (or commited suicide, can't remember which) before the book was published! His mother kept pushing until the book was finally published!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing the list!
Dorothy