50 best cult books

Psychedelic

The Daily Telegraph 50 best cult books

1. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut (1969)
2. The Alexandria Quartet by Lawrence Durrell (1957-60)
3. A Rebours by JK Huysmans (1884)
4. Baby and Child Care by Dr Benjamin Spock (1946)
5. The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf (1991)
6. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath (1963)
7. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (1961)
8. The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger (1951)
9. The Celestine Prophecy by James Redfield (1993)
10. The Dice Man by Luke Rhinehart (1971)
11. Chariots of the Gods: Was God An Astronaut? by Erich Von Däniken (1968)
12. A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole (1980)
13. Confessions by Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1782)
14. The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner by James Hogg (1824)
15. Dianetics: the Modern Science of Mental Health by L Ron Hubbard (1950)
16. The Doors of Perception by Aldous Huxley (1954)
17. Dune by Frank Herbert (1965)
18. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (1979)
19. The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe (1968)
20. Fear of Flying by Erica Jong (1973)
21. The Female Eunuch by Germaine Greer (1970)
22. The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand (1943)
23. Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas R Hofstadter (1979)
24. Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon (1973)
25. The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln (1982)
26. I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith (1948)
27. If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller by Italo Calvino (1979)
28. Iron John: a Book About Men by Robert Bly (1990)
29. Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach and Russell Munson (1970)
30. The Magus by John Fowles (1966)
31. Labyrinths by Jorge Luis Borges (1962)
32. The Leopard by Giuseppe di Lampedusa (1958)
33. The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov (1967)
34. No Logo by Naomi Klein (2000)
35. On The Road by Jack Kerouac (1957)
36. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S Thompson (1971)
37. The Outsider by Colin Wilson (1956)
38. The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran (1923)
39. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists by Robert Tressell (1914)
40. The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám tr by Edward FitzGerald (1859)
41. The Road to Oxiana by Robert Byron (1937)
42. Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse (1922)
43. The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1774)
44. Story of O by Pauline Réage (1954)
45. The Stranger by Albert Camus (1942)
46. The Teachings of Don Juan: a Yaqui Way of Knowledge by Carlos Castaneda (1968)
47. Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain (1933)
48. Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1883-85)
49. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (1960)
50. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: an Inquiry into Values by Robert M Pirsig (1974)

I've only read 10 of them myself.

randomguy

Have read 20 of them (21 if you include no. 50, which I didn't finish). I would replace no. 2 with Tunc and Nunquam (just because I have read them, and they are very cult-ish!!!)

I would take off 11 (because it is loony) 15 (because it is made up looniness), 25 (because it is made-up looniness), 29 (because it is crap) and 46 (because it is made up and loony again) but would leave 50 in.

Seems there are books there that are cult novels, but for some reason they decided to put in influential (self-alleged) non-fiction books from left-field (the part of the field where things like facts and non-looniness are not really valued).

But good list all the same.

buck65

read only 6!!
what is a cult book anyway?
Salinger, Borges, Camus all very mainstream no?

Esmereldina

randomguy wrote: »

Have read 20 of them (21 if you include no. 50, which I didn't finish). I would replace no. 2 with Tunc and Nunquam (just because I have read them, and they are very cult-ish!!!)

I would take off 11 (because it is loony) 15 (because it is made up looniness), 25 (because it is made-up looniness), 29 (because it is crap) and 46 (because it is made up and loony again) but would leave 50 in.

Seems there are books there that are cult novels, but for some reason they decided to put in influential (self-alleged) non-fiction books from left-field (the part of the field where things like facts and non-looniness are not really valued).

But good list all the same.

I've read 11...
It doesn't really matter whether some of the allegedly non fiction books are composed of fact or not, does it? As long as they attract enough of a following, then they are cult books whether they are made up of complete idiocy or not!!

read only 6!!
what is a cult book anyway?
Salinger, Borges, Camus all very mainstream no?

'Cult', I presume refers to its popularity, or perhaps even more the way in which it has tapped into the spirit of an age and often gathered very devoted fans as well as sheer numbers of readers (ie Catcher in the Rye, Hitchhiker's Guide etc).

owlwink

nice round 10 for me:D

RonMexico

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut (1969)
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (1961)
The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger (1951)
The Dice Man by Luke Rhinehart (1971)
The Doors of Perception by Aldous Huxley (1954)
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe (1968)
The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand (1943)
The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln (1982)
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov (1967)
On The Road by Jack Kerouac (1957)
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S Thompson (1971)
The Outsider by Colin Wilson (1956)
The Stranger by Albert Camus (1942)
The Teachings of Don Juan: a Yaqui Way of Knowledge by Carlos Castaneda (1968)
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: an Inquiry into Values by Robert M Pirsig (1974)

Have all of these read most of them and enjoyed them thoroughly.

studiorat

Did I miss Dan Brown in that list?

My faves are the Bell Jar and Zen and the art...
Oh! and Hitch Hikers Guide and Slaughter House 5 (but not his best)
No Zola and a small Russian presence though!

Personally I feel that 37. Should be the Outsider by Albert Camus.
Much more of a cult book, since the 80's anyway. What with the Cure an all...

And! every time I think of Catcher in the Rye I want to strangle that little f2cker! I've never taken such a dislike to a character in a book as him...

Holy Blood etc.. is just pants.

Read about twelve and a half of them. Godel, Escher Bach just wrecked my head...

randomguy

studiorat wrote: »

Personally I feel that 37. Should be the Outsider by Albert Camus.
Much more of a cult book, since the 80's anyway. What with the Cure an all...

That's actually there too, funnily enough: number 45 (in Engish L'Etranger is known as both The Outsider and The Stranger).

studiorat

Well every day's a school day, wha? I saw it and never made the connection.
The did miss the Holy Bible though ;o)

I wouldn't mind reading 'Chariots of the Gods', just to see how it's lasted.

And while I'm at it "Three men and a boat" could be there too...

owlwink

studiorat wrote: »

Well every day's a school day, wha? I saw it and never made the connection.
The did miss the Holy Bible though ;o)

I wouldn't mind reading 'Chariots of the Gods', just to see how it's lasted.

And while I'm at it "Three men and a boat" could be there too...

dont' forget ps I ove you :D:D:D:D:D:D:D(joke)

raah!

15: Dianetics: the Modern Science of Mental Health by L Ron Hubbard (1950)

This has certainly had a "cult" following. wha wha wha

thusspakeblixa

raah! wrote: »

15: Dianetics: the Modern Science of Mental Health by L Ron Hubbard (1950)

This has certainly had a "cult" following. wha wha wha

Oh You... :rolleyes:
What about Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh though?

studiorat

raah! wrote: »

15: Dianetics: the Modern Science of Mental Health by L Ron Hubbard (1950)

This has certainly had a "cult" following. wha wha wha

Funnily enough it does say 50 BEST books. WTF?

raah!

Perhaps it is a jolly good read. Or perhaps people read it for its psychological merits......psychology is very popular amongst today's scenesters

studiorat

raah! wrote: »

......psychology is very popular amongst today's scenesters

Analyse that if you will

raah!

Well from what I've heard this dianetics was put forward as an 'alternative to psychology'. By scenesters I was refering to the type who would read these types of books. Those who are in tune with popular teenage culture. And I don't think there is any disputing the popular of psychology amongst such people.

studiorat

I Agree.
It doesn't sound as funny now.
I was suggesting an analysis of those very such people.

Though now that I think of it, I was confusing the difference between the cult novel and the cult book in the first place and what are the criteria for each.

owlwink

studiorat wrote: »

Analyse that if you will

Lacan would not be happy with this :mad:

raah!

Lacan? (+1 :P)

studiorat

I may need some guidance here so...

Karlusss

I've only 8, including another DNF for Pirsig.

List seems a bit all over the place. It's about 50% the book section of HMV, and then just a random mix of fiction and non-fiction weirdness.