[spacehead333]

So i just got done reading "A Long Strange Trip",(abou the dead) and "On The Road", by Jack Kerouac. So The Dead all read this book. And i loved it, i was just wondering if anyone knows any other books like that. Or books that are about drugs somewhat or more so intelectual aspects of life.

[tigerstrat]

You could go with some more Kerouac, the next one to read in my opinion would be Dharma Bums ... or mind-expansion/intellectualism-wise, you could move on to some Terence McKenna (True Hallucinations is actually the only one of his I've read.) ...or Carlos Castaneda's Don Juan series of fictional "nonfiction" about Native-Mexican shamanism, beginning with The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge.

[BayAreaBB]

You could also try some Kesey ... Kuckoo's Nest and Sometimes a Great Notion. Not directly drug related but with Kesey, you have the tie to the Dead scene ca. 1960s.

[Shooster]

I would recommend that you read Dharma Bums next, which I think is truly Kerouac's greatest. After that , I would recommend Big Sur, which is interesting because it's a little bit darker and more introspective, possibly because it was when Kerouac's life was being ravaged by alcoholism.



By the way, has anyone read the new edition of On the Road, the unedited version from the original scroll? I think it's veeeery interesting. Pretty graphic.

[spacehead333]

thats the one i just read

[Viceroy]

I highly recommend reading "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test". I think it might have been written by Ken Kesey. It's the story of the Merry Pranksters w'Kesey, Osley, and The Dead play a great part in their wild ways. It was many years ago i read it but i do remember it was well worth the time.

[Banjomike0319]

Tiger in a Trance, man I read that book at it was awsome. Its not about the dead fully, but its about a kid who had a weird up-raising with his family and brother, and decides to go on tour with the dead. It about his experiences, not a true story but a good one at that.

I think its like 2 or 3 years, about this kids life, touring with the dead, dealing drugs, getting deeper and deeper in the drug scene. It's verry verry good, talks about how he brought his mom to a show so he could show her why he tours with the dead and what not.

Looke it up on Amazon.com, its definatley a good book.

[jck_strw]

I highly recommend reading "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test". I think it might have been written by Ken Kesey.

It was written about Ken, but the book was by Tom Wolfe. Excellent book.

[bobbybobbob]

Kurt Vonnegut. Simply put, genius.
Richard Brautigan is pretty good, forgotten.
And George Orwell is a must.
Don't forget Steinbeck.

[Panda Licker]

If you dig Kerouac you have to jump on the rest of the Beat Writers

Allen Ginsberg is a good read, if you like poetry. Ginsberg had the closest connections with the Dead, as he knew Ken Kesey well enough. Also a huge influence on Dylan.

and if you're interested in drugs? Naked Lunch by William Burroughs

all 3 were close friends (Atleast at first) and all three were genius in their own ways.

[tigerstrat]

Robert Anton Wilson

I only got through part of Naked Lunch because I felt like I was having my brain defecated on by diseased rats... so I had to discontinue. The only other book I've done that with in my whole life... was a Harry Potter book!

Hey, speaking of Burroughs, I finally saw the movie Drugstore Cowboy (filmed here in Portland, OR)... and I almost instantly recognized Burroughs' in his cameo... it was his voice. Oh and damn, Heather Graham must have been pretty young in 1989!

[amyjared]

I'm a huge Kerouac fan and I think after On the Road and Dharma Bums, I liked The Subbteraneans. Also, a biography called Jack's book about him is excellent. Ginsberg is awesome. Neal Cassidy's First Third is an interesting read.

I thought all the Dead folks all knew about Electric KoolAid Acid Test.

Tiger in a Trance is great if you were on tour because it directly references many many things that were around at the time and tho it's dark, it's cool.

Good call on Kesey's stuff, but let's not forget HST! Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is still the classic by which all are measured.

As for other drug related stuff, try:

Basketball Diaries
Queen of the South
Politics of Ecstacy
Stoned Apocalypse
Six Out Seven

[Panda Licker]

Robert Anton Wilson

I only got through part of Naked Lunch because I felt like I was having my brain defecated on by diseased rats

!

That's a pretty good description of reading Naked Lunch. The first time I read it, I stopped half way through too. I didn't get it, thought he was out of his mind. But then a few months later I read his first book, Junkie. I liked that one, so I decided to give NL a second try(I think I'm on my 4th time threw it now)

After that I was hooked on the guy. Junkie is a good place to start if you don't really 'get' naked lunch. It is without a doubt one of those 'difficult' reads. Junkie is a little more straight forward though. It's a straight narrative as opposed to Naked Lunch, which is best described as mosaic.

Drug Store Cowboy, by the way, is fantastic. Even though he is playing a fictional character in that (Actually one of his own fictional characters. He wrote about a Priest on heroin long before it ever hit the big screen), its a pretty good representation of what he was all about. Listening to him talk in that isn't a whole lot different than hearing him talk in a regular interview.

[frankielee]

Dig It!... There's a great bio on burroughs called Literary Outlaw...forgot who wrote it though...If your into Kerouac...there are numerous bio's on him as well...one (Desolate Angel) was written by the dead's one time publicist Dennis McNally and it's not bad. There is a great film about him now on DVD called What Happened to Kerouac? and all the beats are in it...There's a really cool clip of Jack reading an exerpt from Visions of Cody and On the Road accompinied by steve allen improving on piano...If that is not enough there is also a box set of Jack reading from his major works published and un-published on Rhino It's simply called Jack Kerouac...again he is joined by steve Allen and other jazz musicans while he reads his poetry...fiction and haikus...Really really cool stuff...You can definitly see and hear what a huge influence he was to the dead, dylan,and scores of others...Hope this helps.

[lonesomecowboyBILL]

Any Book by Hunter S. Thompson is great.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is great, The Rum diaries, Hells Angels is good to.