24 January 2012

Culting It

I managed to side-step the "no challenges this year" promise by making Projects instead, and now I feel the need to add one more project to the list. There is quite the handful of cult classic reads that I have had on the TBR list for ages, and since I'm feeling pretty good about the projects I've started, I figured why not slap a new project up there.

Defining a "cult classic" is practically impossible, but we all know it when we encounter it. They range from the horrid and cringeworthy to the brilliant and beautiful. They cross genres and eras and styles. But they all have one thing in common (in my humble opinion) :: They deliver a serious mindf*ck. These are stories designed to rearrange your thinking. With a tendency to challenge the status quo, cult classics veer off the beaten path and offer readers something new. They also change the reader in some way, and many a reader of a cult classic finds him/herself keeping a dog-eared copy on hand, well-read and practically memorized.

Here are some of the top cult classics:
  1. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
  2. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
  3. A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
  4. Dianetics by L. Ron Hubbard
  5. Dune by Frank Herbert
  6. The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe
  7. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
  8. The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
  9. Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon
  10. On the Road by Jack Kerouac
  11. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson
  12. Siddhartha by Herman Hesse
  13. The Stranger by Albert Camus
  14. Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche
  15. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
  16. Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein
  17. Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs
  18. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
  19. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
  20. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick
  21. The Anarchist Cookbook by William Powell
  22. Necromancer by William Gibson
  23. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
  24. The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
  25. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
  26. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
  27. I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
  28. The Magus by John Fowles
  29. Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susan
  30. Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk
  31. Labyrinths by Jorge Luis Borges
  32. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
  33. The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf
  34. The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailor
  35. Howl by Allen Ginsberg
  36. Faust by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
  37. A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter Miller
  38. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
  39. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
  40. The Third Policeman by Brian O'Nolan (Zibilee)
  41. Flowers in the Attic by V.C. Andrews (Care)
  42. Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson (Trish)
  43. Feast of the Goat by Mario Vargas Llosa (Rajdeep)
  44. Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie (Kristen)
  45. The Tao of Poo by Benjamin Hoff (Kristen)
  46. Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach (Kristen)
  47. Lord of the Flies by William Golding (bookdout)
  48. 1984 by George Orwell (Jenny Girl)

I am looking to make this list an even 50, so let me know what I'm missing here!!!
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13 comments:

  1. rhapsodyinbooksTue Jan 24, 06:53:00 AM CST

    Great list although some of what you list is a surprise: 25 and 26? But I love the idea and the picture is just great!

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  2. AmandaTue Jan 24, 06:56:00 AM CST

    I am so glad you put Lolita on the list. That was my first thought and I realized some people might find it uncomfortable to put Lolita on a cult list, haha! :D

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  3. ZibileeTue Jan 24, 07:29:00 AM CST

    I would add The Third Policeman, but that is a personal choice that I try to push on everyone! I have read a few of these, and some of them are wonderful books. One of my favorites is A Confederacy of Dunces. Just a wonderful book!

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  4. AndiTue Jan 24, 09:48:00 AM CST

    Great list! I have read (actually read, completed and all) nine of these books. I started and set aside three others, and I own a whole bunch more. Good luck with your project!!!

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  5. Sandy NawrotTue Jan 24, 10:20:00 AM CST

    I was just saying over at Marie's the other day (who was talking about the same thing) that when I hear "cult" I think of movies. Weird that I don't think of books at cult. But now that you all are bringing it up, yeah, I guess they are. I can count on one hand how many of these I've read, so obviously I need to get cracking.

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  6. CareTue Jan 24, 12:11:00 PM CST

    Flowers in the Attic? That is the first book that comes to my mind. Twilight will be on a cult list someday.

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  7. Trish @ Love, Laughter, InsanityTue Jan 24, 12:29:00 PM CST

    I might have thrown up a little bit when I read Portrait of the Artist. Ick. I immediately thought of Handmaid's Tale but not positive that'll work. Would also add Snow Crash by Stephenson, though it's a bit lesser known/read.

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  8. JennersTue Jan 24, 06:44:00 PM CST

    Oh Lord … I'm terrible at thinking of things on the fly like this. Sounds like you are really doing challenges but calling them projects! HAHA.

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  9. RajdeepWed Jan 25, 12:32:00 PM CST

    The Black Book — Orhan Pamuk

    My Name is Red — Orhan Pamuk

    Feast of The Goat — Mario Vargas Llosa

    To The Lighthouse — Virginia Woolf

    ReplyDelete
  10. Melissa (Avid Reader)Wed Jan 25, 02:22:00 PM CST

    I never thought about "cult" books before, but it's so true! There are some great ones on your list.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Kristen M.Wed Jan 25, 06:29:00 PM CST

    Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig. Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie. The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff. Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach. Man, most of these books make me want to puke now (except for good old Salman). ;)

    I tried to read Thus Spoke Zarathustra once. It didn't go well. Good luck with getting through some of these!

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  12. AnonymousThu Jan 26, 07:12:00 PM CST

    I'd suggest Lord of the Flies by William Golding and Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

    Shelleyrae @ Book'd Out

    ReplyDelete
  13. Jenny GirlSat Feb 04, 08:33:00 AM CST

    Great list and not sure this one fits but 1984? Seems to pop often and could be considered on of the earliest dystopian books other one are inspired by. But seriously, I am not sure so go ahead and laugh.

    ReplyDelete

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