Exploring Top Books of Shelfari

Before his 1959 breakthrough, Naked Lunch , an unknown William S. Burroughs wrote Junk , his first book, a candid, eyewitness account of times and places that are now long gone. This book brings them vividly to life again; it is an unvarnished field report from the American postwar underground. For this definitive 50th-anniversary edition, eminent Burroughs scholar Oliver Harris has painstakingly re-created the... (more)

Helter Skelter

The True Story of the Manson Murders

by Vincent Bugliosi, Curt Gentry

A national bestseller—7 million copies sold. Prosecuting attorney in the Manson trial, Vincent Bugliosi held a unique insider's position in one of the most baffling and horrifying cases of the twentieth century: the cold-blooded Tate-LaBianca murders carried out by Charles Manson and four of his followers. What motivated Manson in his seemingly mindless selection of victims, and what was his hold over the young... (more)

Subterraneans

by Jack Kerouac

Written over the course of three days and three nights, The Subterraneans was generated out of the same ecstatic flash of inspiration that produced another one of Kerouac's early classic, On The Road. Centering on the tempestous breakup of Leo Percepied and Mardou Fox--two denizens of the 1950s San Francsico underground--The Subterraneans is a tale of dark alleys and dark rooms,of artists, of visionaries,

Hello Cruel World: 101 Alternatives to Suicide for Teens, Freaks and Other Outlaws

Hello Cruel World: 101 Alternatives to Suicide for Teens, Freaks and Other Outlaws

by Kate Bornstein

Celebrated transsexual trailblazer Kate Bornstein has, with more humor and spunk than any other, ushered us into a world of limitless possibility through a daring re-envisionment of the gender system as we know it. Here, Kate bravely and wittily shares personal and unorthodox methods of survival for navigating an often cruel world. A one-of-a-kind guide to staying alive outside the box, Hello, Cruel World is a... (more)

Ecstasy

by Irvine Welsh

A bestsellig romance author suffers a paralyzing stroke and her philandering husband wonders how this will affect his gambling and whoring budget; two young lovers must come to terms with their chemically induced deformity; Lloyd from Leith transfigures his passion for an unhappily married woman. These three tales confirm Irvine Welsh's position as a master of the "chemical" romance genre.

No One Here Gets Out Alive

by Jerry Hopkins, Daniel Sugerman, Jery Hopkins

Here is Jim Morrison in all his complexity: singer, philosopher, poet, delinquentthe brilliant, charis-matic, and obsessed seeker who rejected authority in any form, the explorer who probed the bounds of reality to see what would happen. Meticulously researched, this definitive biography tells the story of a genius who shot like a rocket across the musical horizon, then fell in burning fragments as his life... (more)

The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death: A Novel

The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death: A Novel

by Charlie Huston

With a style that is razor sharp, an eye that never shies from the gritty details, and a taste for stories that simultaneously shock, disturb, and entertain, Charlie Huston is one of a kind. And The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death is the type of story–swift, twisted, hilarious, somehow hopeful–that only he could dream up. The fact is, whether it’s a dog hit by a train or an old lady who had a heart... (more)

Steal This Book

by Bert Cohen, Izak Haber, Abbie Hoffman

A driving force behind the social revolution of the 1960s and 1970s, Hoffman inspired a generation to challenge the status quo. Meant as a practical guide for the aspiring hippie, Steal This Book captures Hoffman’s puckish tone and became a cult classic with over 200,000 copies sold. Outrageously illustrated by R. Crumb, it nevertheless conveys a serious message to all would-be revolutionaries: You don’t... (more)

Clockers

by Richard Price

Novelist and Academy Award–nominated screenwriter Richard Price's bestselling second novel offers "an unforgettable picture of inner-city decay and despair" ( USA Today ) At once an intense mystery and a revealing study of two men, a veteran homicide detective and an innercity crack dealer, on opposite sides of an endless war. Clockers is "powerful . . . harrowing . . . remarkable" ( The New York Times Book... (more)

From the Velvets to the Voidoids: The Birth of American Punk Rock

From the Velvets to the Voidoids: The Birth of American Punk Rock

by Clinton Heylin

In a thorough chronicle of the American underground punk and New Wave rock scene, noted music critic Heylin explores the origins and evolution of this fiery music phase of the '60s and '70s--from the Velvet Underground to the Ramones to the Talking Heads.

by Hunter S. Thompson

Stylish reissue of a classic first published in the 1970s: Hunter S Thompson's ether-fuelled, savage journey to the heart of the American Dream. 'We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold! And suddenly there was a terrible roar all around us and the sky was full of what looked like huge bats, all swooping and screeching and diving around the car, which was going... (more)

The Naked Civil Servant

by Quentin Crisp

In 1931, gay liberation was not a movement--it was simply unthinkable. But in that year, Quentin Crisp made the courageous decision to "come out" as a homosexual. This exhibitionist with the henna-dyed hair was harrassed, ridiculed and beaten. Nevertheless, he claimed his right to be himself--whatever the consequences. The Naked Civil Servant is both a comic masterpiece and a unique testament to the resilience of... (more)

Great Expectations

by Kathy Acker

Using postmodern form, Kathy Acker’s Great Expectations moves her narrator through time, gender, and identity as it examines our era’s cherished beliefs about life and art.

Valencia

by Michelle Tea

Valencia is the fast-paced account of one girl's search for love and high times in the drama-filled dyke world of San Francisco's Mission District. Through a string of narrative moments, Tea records a year lived in a world of girls: there's knife-wielding Marta, who introduces Michelle to a new world of radical sex; Willa, Michelle's tormented poet-girlfriend; Iris, the beautiful boy-dyke who ran away from the... (more)

Go Now

by Richard Hell

On the road with the Blank Generation, "Go Now" takes readers on a wild trip across the country and into the head of a down-on-his-luck punk musician. ""Go Now" is a vile, scabrous, unforgivable, and deserving of the widest possible audience".--William Gibson.

Baise-Moi (Rape Me)

by Virginie Despentes

Baise-Moi is one of the most controversial French novels of recent years, a punk fantasy that takes female rage to its outer limits. Now the basis for a hit underground film which was banned in France, Baise-Moi is a searing story of two women on a rampage that is part Thelma and Louise, part Viking conquest. Manu and Nadine have had all they can take. Manu has been brutally raped, and determines it's not... (more)

Flyboy Action Figure Comes with Gasmask

by Jim Munroe

Ryan is a university student dealing with the normal problems of a 22-year-old guy -- shyness, virginity, weird roommates, and a massive crush on Cassandra, a waitress at his local greasy spoon. (Oh, and a freakish ability to change into a fly.) When he finally gets up the nerve to ask Cassandra for a date, he learns that the two have more in common than they first thought. (Turns out that Cassandra can make... (more)

The work of a common woman: The collected poetry of Judy Grahn, 1964-1977 ; with an introd. by Adrienne RichJudy Grahn

The work of a common woman: The collected poetry of Judy Grahn, 1964-1977 ; with an introd. by Adrienne Rich

by Judy Grahn

Burg

by Wolfgang Tillmans

Including portraits, still lives, landscapes and "dirty realism", this collection of the work of photographer, Wolfgang Tillmans features over 200 of his photographic pieces.

The Leroi Jones/Amiri Baraka Reader

by Imamu Amiri Baraka

Amiri Baraka - dramatist, poet, essayist, orator, and fiction writer - is one of the preeminent African-American literary figures of our time. The Leroi Jones/Amiri Baraka Reader provides the most comprehensive selection of Baraka's work to date, spanning almost 40 years of a brilliant, prolific, and controversial career, in which he has produced more than 12 books of poetry, 26 plays, eight collections of... (more)

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Tags: counter culture

by William S. Burroughs