CULT NOVELS

[Quicknick]

We've had a thread on cult films, so how about one on cult novels? I'll start things off with one of James Ellroy's lesser-known novels: the stunning Silent Terror, for me the best serial killer book ever written. It was republished more recently as Killer on the Road, the title he originally wanted when Silent Terror was published in the mid-'80s.

[Ptangyangkipperbang]

I've been racking my brains all morning to what can count as a cult book a few from the top of my head
2666 Robert Bolano
Savage Detectives Robert Bolano
Earth Abides George R Stewart
Dice Man Luke Rhinehart
Wasp Factory Ian Banks
Marabou Stork Nightmares Irvine Welsh
Cosmic Banditos AC Weisenbecker
Lord of the Flies William Golding
On the Road Jack Kerouac
Junky William Burroughs
Slaughterhouse 5 Kurt Vonnegut
A terrific thread I'm sure I will be back with more

[Stalbansclaret]

Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance by Robert Persig. Read it when I was in my teens and had forgotten about it until I was on a solo trip to Crete in 2020 and a place I stayed had a copy lying around. Reread it and found it largely pretentious nonsense !!

[Buxtonclaret]

I've been racking my brains all morning to what can count as a cult book a few from the top of my head
2666 Robert Bolano
Savage Detectives Robert Bolano
Earth Abides George R Stewart
Dice Man Luke Rhinehart
Wasp Factory Ian Banks
Marabou Stork Nightmares Irvine Welsh
Cosmic Banditos AC Weisenbecker
Lord of the Flies William Golding
On the Road Jack Kerouac
Junky William Burroughs
Slaughterhouse 5 Kurt Vonnegut
A terrific thread I'm sure I will be back with more

Some of my most read & all time favourites on that list.

I'll add
Catcher in The Rye
1984
Middlemarch
Mobile Dick
Lord of the Rings

[Swizzlestick]

Bret Easton Ellis - Less Than Zero
Chuck Palahniuk - Fight Club
Jay McInerney - Bright Lights, Big City

[BigGaz]

Oh sorry, CULT.

[Enola Gay]

"Marabou Stork Nightmares" was a rare novel for me in that I enjoyed it when I read it, but have had no desire to pick it up since. Once was enough. See also "American Psycho" by Bret Easton Ellis.

If you're after recommendations for Irvine Welsh and Bret Easton Ellis that do bear re-reading, go (respectively) for "Trainspotting" and "Glamorama".

And if you've got a while to set aside for it, give "The Master and Margarita" by Mikhail Bulgakov a whirl.

And "Catch-22" by Joseph Heller.

[beddie]

Oh sorry, CULT.

[LincsWoldsClaret]

Geoff Dyer - But Beautiful.

One of the best books about music.

[Poulton-le-Claret]

Stasiland

And, I know it was on the cult films thread, but the Warriors book is also great.

[boyyanno]

1984
The Stand
Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
One flew over the cuckoo's nest
Jurrasic Park
Lord of the Flies

[HahaYeah]

Judas Pig by Horace Silver.

[Ptangyangkipperbang]

"Marabou Stork Nightmares" was a rare novel for me in that I enjoyed it when I read it, but have had no desire to pick it up since. Once was enough. See also "American Psycho" by Bret Easton Ellis.

If you're after recommendations for Irvine Welsh and Bret Easton Ellis that do bear re-reading, go (respectively) for "Trainspotting" and "Glamorama".

And if you've got a while to set aside for it, give "The Master and Margarita" by Mikhail Bulgakov a whirl.

And "Catch-22" by Joseph Heller.

I was going to put Trainspotting down as well.The film did it no justice at all anyone who thinks it's a good movie obviously has never read the book.Another similar one for me is the Wanderers by Richard Price

[SherbornePhil]

One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest and Catch 22.

[RMutt]

https://www.stewarthomesociety.org/sex/gensexco.htm

Read a few of these in my youth when they were going around school. Must have cult status now.

[ClaretPete001]

Glass Bead Game / Steppenwolf Herman Hesse
Generation X Douglas Copeland
Zen and the Art of motor cycle maintenance Robert M. Pirsig
Anthem Ayn Rand
The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists by Robert Tressell, Peter Miles
The Doors of Perception by Aldous Huxley

[RicardoMontalban]

A Confederacy Of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole.
Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
Lanark by Alasdair Gray

[Buxtonclaret]

The Moon and Sixpence
Down & Out in London & Paris
Of Human Bondage
Titus Groan

[4:20]

Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance by Robert Persig. Read it when I was in my teens and had forgotten about it until I was on a solo trip to Crete in 2020 and a place I stayed had a copy lying around. Reread it and found it largely pretentious nonsense !!

I was in a charity shop in Poole about 20 years ago and spotted the sequel to that book going for 50p. I bought it, took it back to my digs and realised it was signed by Mr Pirsig himself. Quite chuffed, as I enjoyed his previous work at the time.

[ecc]

What is the definition of the word "cult" here?

[Lu-tze]

The Bridge- Iain banks
Last exit to Brooklyn- Hubert Shelby Jr

[Quicknick]

I was going to put Trainspotting down as well.The film did it no justice at all anyone who thinks it's a good movie obviously has never read the book.Another similar one for me is the Wanderers by Richard Price

Agree about Trainspotting the film v the book. The book is heaps better. The same goes for The Football Factory by John King. Brilliantly written and way better than its film. Marabou Stork Nightmares was an epic read. A lot of great reads from the old days wouldn't get through a sensitivity edit now if submitted by new, unknown writers.

[Claretitus]

Oh sorry, CULT.

Nearly spat my coffee out there!! Brilliant!

[Claretitus]

Some of my most read & all time favourites on that list.

I'll add
Catcher in The Rye
1984
Middlemarch
Mobile Dick
Lord of the Rings

Mobile Dick? Fnaaar Fnaaar. What’s that one about then?

[Trampslike]

Sombrero Fallout - Richard Brautigan
Trout Fishing in America - Richard Brautigan
The Legion of the Damned - Sven Hassel
The Man without Qualities - Robert Musil
Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess

[Anonymous Claret]

Ihave read quite a few of the ones already mentioned and I was just about to add Clockwork Orange, then noticed it in the previous post.
A couple I can add are:
The Great Gatsby F Scott Fitzgerald
The Celestine Prophecy James Redfield

[Quicknick]

Outlaws by Kevin Sampson. He wrote Awaydays which got him noticed. Outlaws is a crime novel all written in the Scouse vernacular.