NONFICTION  |  CLASSICS  |  CRIME/MYSTERY/ADVENTURE  |  FANTASY/SCI-FI/OTHER NERDERY  |  WAR

CLASSICS

Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West, Cormac McCarthy
Feeling a tad desensitized by Hollywood's recent gore fetish? Can't really imagine getting it up...er, excited...for the latest Saw or Hostel installment? Well then get more bang for your buck by picking up a copy of this blood-soaked western. Yarn-spinner McCarthy (who also penned No Country for Old Men, which you've probably heard of) skimps on the boringness of literary tradition and instead lays on the brutality of Indian-scalping cowboys, the survival story of runaway "the Kid," and the beguiling otherworldly evilness of Galton Gang ringleader Judge Holden. If this book doesn't make your stomach churn, we suggest you be locked up, you twisted sicko.
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The Jungle, Upton Sinclair
If reality TV had existed at the turn of the 20th century, the workers at Chicago meatpacking plants would make those Deadliest Catch guys look like Wal-Mart greeters. This tale of a family of Lithuanian immigrants who try not to freeze to death or fall into a sausage grinder will make you think twice before bitching about how expensive gas is.
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Where I'm Calling From, Raymond Carver
Sure the silver screen's sugarcoated sentimentalism is pretty damn entertaining, but who relates to that crap? In this 30-story collection, bare-bones minimalist Carver tells tales of drunks and degenerates, ex-wives and the unemployed, painting an accurate picture of American life. Now don't you feel childish for watching Transformers for the 33rd time? (We still don't.)
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Nostromo, Joseph Conrad
Polish badass Conrad put his merchant marine experiences to good use, both instructing and entertaining readers with seafaring stories heavy on morality and adventure. And nothing in the man's cannon tops Nostromo, an action-packed romp set in a revolution-torn South American silver town. Nostromo follows the exploits of the incorruptible eponymous hero, who is, since this is Conrad after all, corrupt. Jack Sparrow's got nothing on this guy.
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Underworld, Don DeLillo
If you thought Quentin Tarantino had the whole nonlinear narrative down, try DeLillo on for size. Underworld begins at a '50s-era Brooklyn Dodgers game, blows through the Cuban Missile Crises, and involves a murderous waste-management employee and his cheating wife. Oh, and there's a chapter titled "Cocksucker Blues." If that doesn't sell you on the book, then ponder this: DeLillo claims the title came to mind while thinking about buried radioactive waste and Pluto, the god of death.
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Hell's Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs, Hunter S. Thompson
The book that effectively kicked off Thompson's long and extremely quirky career is also the same one that almost got him beaten to death. Hunter spent an entire year getting close with the world's most notorious biker gang, getting them to tell stories about drugs, violence, and the rest of the all-around bad behavior that makes biker gangs so damn interesting.
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NONFICTION  |  CLASSICS  |  CRIME/MYSTERY/ADVENTURE  |  FANTASY/SCI-FI/OTHER NERDERY  |  WAR