This book is utter genius in written form and one of the strangest romance novels ever written, really, calling it a romance is incredibly faulty, too. It's a strange philosophical reflection on love, the world, life, and really all things as well as doubling as a critique on communism. Kundera's writing style is magnificent, it's a mixture of a gentle seriousness and then occasional crassness and vulgarity. This is also the only book I've read on this list that's managed to make me actually cry. I'm not one to cry when the dog dies in a book/movie/video game/tv show/what have you but this one really got me man, RIP Karenin he did nothing wrong

What a brilliant book. Not surprised this guy was friends with some of the beats considering how his writing style is vaguely similar, lots of streams of consciousness, this and that and this and that, it's a book that even just in writing style feels good to read. I mean, not uplifting, ESPECIALLY not after that ending, I was actively quaking by the end. But something about it has such a good flow it's actively hard to put down. Also I love Harding, he's the best character. Absolutely crazy book but one that seriously everyone needs to go read.

One of those books that's really fantastic yet quite simplistic. It's just a guy and company traveling across the United States for really no purpose other than to live life to the fullest. Jack Kerouac takes you on emotional rollercoasters here and to make matters more extreme, you feel exactly what he's feeling as he describes it. You experience true joy and true heartbreak in one book- one journey. It's one of those books that's just so absolutely full of life and personality I think you have to read it to some extent. It almost feels hard not to mentally go alongside Jack- uh, Sal on his spiritual voyage. There are really any themes (mainly just cause it's semi-autobiographical) or deep concepts to analyze, but it more than warrants its status as a classic. This book is far from a book, it's a search for meaning.

Ice is one of those books best recognized for just how weird it is, several parts of the book are entirely dreamed up by the nameless protagonist, and yeah, it's an incredibly hard one to follow if your reading gets even a little careless at times. It's very, uh, Crying of Lot 49-esque in this regard. What I mean by that is it's a whole lot of this and then that and then this, it's a very here, there, and everywhere type book. Ice's weird, creative and enchanting vision of the post-nuclear future, one where people fight with swords and guns, one with terrible marauders, looters and marauders aplenty, it's fascinating and makes for an excellent read.

While well known as one of the common books you gotta read for some sort of high school English class, I actually was initially introduced to this book through my sister who said I might like it. After reading, I realized I'd read one of my new favorite books. A long time ago, a time before October 5th 2024, I'd just read really quickly with no intention of rereading anything and so I read a lot of stuff without fully comprehending it. What drove me to begin doing these every-word reads was primarily just my desire to really understand and completely love this book for everything it had to offer. So shoutout this book, I guess. As for the actual thing, it's really really good. Just with the language used, it's actually a surprisingly tough read, albeit nothing super challenging. They talk a lot about drugs and that I think is pretty cool. Great book. I love dystopians so this means nothing of course. The thing John does at the end (if you know, you know) and his final speech are probably my favorite part of the entire book as well as one of my favorite literary passages ever. Really peak.