The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test
One of the most essential works on the 1960s counterculture, Tom Wolfe's The Electric Kool-Aid Test is the seminal work on the hippie culture, a report on what it was like to follow along with Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters as they launched out on the "Transcontinental Bus Tour" from the West Coast to New York, all the while introducing acid (then legal) to hundreds of like-minded folks, staging impromptu jam sessions, dodging the Feds, and meeting some of the most revolutionary figures of the day.
Stats for nerds
14recommend
39mentions
38people
2008–2026years
38% recommend59% neutral3% critical
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- Not exactly a cult, but... "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test" by Tom Wolfe. Ken Kesey and his Merry Pranksters. It sounds like fun, until it doesn't so much. Soundtrack by The Grateful Dead.
- If he was publishing as far back as the 50's I'm sure he was familiar with the beat writers and probably interacted with them, not to mention his style feels closer to a bridge between the beats and the hippies. The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test is a great document of the transitory era between the two.
- Anything by Charles Bukowski, or the beatniks, whose names I can't recall at the moment.
Edit: ah, Jack Kerouac was at least one of them (although On the Road was already mentioned). Electric Kool Aid Acid Test is a wild ride, as well as pretty much anything by Hunter S. Thompson.
- The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test - Tom Wolfe Food of the Gods - Terence McKenna
- "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test" by Tom Wolfe (RIP). One of my all time favorite book, one of my all time favorite authors.
"The World According to Garp" by John Irving. Again, one of my favorite authors, one of his best books, but I really recommend almost all of his books.
"Starship Troopers" by Robert A. Heinlein. Just read this a couple weeks ago, highly recommended.
"A Walk in the Woods" by Bill Bryson. Just another of my favorite authors, I recommend any of his books if you like travel books. Very witty and well written stuff. A Walk in the Woods is probably his best known book about his attempt to thru-hike the AT.
"Story of Your Life and Others" - Ted Chiang. Really really good sci-fi short stories. Some great stuff. The movie Arrival is based on the title short story, Story of Your Life.
Honorable Mentions (from things I've read in the past year): "Meddling Kids" by Edgar Cantero "The Island of Dr. Moreau" by H.G. Wells "Furiously Happy" by Jenny Lawson
I could keep listing books, but this is probably already excessive.
- Bonfire of the Vanities, The Right Stuff, Electric Kool Aid Acid Test. Good spread of his styles.
