Slouching towards bethlehem

What Hacker News says

1. lucaslazarusApr 2026
   Your criticism is entirely reasonable despite the pedantry. Yes, these people are bad people, but I think that could be the point here. Not to mention, this is just another chapter in SF's long history of being the vanguard of drug experimentation.

   You may enjoy Didion's 1967 Slouching towards Bethlehem[1], a similarly anecdotal (and substantially better-written) piece about the drug scene in SF's Summer of Love.

   [1] https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2017/06/didion/

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2. costcoDec 2023
   > Eve's Hollywood by Eve Babitz, if you want to fall in love with a Los Angeles even more, great writing

   Goodreads recommended me this after I read Slouching Towards Bethlehem (which I really liked). Now I have a second opinion so I'll check it out. Thanks :)

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3. sirohsis144Dec 2023
   The Glass Bead Game, Hermann Hesse

   The Road, Cormac McCarthy

   Sometimes a Great Notion, Ken Kesey

   Slouching Towards Bethlehem, Joan Didion

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4. BruceEelDec 2021
   Pretty sure I'm singing to the choir here, but "Slouching Towards Bethlehem", I literally cannot recommend it enough.
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5. mjrbrennanDec 2019
   The best books I've read in the last decade (that I can remember, I've only been keeping reading lists since ~2015) are mostly important because they have contributed to my inspiration and style as a writer.

   * The Road - Cormac McCarthy

   * Blood Meridian - Cormac McCarthy

   * No Country for Old Men - Cormac McCarthy

   * On Writing - Stephen King

   * 11/22/63 - Stephen King

   * The Stand - Stephen King

   * Hell's Angels - Hunter S. Thompson

   * East of Eden - John Steinbeck

   * Slouching Towards Bethlehem - Joan Didion

   * In Cold Blood - Truman Capote

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6. pprbckwrtrApr 2016
   Slouching Towards Bethlehem (Joan Didion)

   Flowers for Algernon (Daniel Keyes)

   The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds (Paul Zindel)

   The Things They Carried (Tim O' Brien)

   This Side of Paradise (F. Scott Fitzgerald)

   Something Wicked This Way Comes (Ray Bradbury) Essentially a children's sci-fi novel, but it doesn't read that way.

   A Moveable Feast (Ernest Hemingway)

   My personal favorite (along with his short stories, which I highly recommend), but if it's your first time reading Hemingway, might be better to go with The Sun Also Rises.

   Revolutionary Road (Richard Yates)

   On the Road (Jack Kerouac) *One of my personal favorites, but most people either love or hate it, so maybe save this towards the end.

   On my own reading list:

   Speedboat (Renata Adler)

   Money (Martin Amis)

   Love in the Time of Cholera (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)

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