Let’s get to the good stuff:

Title: The Demon
Author: Hubert Selby Jr.
My favorite book of all time. Selby Jr. is the perfect combination of unorthodox writing style and real world grittiness that goes to ugly places in the human subconscious most people wont even admit exist. Selby skips all the pretense and speaks right to the primal animal caged within us all. Today’s generation is probably most familiar with Selby Jr. via Aronofsky’s film Requiem for a Dream. If you don’t already know, Requeim was a book penned by Selby long before it terrorized drug-curious teens straight. The Demon is a story about addiction, a story about chasing the dragon – whatever that dragon may be – and looking to top the previous chemical high with a new rush. A battle against life’s cruelest enemy: tolerance. No rush is as good as the last unless we raise the stakes. Anybody with a vice can relate to this – the heroin addict, the cliff diving adrenaline junkie, the four hundred pound obese man, the alcoholic, the kleptomaniac. Everyone. The quickest path to destruction is to appease the urge for the next cheap trick. It can also be the best path. You really can’t go wrong with anything by Selby Jr. but The Demon remains as fresh in my mind as the day I first picked it up years ago. Check it out.

Title: Year of the Cock: The Remarkable True Account of a Married Man Who Left His Wife and Paid the Price
Author: Alan Wieder
With more than half of all marriages leading to divorce, one has to wonder what has changed in the past few decades. Perhaps the world is more catered to the individual now, and dual-parent households aren’t a necessity. Maybe they were never natural in the first place, but societal pressure and convenience still hold monogamy as the status quo. Marriage does work for a lot of people. Others, however, live in denial for years and years until they finally… snap. Alan Wieder is one of these people. After marrying young and in love, Wieder rises through the Hollywood ranks as a hotshot producer in the reality tv market. He is often busy with work and seems to have less and less time for his wife. Finally, one day, he leaves. No phone call. No notice. Just packs his stuff and moves out. Within weeks he’s living the bachelor’s dream. He’s got his own state of the art pad. He drives a brand new Porsche. He even lines up three dates in one weekend with young Hollywood sluts. Life couldn’t get any better for him. His wife probably isn’t doing quite as well. But Wieder wouldn’t know. He ignores all her calls. Then one day a very, ummm unusual, celebrity sex tape causes him to wonder about the size of his penis. Is his cock too small? It’s a simple question for most but for Wieder it was the beginning of a downward spiral into mental illness, obsession and self-loathing that burrows beneath rock bottom. Wieder doesn’t come off as a particularly likable narrator. He’s arrogant and doesn’t quite seem to grasp the full consequences of his decisions even in hindsight. Still, for anyone how wants to read a true, first-hand account of going insane, without the usual drug abuse angle, it’s a great read. Regardless of whether you like him or not, Wieder does have a talent with prose.

Title: Can’t You Get Along With Anyone?: A Writer’s Memoir and a Tale of a Lost Surfer’s Paradise
Author: Allan C. Weisbecker
Was I just talking about unlikeable screenwriter narrators? Good, let’s keep it consistent with Weisbecker’s latest outing, and his second memoir. Recognized for his cult classics Cosmic Banditos and In Search of Captain Zero, Weisbecker is back with a vengeance this time around. He’s older, and no longer chasing traditional success, which basically allows him the opportunity to fuck over all the people that have been bending him over the last decade. John Cusack and Sean Penn find themselves on the business end of Weisbecker’s literary foot. He manages to turn Hollywood on its head from his isolated tropical paradise. When things get tough he has the world’s best surfing to fall back on, and, of course, a beautiful girlfriend who is the love of his life. Boiling beneath the surface, paradise isn’t everything it’s cracked up to be. The same might be said for his new found soulmate. Weisbecker is a prick. I don’t think he’d disagree with that statement. He’s paranoid and confrontational, quick to anger and vindictive but as he unravels a tale of betrayal you can’t help but find yourself sucked into his insanity. At times you wonder how the man can be so gullible but it’s his good qualities that lead to him being taken advantage of by ruthless savages in a lawless paradise. Before long, we’re living Weisbecker’s nightmare. He sweeps us along for five hundred pages, and by the end of it, possibly due to his honesty, we’re routing for this quirky old surfer to uncover the ugly truth.

Title: Happy Hour Is for Amateurs: Work Sucks. Life Doesn’t Have To
Author: Philadelphia Lawyer
Philadelphia Lawyer is hard to define. He’s been compared to HST, Bukowski and other controversial, opinionated male writers of past generations, but none quite seem to fit. No doubt such comparisons are flattering and deserved, still Philadelphia Lawyer treads his own paths as he searches for the faint pulse in a dying world consumed by drugs, debauchery, depression, selfishness and soul-crushing work. Phila’s anonymity gives him the freedom to expose farces in the legal world that might otherwise cost somebody their livelihood. But don’t let the legal context fool you, anybody who has found themselves faced with a cubicle’s blank stare will relate to the thankless work environment, and the rebellious human need to destroy ourselves in retaliation just so we know we are capable of feelings something. Happy Hour is for Amateurs is Phila’s first full-length novel but it wont be his last. Pick it up now, and you will spend as much time laughing your ass off as you will silently weeping for the future of our species.

Title: Six Degrees of Paris Hilton: Inside the Sex Tapes, Scandals, and Shakedowns of the New Hollywood
Author: Mark Ebner
Ebner is rare breed. He’s a personal hero of mine, having given me some of the best advice when I was first starting out with writing. After meeting him a couple of times, I can confirm the man is insane. If you read his books or articles, you don’t need me to tell you that. In the age of narcissism, Ebner walks to a different beat and sticks to old-school, hard-nosed journalism. Six Degrees of Paris Hilton lets the crazy cast of young criminals take center stage while Ebner puts his own ego aside. Instead, we are treated with a fairly even presentation of despicable parasites who commit crimes against the equally unlikeable young spoiled celebrity shitheads. I have no sympathy for the latter since most were born into wealth and had they been Betty-Sue’s child from buttfuck Arkansas, you can rest assured the talentless hacks would be stocking shelves at Walmart’s obscurity section. It is hard to imagine a worse set of people than undeserving Hollywood stars, but Ebner manages to find them in the crooks that prey on dimwit celebs. The more Ebner pushes on, the deeper he finds himself in the seedy underbelly that exists just below fallacious tabloid fodder. And, amazingly, it’s more terrible than you can imagine. We need more journalists like Ebner. Unfortunately, consistently putting your life on the line isn’t a coveted employment strategy for many writers.

Title: Rum Diaries
Author: Hunter S. Thompson
HST is recognized as one of the greatest living journalists of all time. Timeless classics like Hells Angels and Fear and Loathing are already cemented in the modern English canon, merely five years after his suicide. Always political, some of Hunter’s works, while brilliant in their craft, have lost some impact as the issues are no longer relevant in today’s political climate. It’s still a joy to relive old campaigns through the eyes of a lunatic, but I always find myself wishing he was still around today to dissect our current political clusterfuck. Then again, he’d probably get so depressed, he would blow his brains out… Oh wait. Among all his masterpieces, rests Hunter’s one work of fiction. Just how fictitious remains unclear since the protagonist thinks and acts very much like Hunter. The plot may be false, but the characters and inner-monologue feel all too genuine. Nevertheless, the Rum Diaries is a simple, maniacal tale about human politics, love, rum, fear of aging and how they all intersect. It’s a book that will transport you to 1950’s Puerto Rico, and give you a peak into a young HST’s mind.  Better yet, it’s currently being filmed as a Hollywood movie starring Johnny Depp. If you read it now, you can play your pretentious asshole card when everybody starts raving about it, and say “I read the book years ago.”

Title: American Psycho
Author: Brett Easton Ellis
Having grown up on the cusp of the internet era, it is almost impossible to disturb me anymore. I wont relay the horrors I’ve witnessed, mostly accidentally, during my time spent online for the sensitive readers out there, but let’s just say very, very few things shock me anymore. Literature has the ability to disturb a reader in ways [insert whatever disgusting internet video] can’t. Bret Easton Ellis authors a terrorizing tale by placing you inside the mind of a high functioning lawyer serial-killer sociopath in 1989 Manhattan. The story of Lifeat160… err, I mean the story of Patrick Bateman is perhaps best known through Christian Bale’s exceptional portrayal in the 2000 film adaptation, but, if you can believe it, the character is even more frightening and the murders more disturbing in the book version. There are a few ways to interpret the book, but the underlying message about materialism and the shallow, self-absorbed, soulless corporate world is even more relevant today. In fact, the book’s most chilling aspect is how accurately Bret Easton Ellis nailed the unflattering side effect of capitalist culture, and the realization that it’s likely to get much worse.

Title: Blindness
Author: Jose Saramago
This may be the first book I read that really made me fall in love with literature. I’d read many books previous to Blindness, but Saramago took my appreciation for  storytelling to a whole new level. This is no diamond in the rough, genius recommendation. The book won a much deserved Nobel prize. Saramago, like Selby Jr., doesn’t have much use for grammatical conventions. His work is translated from Portuguese but the English version retains his scarce punctuation. Without quotation marks it makes it difficult to determine who’s speaking, but once you get use to Saramago’s masterful grasp on weaving a tale, you are in for a real treat. Blindness tells the story of a world devoid of structure. What happens when the whole world goes blind? With the chaos emerging in a panic-stricken Haiti, never before has Saramago’s semi-political book been so pertinent. This is one of those rare books that will play out like a movie in your head. What’s more amazing is that he creates a purely visual experience in a narrative where the characters, for the most part, lack the ability to see. There are some religious connotations, but what’s really under analysis is human nature, the evil that arises when the stakes are life or death and every individual for his or herself. But more importantly it’s about the survival and triumph of the human spirit.  Plus, I found an edition on Amazon that is cheap as shit (as listed in the widget to your right).

Bonus book: Our very own Tremble the Devil has an entire book for free on his website. I’ve heard rumors we might see a Kindle friendly version in the near future, for those of you less inclined to read it on your computer screen.

If you do read or have read any of the books below, feel free to leave comments or send me an email about your thoughts. Likewise, if you have your own suggestions, toss them in the comments section. The list above above is sorely lacking a female presence. We need to fix that. Literature lives and dies by word-of-mouth these days, so do everyone a favor and spread the good news when you stumble across a work you loved.

In the meantime, I thought I’d ease your Friday along by tossing out some links that have caught my interest lately. Spread the love, as they say.

Life @ 160 is part of the Subtle Dig network. I originally came across the blog back when I was editing for Rudius. I highly recommend starting with The Saga, a brilliant work-in-progress that initially attracted me to the site. Think Patrick Bateman except with some self-awareness and no murder (yet). At first I thought Life@160 was writing a fictionalized persona, but the narrative is so consistent and personal I’m convinced it’s memoir. He’s recently added a few guest writers, and they are  updating regularly with all kinds of ridiculous material. And rumor has it subtle dig might pick up some of the orphaned Rudius blogs. When they started, all their blogs had legal themes but they’ve expanded their horizons. I have absolutely no inside information or any stake in the matter so I’ll be waiting to see how it plays out like the rest of you. (Here’s a brand new interview between Life@160 and a recently fired female “escort” writer. Hilarious).

Speaking of lawyers, Philadelphia Lawyer‘s book Happy Hour is for Amateurs has just been released in paperback. He’s giving away teasers at his site. If you have never read anything by Phila, I highly recommend you start with the book. Loyal readers will recognize bits and pieces from the past interwoven into the narrative, but there’s still enough fresh material that it’ll be enjoyable from cover to cover. I wrote a review for the hardcover version over at Amazon way back when I received a review copy. It should still be on the Amazon page if you’re interested in reading it.

If you’re looking for more serious reading be sure to stop into at Tremble the Devil. There is a ton of information available on this website, including an entire full length e-book. The thoroughly researched book revolves around terrorism and the many misconceptions associated with it, in large part due to inherent political/media/religious/etc. biases. When I think terrorists, I used to think evil brown people. Tremble the Devil will dispel these notions and open your eyes to a true understanding of why these people do what they do.  You’ll learn that terrorism tactics are common throughout history in all forms of warfare, including our own special forces. Once we move beyond terrorism’s stereotypical surface level connotations, we can begin to understand how they operate and more importantly how to prevent such attacks. All this is packaged up in a slick delivery with contemporary references much in the pop-intellectual vein of Freakonomics or works by Malcolm Gladwell. Between the modern day anecdotes and fascinating mini-narratives you may not even realize you’re learning something.

Despite Charlie Hoehn’s inability to effectively run game, he’s an incredibly smart young man. At 23, he’s worked with the likes of Seth Godin, Tim Ferris and has already accomplished more than I ever will before I die of liver failure in five years. Before embarking on tour, Charlie completed a highly praised (and now highly successful) ebook called the Recession Proof Graduate. I recommend it for anybody in school or recently graduated. Even seasoned veterans can benefit from the message. And best of all you can read the whole thing in 25 minutes.

In more ebook news, 50 Cent and Robert Greene just released a short ebook adaption of their new book The 50th Law. Check out the ebook, it’ll take you 5 minutes to read. Or buy the book. Or both. Or if you’re really crazy do both AT THE SAME TIME.

If writing, painting, drawing, sculpting, knitting, body mutilation (seriously) or basically any conceivable form of art is your passion, come stop by and sign up at the newly created Attention Crash forum. There are tons of successful and talented people from all corners of the artistic world — whether you’re looking to improve your craft or think you can help improve the crafts of others, your presence will be most welcomed.

That’s it for this edition of bonus links. And just because you realize there are tons of better ways to spend your time in internet land doesn’t mean I don’t want you to come back here. I would be lonely without people to read my stories and/or call me swear words in the comments section.