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The Catcher in the Rye

Childrens Toy Shop > Books > Cult Authors
by: J.D. Salinger

August 04, 1994
I'm so sorry to see all the people on here who were disappointed by The Catcher In The Rye. When I first read it aged 13 I was unaware of its cult status and so just had average expectations. Indeed at the time I only really liked the character of Holden, less so the book itself. Having re-read it twice since however (I am now 18) I can honestly say it's one of the best books I have ever read.

While I originally sided with the main character, now I'm able to see all his flaws and inconsistencies and love him all the more. As far as I'm concerned this is not so much a book for teenagers as one for anyone who's suffered from depression and disillusionment with the world around them. Anyway I won't take up any more of your time - ... Read More:

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Crime

Childrens Toy Shop > Books > Cult Authors
by: Irvine Welsh

July 03, 2008
I've always believed the thriller/crime novel was beyond the British. This one by Welsh confirms my belief.
Dull! Overwritten! I got up to about page 90 or 100 and tossed it. Why can't the Brits leave it to the Americans and concentrate on TV Soaps and reality shows?

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American Psycho

Childrens Toy Shop > Books > Cult Authors
by: Bret Easton Ellis

November 03, 2006
Yep, without doubt.

It's shocking, no doubt, but mainly in its inanity...

The constant references to Labels, restaurants, bars and clubs, the obsession with physical fitness, the racism, the sterotypical 'Wall Street workers', the gratuitous, graphic violence and sex all become deeply tedious VERY quickly...

And... as soon as they do you realise there's no story in this book.

I thought I must have missed some deep meaning in this 'work', but I suspect the point the writer thought he was making is so 80s that it really doesn't have any meaning today anyway.

Other reviewers talk about how it's poking fun at the Yuppies - Duh... if you don't get that in the first 3 pages you're probably on a life ... Read More:

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Slaughterhouse 5: The Children's Crusade - A Dirty-dance with Death

Childrens Toy Shop > Books > Cult Authors
by: Kurt Vonnegut

October 17, 1991
Catch 22 exposes the ruthless realities of war and subsequently the harsh realities of life, as the novel depicts war as a microcosm of life itself. By doing this Heller are showing to the reader that war is just as inevitable as life itself and that life is sometimes as harsh and unyielding as war.

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Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (Harper Perennial Modern Classics)

Childrens Toy Shop > Books > Cult Authors
by: Hunter S. Thompson

April 04, 2005
Hunter S. Thompson is by far THE most entertaining writer in modern literature, it has to be said. His engrossing affilliation with substances that he swore he hadn't been taking during the writing of the major part of this novel, make this most probably the funniest piece of literature available. His quick wit and complete topsy-turvy sense of humour is only the beginning. As he travels through the desert with his attorney to "find the dark side of the American dream", they well and trully find it when they agree that any trip such as the one their making can only be made armed with a stupendous arsenal of drugs. And this they do. They engage in a completely twisted reality that is there's alone, and their journey, so infallible to their minds, leaps from one thing to ... Read More:

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The Dice Man

Childrens Toy Shop > Books > Cult Authors
by: Luke Rhinehart

December 15, 1999
The Dice Man is one of those books you might read to understand the countercultural movements of the 1970's. That's not to say that this book is flawless, however it does appear to have a particular mentality rooted at that time, chiming in with the anti-psychiatry movement as well as the whole Eastern Zen-Buddhist thing.

Anyway, back to the book itself: It certainly provokes thought about the imprisonment of individuals within their particular roles and responsibilities, and by society's expectation. The general premise to me appears to be that of achieving liberty by an enslavement to the whim of chance, or in this case, the die.

What happens? well, Luke Rheinhart discovers dice as a way of making his decisions, and indeed making his life more ... Read More:

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Neuromancer

Childrens Toy Shop > Books > Cult Authors
by: William Gibson

November 27, 1995
I have mixed feelings about neuromancer: one one hand, circa 1982 it was such a staggering imaginative feat, conjuring up a breathtakingly close intellectual equivalent to the internet, coining the term and then strikingly predicting the commercialisation of "cyberspace" and it is also such a valiant stylistic effort, amalgamating Chandler's gumshoe noir with Dick's post-modern dystopian sci-fi that you can't help but be totally swept along.

On the other hand it is such a horror-show of a literary artefact, on a technical level so poorly conceived and executed, that it is almost impossible to slog through.

But slog through it I did, after a couple of aborted runs at it, and while I remain impressed at Gibson's conceptual prescience, thanks to his ... Read More:

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Trainspotting

Childrens Toy Shop > Books > Cult Authors
by: Irvine Welsh

July 11, 1994
Originally published in 1993, Irvine Welsh's seminal novel about a group of Edinburgh junkies is still as forcefully mesmerizing today as it was the first time I read it some 12 years ago. The characters - Renton, Sick Boy, Begbie, Spud et al, who have become immortalised and entrenched in the collective consciousness of the nation's movie-watching public, thanks to Danny Boyle's 1996 film - are every bit as captivating and pathetic as their celluloid counterparts, as hideous as they are hilarious, and yet they are rendered far more realistic - and terrifyingly so at that - by Welsh's masterful pen. The use of multiple narratives, for example, with each character contributing their own, unique take on events is a stroke of genius, and an approach to fiction-writing that has ... Read More:

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Lolita (Penguin Classics)

Childrens Toy Shop > Books > Cult Authors
by: Vladimir Nabokov

April 30, 1998
I have read this book a number of times, and can quite happily pick it up and read a single page purely for the pure majesty of the language.

Martin Amis, son of Kingsley Amis and a stylist like Nabokov, has a true love of this book and desribed it, inter alia, as "pure sensual pleasure". A feat of genius, made more staggering by the fact that it was written in Nabokov's second language.

I challenge anyone with a love of the English language and a heart to read this book and ever forget it.

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The Fountainhead (Penguin Modern Classics)

Childrens Toy Shop > Books > Cult Authors
by: Ayn Rand

February 01, 2007
I won't go into too much detail as there are plenty of reviews on here already. I have to say I love this book. It just makes you think. I don't think enough people think these days not for themselves anyway which is what this book is all about. The book is long and I agree with another one of the reviewers that it could have been shorter, but it was the style back then to write lengthy novels.
A must read. This should be in the 1001 books to read before you die but it's not!!