Image: Amazon.com
While studying and living in Berkeley (I now work in Berkeley, but that is another story), the student bookstore would have these used books for sale real cheap at the end of the semester, and my then-girlfriend (now, wife) and I would purchase a handful or two. One of those books purchased was On the Road, of which I think I paid two dollars for. It has spent the last several years on a series of bookshelves, in two apartments, and now, my house.
This book has earned a lot of acclaim, mostly for somehow single-handedly starting the "beat generation," a term I'm familiar with but not much more than that. I assume the "beat generation" was mostly the post-WW2 slackers. I have been in, meaning I have gotten drunk at, the North Beach bar that Kerouac and friends frequented -- Vesuvio -- which is right next door to the well-regarded City Lights Bookstore.
