Can I get some opinions on these books?

The Stranger is like a shot of novocaine for the emotions. Fear and Loathing is quite the opposite, and far more entertaining and gut-writhing in general. Each reflects its time fairly well. After WWII Europe was war-shocked and thoroughly numb. In circa 1970, America was loaded in several sense of the word - rich, overstimulated and borderline insane.

These are books that general come up in lengthy 100+ essential books type lists, so probably all worth reading. Which reminds me - I've never read Master and Margarita. My opinion of Dostoevsky is that I've never really gotten too into his books, though I'd be hard pressed to give you the reason why (overlong? concerns that I never quite sink my teeth into?) - though I keep wanting to work harder on 'em someday. It has been twenty years since I read V and I'm honestly not much of a Pynchon fan either (which might get one into trouble around these parts) - though I remember finding V interesting and a fairly straightforward read. If one must read some Pynchon, starting with Crying of Lot 49 then moving on to V should be more than enough. Ha - I just released I'm not too into Last Exit to Brooklyn either. Maybe it's a little dated and a little forced in its more experimentatal sections. It has its good parts though too. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is quick, pleasing, funny, essential and also sort of the end of the road for that type of book. Or it should have been. I want to re-read Nausea someday. A similar book is Knut Hamsum's Hunger, which I probably prefer. I need to read more Faulkner, but of the ones I've read As I Lay Dying is probably the best. Sometimes his style is a bit frustrating - sometimes it bugs me (wears me out) - sometimes I love it. Also hugely influential. I love The Stranger, but especially the first half, which is full of events, funerals, travel, fucking and fighting. The second half, which is more the C of A+B=C, more dry, stationary, and for me, less interesting - is a small problem, but it's such a thin, easy to read book...

Pretty much all of those have written better books, I figure.

I'm reading V by pynchon these days. it's the first pynchon book i'm reading and i'm enjoying it very much. it's a funny book.

Master and Margarita is absolutely fantastic. It's so much fun to read. I think I've read it 3-4 times now.

It is quite entertaining. I do prefer Witold Gombrowicz for my eastern european weirdness though.

Those are all good except for Pynchon. Selby's viciously depressing, you're going to want to kill yourself after. It's worth it, though. Thompson's funny, nice Ralph Steadman illustrations. It's not my favorite Faulkner but all his stuff sounds much the same, so it's fine. Ditto Dost. You have to sort of like Bulgakov already, I think. Every translation seems really bad to me. Either they use a bunch of dopey slang that's outdated before they get the dustjacket on, or else it's annotated to death. Maybe it's not translatable. Good ole Sartre. Lives up to the title. Good stuff.

if you must read them, Id do it in this order: The Last Exit to Brooklyn The Stranger As I Lay Dying Nausea Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Demons Master and Margarita V.

2. - Thompson
3. 4. - Faulkner
5. - Dostoevsky
6. - Bulgakov
7. - Pynchon
8. - Sartre

you should do all your reading, ever, in chronological order

the ramifications of this are

i) if you want to read the moderns, you'd best hurry up with reading everything else
ii) if you've gone past anything? too late.

Do them in chronological order, but ignore the year of publication. Read all the books you're going to read that were published on January 1st of whatever year, then move on to the January 2nd books, etc.