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3.27 AVERAGE
3.27 AVERAGE
The way I feel about this book is similar to the way I feel about This Side of Paradise: I didn't really know how to feel about On the Road right after I finished it, but after mulling it over for a good ten minutes or so, I suddenly liked it. Can you really like a book if it takes you a moment to realize it? I think so. This book isn't as gripping as the latest mystery--since basically nothing is happening in On the Road--but it's good. I never thought this book would be an "easy read." I expected challenges, in other words, boring parts where I started to fall asleep. But there were other parts that were so cleverly crafted that I couldn't just disregard them when rating On the Road. These parts ended up balancing out the not-so-exciting parts. Plus, I realize now, it took a while to get into the rhythm of the whole book. But once I felt it, I could read a bunch of pages and not realize how much I had actually read. It swept me up, like how Dean sweeps up Sal and drags him across the country several times. I love that feeling, and therefore, I know for sure that I love this book.
an absolutely terrible novel. even if you somehow ignore the novel's furthering of the most poisonous of american mythologies, it's still nothing but a kind of dull story told by an aging father who, if it were a movie, would be played by an early-80s pre-reaganomics jack nicholson, like the dad from the shining
medium-paced
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
adventurous
Would have been a 3.75 if it ended at page 150.
i like it. i don't like it. i hate it. i love it. on one hand it's beautiful and yet on the other hand it's just a man sitting down writing what has happened, changing names, recording his life. recording this journey that doesn't really have an end. searching for an it. but you see, this story is his and it's also mine. i have my own moriarty. maybe that's why i love it and why i hate it. i read this book and i see someone else filling his shoes. it's personal to me. so hard being salvatore.
A non-exhaustive list of people that say this book changed their life: Bob Dylan and my father.
Read this the day before I left to go backpacking with my best friend (how fitting) and although a lot of the content was outdated, it still captured the essence of being young, broke, and determined to take life for all it’s got.
Read this the day before I left to go backpacking with my best friend (how fitting) and although a lot of the content was outdated, it still captured the essence of being young, broke, and determined to take life for all it’s got.
I read this long enough ago that I had long since intermingled my memories of this and [b:Travels with Charley: In Search of America|5306|Travels with Charley In Search of America|John Steinbeck|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1386924381l/5306._SY75_.jpg|1024827] and probably some other books.
In my head I remembered this to be a more pastoral view of America, where it's really more about people and lifestyle. The impact this book had on our culture had a lot to do with where America was in the early 1950s, and I found more of "historical interest" than "currently interesting"
In my head I remembered this to be a more pastoral view of America, where it's really more about people and lifestyle. The impact this book had on our culture had a lot to do with where America was in the early 1950s, and I found more of "historical interest" than "currently interesting"