500 Essential Cult Books -- the Ultimate Guide by Gina McKinnon with Steve Holland (A Review)

500 Essential Cult Books - The Ultimate Guide by Gina McKinnon, 2010, Sterling Publishing, New York/London (US $17.95 / Can $23.50).

What is a cult book? This book defines a cult book and presents a color book cover, synopsis, and short review of each book selected. In some cases, multiple covers are presented along with the author's full name, the publisher, and US/UK ISBN's.

The introduction declares that a cult book has "a peculiar ability to speak to the reader, a kind of authorial empathy, which allows the cult book to transcend being merely liked, or even loved, and inspire a fierce, unquestioning devotion." Recognizing that everyone's taste in the choice of a cult classic will be different, Ms. McKinnon declares that cult books are associated with generations and counterculture "or zeitgeist of a certain epoch." However, I think we all understand the feeling when she writes that the cult book is tied to the feeling of when we finish reading it we race to our "best book buddy and mutter 'You've just got to read this.' "

The book is divided into ten categories (Example: Thrilling Tales -- Gunslingers, Private Eyes, and the Odd Ghost or Two). Each section has a brief introduction, which is followed by a top ten selection for the best titles and "a best of the rest." Star ratings are associated with each title with five stars the highest rating. Indexes by title, author, and picture credits are presented at the end of the book with a general table of contents at the beginning that lists the ten categories. You will find that you use the index often in this book when you start asking yourself whether one of your favorite books is included.

This is an enormously fun book to read. It can be read just as easily from the beginning to end or by selecting categories, authors, or titles. You will find yourself dazzled by the graphic covers and the coverage of your favorite cult books as well as others you never heard of but quickly want to investigate. Both fiction and nonfiction are presented with further reading suggestions added below the synopsis and review of each of the 500 titles. You will find yourself asking why one author was included while another was not. You might ask which Ray Bradbury, Stephen King, or Jack Kerouac was selected. Is cyberpunk, steampunk, or politics represented? Are classic authors like Aristotle, Voltaire, or Mary Shelly in this collection?

Here are some of the interesting selections you will find in this book (a representation of one book from each category): A Clockwork Orange (Burgess), The 9/11 Report -- A Graphic Adaptation (Jacobson/Colon), Neuromancer (Gibson), Beneath the Underdog - His World as Composed by Mingus (Mingus/King), The Killer Inside Me (Thompson), Delta of Venus (Nin), Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (Pirsig), A Confederacy of Dunces (Toole), The Scum Manifesto (Solanas), You'll Never Eat Lunch in This Town Again (Phillips).

500 Essential Cult Movies is a companion piece to this book, published by Sterling as well.