Goodreads Monday is a weekly meme that was started by @Lauren’s Page Turners but is now currently being hosted by Emily @ Budget Tales Book Blog. This meme is quite easy to follow – just randomly pick a book from your to-be-read list and give the reasons why you want to read it. It is that simple.

This week’s book:

The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe

Blurb from Goodreads

Tom Wolfe’s much-discussed kaleidoscopic non-fiction novel chronicles the tale of novelist Ken Kesey and his band of Merry Pranksters. In the 1960s, Kesey led a group of psychedelic sympathizers around the country in a painted bus, presiding over LSD-induced “acid tests” all along the way. Long considered one of the greatest books about the history of the hippies, Wolfe’s ability to research like a reporter and simultaneously evoke the hallucinogenic indulgence of the era ensures that this book, written in 1967, will live long in the counter-culture canon of American literature.

Why I Want To Read It

A new (work) week has arrived! I hope you had a great start to the week. Wow. We really are in the final stretch of the year. We’re just a couple of weeks away from greeting a new year. Time does fly fast. Where did the time go? With the curtain slowly drawing to a close in 2022, I hope that the rest of the year will be kind to everyone and that it will be filled with nothing but great news. I hope that all your hard work will get repaid and that all your prayers get answered. I hope that the rest of the week will go great for everyone. More importantly, I hope that you are all doing well and are in a good state of health, both in your mind and body. My biggest wish, however, is for COVID-19 to be finally eradicated. With this, I remind everyone to be diligent in observing minimum health protocols. We can never be too complacent, especially with the rate the virus mutates and spreads.

To kickstart the blogging week, I am posting a new Goodreads Monday update. In the past two months, I have been focusing on ticking off books from my active reading challenges. With works of American literature finally done with, I am focusing on the other books on the said challenges. My current read is Nobel Laureate in Literature Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio’s Wandering Star which is my first book by the French writer. The book is part of my 2022 Top 22 Reading List. However, for this week, I am not featuring a book from these reading challenges. Rather, I will be featuring a book that is part of a goal that I will be failing this year. This week’s featured book is Tom Wolfe’s The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test.

A couple of years ago, I resolved to read at least two works of nonfiction a year. You see, I have been more of a reader of fiction. While I was successful last year, with two memoirs, this year I have failed. I know there are still a couple of weeks to go but my focus is not aligned with this. This is the reason I am featuring the American writer’s nonfiction novel; it works both ways as it is a novel but also a work of nonfiction. Moreover, it has been over a decade since I read a book by Wolfe. He impressed me and made me laugh with his portrayal of modern American society with his satirical works A Man in Full and The Bonfire of Vanities. It seems that The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test will share these elements that the two books possess. Oh. The novel’s focus is on novelist Ken Kesey, who is famously known for his novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, a novel that examined the mental health institution. Wow. Kesey and Wolfe will surely be an interesting combination.

So the book is also about hippies and the hippie culture. The book surely is getting more interesting. To be honest, the title alone was enough to capture my interest. I think it has been years since I have been looking for a copy of the book. Unfortunately, I am still to obtain a copy of the book. How about you fellow reader? What books have you added to your reading list? Do drop it in the comment box. For now, happy Monday and, as always, happy reading!

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