The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test
by Tom Wolfe · first published 1968
37% recommend61% neutral3% critical
Why HN recommends it
Vivid, wild account of Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters and the early LSD scene, bridging the Beats and the hippies. Suits readers curious about Kesey, psychedelics, or 1960s counterculture.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
One of the most essential works on the 1960s counterculture, Tom Wolfe's The Electric Kool-Aid Test is the seminal work on the hippie culture, a report on what it was like to follow along with Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters as they launched out on the "Transcontinental Bus Tour" from the West Coast to New York, all the while introducing acid (then legal) to hundreds of like-minded folks, staging impromptu jam sessions, dodging the Feds, and meeting some of the most revolutionary figures of the day.
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…blockbuster drug discovery like: "Laughing Gas, Viagra, and Lipitor: The Human Stories behind the Drugs We Use" http://www.amazon.com/Laughing-Gas-Viagra-Lipitor-Stories/dp... Kinda off-beat but "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test" by Tom Wolfe And if you've read many references to "Founders at Work" and do not yet own your own copy, it is the best startup book out there.
on “Websites and books on technology-based startups beyond the web-focused ones?” ↗Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test - Tom Wolfe Be Here Now - Ram Das Whole Earth Catalog - Stewart Brand Infinite Jest - David Foster Wallace Savage Continent - Keith Lowe Forged - Bart D. Ehrman Young Stalin - Simon Sebag Montefiore…
on “Ask HN: Which books changed your life?” ↗I recommend Tom Wolfe's Electric Kool Aid Acid Test if you're curious about Kesey.
on “I Snuck into Ken Kesey's Fiction Class” ↗"The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test" by Tom Wolfe (RIP). One of my all time favorite book, one of my all time favorite authors. "The World According to Garp" by John Irving. Again, one of my favorite authors, one of his best books, but…
on “Ask HN: 2018 Summer Reading List?” ↗The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test - Tom Wolfe Food of the Gods - Terence McKenna
on “Ask HN: What books changed the way you think about almost everything?” ↗Electric Kool-aid Acid Test[0] by Tom Wolfe is an interesting perspective on LSD as well. It starts with the main character, Ken Kesey, taking part in the CIA-run LSD experiments in Menlo Park. The book details his journey from…
on “LSD, Reconsidered for Therapy” ↗Sad to learn of his passing. Note to self: reread some of Tom Wolfe's books, especially The Bonfire of the Vanities and The Electric Kool-aid Acid Test.
on “Tom Wolfe is dead” ↗Not exactly a cult, but... "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test" by Tom Wolfe. Ken Kesey and his Merry Pranksters. It sounds like fun, until it doesn't so much. Soundtrack by The Grateful Dead.
on “My favorite nonfiction books about cults, scams, and schemes” ↗…Baby' which is a collection of his essays. The first chapter of 'The Right Stuff' is worth reading by itself. The rest of the book is fascinating but drags on a bit in the last third. My favorite is 'The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test'. I haven't gotten around to reading 'Bonfire of the Vanities' however so I can't really comment on that.
on “Tom Wolfe Has Died” ↗I remember discovering "The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test" in my high school library. I eventually stole it by taking out the plastic-encased metal security dingy and devoured it more. I read it over and over until the paperback fell apart. It introduced me…
on “Tom Wolfe Has Died” ↗1984 Walden, Civil Disobedience, Letters to a Stoic The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test
on “Books That Changed My Life” ↗I'd recommed The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test to anyone interested in Kesey stories and LSD in general.
on “LSD: The Geek's Wonder Drug” ↗Bonfire of the Vanities, The Right Stuff, Electric Kool Aid Acid Test. Good spread of his styles.
on “Tom Wolfe Has Died” ↗Anything by Charles Bukowski, or the beatniks, whose names I can't recall at the moment. Edit: ah, Jack Kerouac was at least one of them (although On the Road was already mentioned). Electric Kool Aid Acid Test is a wild ride, as well as pretty much anything by Hunter S. Thompson.
on “How to write a novel using the snowflake method (2013)” ↗…publishing as far back as the 50's I'm sure he was familiar with the beat writers and probably interacted with them, not to mention his style feels closer to a bridge between the beats and the hippies. The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test is a great document of the transitory era between the two.
on “The Complete Text of "All Watched over by Machines of Loving Grace"” ↗