Either novels or non-fiction are fine.
I know a lot of us enjoy them, so thought we could share some recommendations
My favourites are:
1)
Requiem for a Dream, Hubert Selby Jr - 10/10 - Fiction, but based on the authors own experiences with addiction. In this short novel, we follow four people living on Coney Island as their lives first improve and then spiral horrifically as their addictions deepen. Without giving too much away, we follow twenty-something Harry, his girlfriend Marion, his best friend Tyrone and his mother Sara. The three younger characters are casual drug users who come across some very pure heroin and decide to buy it in bulk, cut it and sell it to make money to follow their dreams (Marion is a talented fashion designer and wants to open a clothing boutique, Tyrone wants to "be somebody" and have financial security and Harry wants to make enough money to get cleaned up and marry Marion to make his mother proud after he's let her down so much over the years). At first, things go as planned, until they start getting high on their own supply too much and then things get worse than you can imagine. Sara almost has pseudo-addictions to start with (to television and food). Her husband has passed away and her son Harry is an addict who only visits her to steal and pawn her TV (the only thing she has in her life). She is so obsessed with television, she can do any form of housework anywhere in the apartment and always have one eye on the TV. She's also quite overweight as she seats overeating in front of the TV all day. She gets a spam call on the phone one day saying she was been pre-chosen to be a contestant on a game show. After trying to crash diet and failing she visits a doctor who prescribed her (amphetamine sulphate) diet pills along with barbiturates to knock her out at night. Her story probably has the worst/saddest character arc of all. I cannot express enough just how much I love this book and the movie is arguable even better. I defy you to watch the movie and NOT agree that Ellen Burstyn as Sara Goldfarb is the best acting in any movie, period. Burstyn has even stated herself that the movie is the only one in her career where she felt she actually BECAME the character at times (particularly during the phenomenal "I'm somebody now, Harry!" monologue).
2)
Trainspotting, Irvine Welsh - 8.5/10 - I'd recommend this whole series (
Trainspotting,
Porno,
Skagboys and
Dead Mans Trousers...the fifth book comes out later this year). I feel like I don't need to explain this one as everyone has pretty much either read it or seen the movie.
3)
Tweak, Nic Sheff - 7.5/10 - Autobiographical about the writers life growing up addicted to methamphetamine. His father also wrote a memoir (which I haven't read, I don't really care for true addiction stuff from a family members perspective) called
Beautiful Boy, which was adapted into the movie with Steve Carrel and Timothee Chalamet.
4)
More, Now, Again, Elizabeth Wurtzel - 7.5/10 - I'd strongly recommend reading her first book before this (
Prozac Nation, which may be the best true story about depression ever written, and I include Sylvia Plath's
The Bell Jar in that), but you don't have to. [Minor spoilers for
Prozac Nation now, skip to 5) if you haven't read it and plan to]
A few years after regaining her life after the invention of Fluoxetine, Elizabeth is one more feeling "blah" and having serious trouble focusing or concentrating and feels her Fluoxetine isn't working as well and her meds maybe need "shaking up". She see's a psych who thinks she may have ADD and prescribed her Methylphenidate (which they say will also improve her mood and energy). The book then follows her subsequent addiction to Methylphenidate and Cocaine.
5)
Madness: A Bipolar Life, Marya Hornbacher - 7.5/10 - as with the above, both a memoir and a sequel to a memoir (Hornbacher's first is
Wasted, which IMO is THE best book on eating disorders ever written). You don't need to have read
Wasted to read
Madness, but I strongly recommend it anyway and it helps. Though a memoir about suffering from severe Bipolar I, she also suffers from addictions during this time, predominately alcohol. Aside from the actual books themselves, Hornbacher is an incredibly talented writer (you would never believe she wrote
Wasted when she was only 23 years old).
6)
Junky, William S Burroughs - If you enjoy this, check out the sequel,
Queer
7)
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Hunter S Thompson
8 )
Digging the Vein, Tony O'Neill
9)
A Million Little Pieces, James Frey - just because many of the scenes in the book were "grossly exaggerated" for "entertainment purposes" doesn't stop this from being a good read.
10)
The Basketball Diaries, Jim Carol - Um, the movie is actually WAY better, but this is a short one and worth a read.
11)
Ecstasy, Irvine Welsh
12)
Filth, Irvine Welsh
13)
The Rules of Attraction, Bret Easton Ellis
14)
Invisible Monsters, Chuck Palahniuk
15)
Black Neon, Tony O'Neill
16)
Altered States, Paddy Cheyefsky
17)
Naked Lunch, William S Burroughs
. Best part was when he asked his to be wife what she wanted to be doing in life and she said I'm doing it. Classic.
