Recommended Reading: Volume 1

"We have been brought up to believe that we must hang our existence by our language, as if there is no choice but to be either beast or fiction."

I'm going to highlight some of the work(s) which proved instrumental in my beliefs and writing style and the manner of their effect:

Brett Easton Ellis
American Psycho -  for it's biting satire, hilarious social and human satire (specifically) coupled with a colossal and jaggedly disturbing dystopia of the 1980's

Less Than Zero - the true dystopia of ennui, wealth, and inner darkness
Everything Else by Brett Easton Ellis. Read all of it.

Jay McInerney - the best source for human/social observation and dialogue so real it hurts.
Story of My Life, the unforgettable concise and accurate
Bright Lights, Big City, and Model Behavior are his other notable yet easy reads for the course of a week or two at a time (I read most of them in 2-4 days).


Charles Bukowski - my poet laureate during my hardcore alcoholism
Read all of his novels. In particular I recommend Factotum and Ham on Rye and Women. I would also read them in the order I have them listed. 

Hunter S. Thompson
The Rum Diary, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. 
The king as far as I'm concerned. If you need to know why you should do something others might characterize as "ill advised", read some Thompson and you'll buy the ticket and then take the ride.


Ernest Hemingway -
A Clean, Well-lighted Place - motif rich and thematically deep
Old Man and the Sea - see above

The Jungle - Upton Sinclair - the original social/problem novel author
  - will reinforce all your distrust of big business corporate greed, grimey politics, and the untrustworthy giant machine that will grind you to paste and destroy you.
it will also make clear that nothing has changed since the beginning of the 20th century.

Updike
Run, Rabbit Run - read the whole series of "Rabbit" books which follow the protagonist, a man nicknamed Rabbit, and his struggles with soul crushing middle america/american doldrum life/mediocrity

George Orwell -
Keep the Aspidistra Flying - intensely insightful war on money as articulated by one man's war on being rich/being commercially successful
The Road to Wigan Pier - the real deal on life in parts of the UK for the poor and working class
Down and Out in Paris and London - a great tale of tramping/hobo'ing it up across France and England by none other than Mr. Melancholy himself, George Orwell


Hermann Hesse
Siddartha - the novel I read as a high-schooler that taught me to begin to let go of many of my worldly, earthly, material concerns

Theatre:
The Glass Menagerie and A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennesee Williams - for their disturbingly low key but horrifying forays into the human mind,heart, and relationship dynamics

Closer by Patrick Marber - most powerful modern play almost completely accurate in its depictions of sex, lies, and love.