Books about Drugs

  1. Food of the Gods: The Search for the Original Tree of Knowledge

    by Terence McKenna
    A journey around the world to explore the history and myths of psychedelics.

    A Radical History of Plants, Drugs & Human Evolution For the first time in paperback, the counterculture manifesto on mind-altering drugs & hallucinogens. Illustrated. ... (Goodreads)

  2. The Force

    by Don Winslow
    An ex-cop's mission to take down the most powerful drug cartel in the world.

    Instant New York Times Bestseller Best of 2017 - included on best-of lists by the, New York Times,, NPR, Barnes & Noble,, Publisher's Weekly,, LitHub, BookPage, Booklist, TheRealBookSpy.com, the, ... (Barnes & Noble)

  3. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

    by Hunter S. Thompson
    A wild and hallucinatory journey through the seedy underbelly of Las Vegas.

    The basic synopsis revolves around journalist Raoul Duke ( Hunter S. Thompson ) and his attorney, Dr. Gonzo ( Oscar Zeta Acosta ), as they arrive in Las Vegas in 1971 to report on the Mint 400 ... (Wikipedia)

  4. Trainspotting

    by Irvine Welsh
    An exploration of the gritty underworld of drug addiction, told through the eyes of a group of characters.

    The Skag Boys, Jean-Claude Van Damme and Mother Superior - Narrated by Renton. Mark and Simon (a.k.a. Sick Boy) are watching a Jean-Claude Van Damme video when they decide to go buy heroin from ... (Wikipedia)

  5. The Dirt: Confessions of the World's Most Notorious Rock Band

    by Neil Strauss
    The wild and debaucherous story of Mötley Crüe, from their rise to fame to their darkest moments.

    Whiskey and porn stars, hot reds and car crashes, black leather and high heels, overdoses and death. This is the life of Mötley Crüe, the heaviest drinking, hardest fighting, most oversexed and ... (Goodreads)

  6. Hell's Angels

    by Hunter S. Thompson
    A journalist's daring exploration of the wild and dangerous world of the Hell's Angels motorcycle gang.

    Au début des années soixante, Thompson, alors journaliste à San Francisco, est fasciné par les Hell's Angels. Son article sur ces seigneurs de la route fait sensation, il se lance dans la version ... (Goodreads)

  7. Smack

    by Melvin Burgess
    A group of teenagers in Bristol, England, get caught up in the world of heroin addiction and the devastating consequences that follow.

    Junk is told in the first person, with each chapter having a different character narrating. At the beginning of the story, fourteen-year old Gemma Brogan is spending time with David 'Tar' Lawson, a ... (Wikipedia)

  8. The Basketball Diaries

    by Jim Carroll
    A teenage boy's struggles with addiction and his journey of self-discovery.

    The urban classic coming-of-age story about sex, drugs, and basketball. Jim Carroll grew up to become a renowned poet and punk rocker. But in this memoir of the mid-1960's, set during his ... (Goodreads)

  9. Inherent Vice

    by Thomas Pynchon
    A comedic crime story set in a strange, surreal world of 1970s California.

    The setting is Los Angeles in 1970; the arrest and trial of the Manson Family is featured throughout the novel as a current event. Larry "Doc" Sportello, private investigator and pothead, receives a ... (Wikipedia)

  10. Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic

    by Sam Quinones
    Exposé of the opioid crisis in America, from its origins to its devastating effects.

    In fascinating detail, Sam Quinones chronicles how, over the past 15 years, enterprising sugar cane farmers in a small county on the west coast of Mexico created a unique distribution system that ... (Goodreads)

  11. The Cartel

    by Don Winslow
    An explosive battle of power and greed between Mexico's drug cartels and the US government.

    From the internationally best-selling author of the acclaimed novel The Power of the Dog comes The Cartel, a gripping, true-to-life, ripped-from-the-headlines epic story of power, corruption, ... (Goodreads)

  12. Skagboys

    by Irvine Welsh
    A gritty, raw look at the lives of a group of friends in Edinburgh, struggling with poverty and addiction.

    Section 1: Tempted In 1984, Mark Renton and his father Davie have travelled to Yorkshire to take part in a picket of the coke plant. After briefly meeting his London pal Nicksy, he gets caught up in ... (Wikipedia)

  13. Junky

    by William S. Burroughs
    A gritty, autobiographical account of a man's descent into the underworld of addiction.

    Before his 1959 breakthrough, Naked Lunch , an unknown William S. Burroughs wrote Junky , his first novel. It is a candid eye-witness account of times and places that are now long gone, an ... (Goodreads)

  14. Fear and Loathing: The Strange and Terrible Saga of Hunter S. Thompson

    by Paul Perry
    A biography of the infamous journalist Hunter S. Thompson, detailing his wild and drug-fueled adventures in the 60s and 70s.

    Fear and Loathing creates a sharp and savvy profile of one of the most provocative voices and distinctive personalities of our time. To Hunter S. Thompson, being a Gonzo journalist means doing ... (Goodreads)

  15. Gonzo: The Life of Hunter S. Thompson

    by Jann S. Wenner
    A biography of the legendary journalist Hunter S. Thompson, exploring his wild and unconventional life and career.

    Few American lives are stranger, more action-packed, or wilder than that of Hunter S. Thompson. Born a rebel in Louisville, Kentucky, Thompson spent a lifetime channeling his energy and insight into ... (Goodreads)

  16. The Dark Fields

    by Alan Glynn
    A struggling writer discovers a pill that unlocks his brain's full potential, leading him down a dangerous path.

    Edward "Eddie" Spinola is a copywriter at a small publishing house in New York City . He starts using MDT-48, an experimental drug granting heightened intellectual, creative, and learning powers, and ... (Wikipedia)

  17. Clockers

    by Richard Price
    A gritty crime novel that explores the lives of drug dealers and detectives in a New Jersey housing project.

    Clockers follows intertwining storylines of low level cocaine dealer Ronald "Strike" Dunham and homicide detective Rocco Klein in the fictional New Jersey city of Dempsey (Which shares many ... (Wikipedia)

  18. Bright Lights, Big City

    by Jay McInerney
    A young man's journey of personal growth, navigating the chaos of New York City.

    The story's narrator is a 24-year-old writer who works as a fact checker for a highbrow magazine for which he had once hoped to write. By night, he is a cocaine -using party-goer seeking to lose ... (Wikipedia)

  19. Blitzed: Drugs in Nazi Germany

    by Norman Ohler
    Examines the Nazi regime's widespread use of drugs to fuel its war machine.

    In this highly original book, a bestseller in Germany, Norman Ohler investigates the murky, chaotic world of drug use in the Third Reich. There have been other books on Dr Morell's cocktail of ... (Goodreads)

  20. True to the Game

    by Teri Woods
    A young woman navigates the dangerous world of drug dealing and love in Philadelphia. Loyalties are tested and lives are at stake.

    Once upon a time, not too long ago, a young girl from the projects met Quadir, far from home, in the middle of Harlem. Now the story is told of how it all went down. It’s the late 1980s, and Gena ... (Barnes & Noble)

  21. Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs

    by Johann Hari
    Investigative look into the history and consequences of drug prohibition.

    New York Times Bestseller It is now one hundred years since drugs were first banned in the United States. On the eve of this centenary, journalist Johann Hari set off on an epic three-year, ... (Goodreads)

  22. The Heroin Diaries: A Year in the Life of a Shattered Rock Star

    by Nikki Sixx
    A brutally honest account of a musician's struggle with addiction, and his path to recovery.

    Set against the frenzied world of heavy metal superstardom, the co-founder of Motley Crue offers an unflinching and gripping look at his own descent into drug addiction. It follows him during the ... (Goodreads)

  23. The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test

    by Tom Wolfe
    A journey through the psychedelic 1960s and the lives of an eclectic group of people.

    Tom Wolfe chronicles the adventures of Ken Kesey and his group of followers. Throughout the work, Kesey is portrayed as desiring the creation of a new religion. Kesey forms a group of followers based ... (Wikipedia)

  24. No One Here Gets Out Alive

    by Danny Sugerman
    Biography of Jim Morrison, exploring the life and legacy of the legendary singer-songwriter.

    Here is Jim Morrison in all his complexity - singer, philosopher, poet, delinquent-the brilliant, charismatic, and obsessed seeker who rejected authority in any form, the explorer who probed "the ... (Goodreads)

  25. Game of Shadows: Barry Bonds, Balco, and the Steroids Scandal That Rocked Professional Sports

    by Mark Fainaru-Wada
    Investigative journalism on the steroid scandal that rocked professional sports, focusing on Barry Bonds and BALCO.

    The complete inside story of the shocking steroids scandal that turned the sports world upside down For years, in the shadowy reaches of the world of sport, there were rumors that some of our ... (Goodreads)

  26. Gun Street Girl

    by Adrian McKinty
    A detective investigates a murder in 1980s Belfast, navigating through political and personal turmoil.

    Belfast, 1985. Amid the Troubles, Detective Sean Duffy, a Catholic cop in the Protestant Royal Ulster Constabulary, struggles with burnout as he investigates a brutal double murder and suicide. Did ... (Barnes & Noble)

  27. Diablo Guardián

    by Xavier Velasco

    The story revolves around Violetta ( Paulina Gaitán ), a teenager from Mexico frustrated with her life. In a moment of desperation she steals $217,000 from her parents to get to New York , a city ... (Wikipedia)

  28. The Acid House

    by Irvine Welsh
    A collection of stories exploring the dark side of Edinburgh's working-class culture.

    Description from the inside sleeve:, This scintillating, disturbing, and altogether outrageous collection of stories introduces to these shores a young writer already being called "the Scottish ... (Goodreads)

  29. Porno

    by Irvine Welsh
    A darkly comic look at the lives of a group of drug-addled youths in Scotland.

    The novel is divided into three sections, each of which comprises chapters with different narrators . Unlike Trainspotting which had more narrational diversity, Porno is reduced to just five ... (Wikipedia)

  30. The Curse of Lono

    by Hunter S. Thompson
    A gonzo journalist's account of his trip to Hawaii to cover the annual running of the Honolulu Marathon. Chaos and madness ensue.

    Hunter S. Thompson receives a letter from the editor of Running magazine, asking him to cover the 1980 Honolulu Marathon , which the editor says should be "a good chance for a vacation". Hunter asks ... (Wikipedia)

  31. The Kings of Cool

    by Don Winslow
    A prequel to "Savages," exploring the early lives of Ben, Chon, and Ophelia in the 1960s and 70s SoCal surf scene turned drug trade.

    In Savages, Don Winslow introduced Ben and Chon, twenty-something best friends who risk everything to save the girl they both love, O. Among the most celebrated thrillers in recent memory—and now a ... (Goodreads)

  32. Kill Your Friends

    by John Niven
    A ruthless music executive navigates the cutthroat world of the British music industry in the 1990s.

    The novel is set in 1997 at the height of the Britpop music scene. The protagonist, Steven Stelfox, is unhappy about his current position as an A&R agent in the record company he works for in London. ... (Wikipedia)

If you enjoyed this, try uploading your goodreads reviews and seeing what recommendations we can come up with for you.