Let me know how you like Better Than Sex because I'm also new to Hunter S. Thompson. I'm reading Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas right now, and like LLC said, you should definitely read it. I am finally almost done with it and I think I might have to go back and read it two or three more times just because it's such an easy read and it is so funny in a twisted disturbing way. Similar to Chuck Palahniuk novels, but in more of a "Let's screw with this guys head for the sake of our own amusement" way.
Does anyone know of any other authors that write like Palahniuk and Thompson? I've been a big fan of Elmore Leonard over the years and he is the closest that I have read. But he is almost like the guy that read what was popular way back when (he's old), and took the next step into race relations and funny violent situations (As seen in movies adapted from his books like Jackie Brown, Get Shorty, Out of Sight, etc...). Whether you like the movies or not, he is a very good crime writer where you are rooting for the bad guys to succeed. Palahniuk and Thompson seem to have taken his style and went disturbingly further with it. I would love to find more authors who write like them. There has to be more.
Firstly, check out Thompson's
Hells Angels next. It's not as insane as
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, but it's his break through piece, a great piece of writing with some sick humor, and I think you'd appreciate it, coming from the Bay area. Ideally, I would recommend
Curse of Lono to you, on the basis that it is very similar to
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. However, the book was out of print for many years, and it just recently became available to the public once again, only it has been released in a gigantic hardcover edition that is about two feel tall (no exaggeration) and you could quite easily kill a bear with... Resultingly, it is currently $50 dollars. A lot of money for the casual fan. Although, it's a great read, so if you can find it in a library or a second hand book shop, go for it. Or if you want to be crazy like me, buy the $50 edition, and use it to skin animals with, that's cool too.
The Rum Diary is excellent as well, and set to be adapted into a film starring Col. Depp. It's Thompson's first attempt at a novel, so it has this great, raw energy... And, at this point he is still sort of testing the water to see what he can realistically get away with, as far as shock goes. So, there are random spurts of humor that seem really warped and almost irrelevant, which will make you laugh and ask "what the fuck is this?" I remember one chapter where he is sitting in a house, and he looks out the window and sees a three-legged dog whimpering on the sidewalk below the window. Then the chapter ends really abruptly. It's rather humorous.
As for other authors... Check out Irvine Welsh and Kurt Vonnegut. They're both favorites of mine. Read Vonnegut's
Slaughter House Five and Irvine Welsh's
Trainspotting. Palahniuk is basically the younger, hipper Welsh. He was widely inspired by him. And Vonnegut is brilliant... He has that "what the fuck" sense of humor that is widely present in Thompson and Palahniuk.
