Books have an essential part in defining society’s past, present and future. While some books offer truth, others are for entertainment. Here are a few – some popular, some not – that are worth your time.

1. “Sometimes a Great Notion” by Ken Kesey (1964)

Kesey’s follow-up to “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” revolves around the Stampers, a stubborn logging family living in the water-soaked town of Wakonda, Oregon. The town is in the midst of a serious union strike that tears the region apart while the Stampers refuse to stop logging, wagging the bird to the rest of the town and its beliefs. Kesey uses multiple characters – even first person – with only small clues to cue when he changes between characters’ differing points of view. This technique allows the reader to understand, in-depth, every character’s hidden motives and emotions.

This is the most sarcastic and serious novel I’ve read. The story has always stood behind “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” but is definitely his legacy and a hidden gem.

2. “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” by Hunter S. Thompson (1971)

The plot developed from Thompson’s own excursion to Las Vegas with Oscar Zeta Acosta, a well-known Mexican-American attorney and activist. Originally, the trip was to cover the Mint 400 desert race for “Sports Illustrated” but ended up in the strange realm of one of Thompson’s legendary drug excursions. Journalists Raoul Duke and attorney Dr. Gonzo, inspired by Thompson and Acosta, enjoy an epic journey in which they search for the American Dream.

Thompson makes it a point to overplay the extreme drug use to depict the end of 1960s counterculture and show the cynicism he felt projected on the drug scene at the time. Thompson really takes you into his bizarre and twisted mind and shows you his brilliance as the doctor of Gonzo journalism.

3. “The Stranger” by Albert Camus (1943)

A great example of Absurdist fiction, “The Stranger” follows Camus’ beliefs in relative truths. He depicts the main character,. Mersault, as an unemotional individualist who only believes in things he can experience physically.

After murdering an Arab man, Mersault finds himself being tried unfairly, mostly for his unwillingness to show remorse. Mersault’s blatant honesty in his atheistic, unemotional ways dooms him in court, enforcing Camus’ absurdist thesis.

Considered to be one of the greatest novels of the 20th century, “The Stranger” allows Camus to adapt a highly philosophical situation into a powerful fictional work.

4. “Catch-22” by Joseph Heller (1961)

“Catch-22” is a satirical novel filled with absurd and paradoxical humor poking fun at bureaucratic institutions and moral issues.

The novel is written as if the reader already knows what has happened, and through flashbacks and sporadic out of sequence events, the reader puts together the story, often through different iterations of the same stories.

The novel is set in the late stages of World War II on the fictitious island of Pianosa. Yossarian and numerous other characters of the Fighting 256th Squadron are followed throughout the story.

A Catch-22 refers to a “no-win situation” that stems from bureaucratic reasoning – the result of which is that pilots cannot get out of combat missions.

Yossarian is seen as the anti-hero in the book because of his disregard for bureaucratic institutions like patriotism and honor.

This is one of the funniest and best-written books I have ever read, and I highly recommend reading it – if not for intellectual reasons, then for your sense of humor.