On the Road

This is a book unlike any other, so you can't read it like any other. The book has a different kind of momentum, which is not built upon plot but upon language. When you read it you need to read it as Kerouac wrote it, quickly. He wrote the entire book in two weeks, taking no time to go back and edit. So, therefore, when you read it, take no time to go back. It's just go go go, no time to be spent mulling the plot because there almost is none, this is all what happened to the author. Essentially this is an autobiography, written in as stream of consciousness as you can get.

And by reading at breakneck speeds, you begin to find a rhythm in the language. Kerouac, when writing, was fueled by coffee, drugs, and jazz.

So it wouldn't be a stretch to call this book literary jazz: there's an underlying beat, improvised instrument solos, and a feeling of discarding all the establishments. There are grammar errors, spelling errors, and Kerouac even makes up words for Gods sake, all because he's so in tune with the beat that he just can't stop writing. And the trick to reading his tome, which admittedly seems intimidating, is to just keep following the beat, following the road onwards, wherever it takes you- even to places you've never imagined.