I read this in high school and It is one of the main reasons I went from despising reading to now being obsessed with it. this man was on a different planet when he wrote this (he was trying every drug there was at the time of writing this but hmm who knows haha) and the symbolism and metaphors I analyzed for weeks in my brit lit class made me see that in my hands was a whole other persepective of the world and I got to read it and feel it with him. I wish I could read this for the first time again and be as shocked as I was the first time I read it. Yikes!