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If you loved
Books like Hollywood Babylon
A lurid, gleefully wicked tour through the rotting foundations of the world's most glamorous company town. These 12 books are the closest matches in mood, pace and themes, with what each one shares with Hollywood Babylon.
- decadent
- sleazy
- macabre
- glamorous
- 01
Hollywood
Charles Bukowski
A booze-soaked, deadpan stumble through the glittering, absurd machinery of the film industry.
- 02
Valley of the dolls
Jacqueline Susann · 1966
A glittering, pill-popping descent into the glamorous and ruthless underbelly of mid-century show business.
- 03
The Day of the Locust
Nathanael West · 1983
A feverish, apocalyptic descent into the rotting, desperate underbelly of Hollywood's golden age.
- 04
Easy riders, raging bulls
Peter Biskind · 1998
A breathless, gossipy, and utterly addictive front-row seat to the brilliant, drug-fueled trainwreck that birthed modern American cinema.
- 05
American Tabloid
James Ellroy
A blistering, blood-soaked joyride through the dark, corrupt underbelly of 1960s American history.
- 06
The Celluloid Closet
Vito Russo
A sharp, passionate excavation of the hidden queer history buried beneath a century of Hollywood glamour and censorship.
- 07
The White Album
Joan Didion
A restless, mosaic-like exploration of a culture in the throes of dark and bizarre transformations.
- 08
Full service
Scotty Bowers
A breezy, unapologetic backstage pass to the secret, sun-drenched hedonism of Golden Age Hollywood.
- 09
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test
Tom Wolfe · 1968
A kaleidoscopic, hyperkinetic road trip through the birth of the 1960s counterculture that reads like a literary hallucination.
- 10
The Philosophy of Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol
A deadpan, glamorous stroll through a mind obsessed with fame, consumerism, and the profound beauty of the superficial.
- 11
Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs
Chuck Klosterman
A hyper-caffeinated, wildly entertaining deep dive into the profound philosophical truths hidden inside our trashiest pop culture.
- 12
Mommie Dearest
Christina Crawford · 1978
A harrowing, claustrophobic descent behind the velvet ropes of Old Hollywood glamour into a nightmare of maternal cruelty.
