I read both On The Road and The Dharma Bums as a student, when I was trying to figure out what to do with my life. I didn’t like On The Road much at all - I fou

I read both On The Road and The Dharma Bums as a student, when I was trying to figure out what to do with my life. I didn’t like On The Road much at all - I found the characters to be wildly irresponsible to the point of being just plain mean. But for some reason I decided to give Kerouac another go with The Dharma Bums, and it has probably had a bigger influence on my life than any other book. Not so much because of the Buddhist concepts, which I didn’t care much about then, and still don’t, and Kerouac probably got wrong anyway. But the Bhuddist-lite concepts of appreciating nature, minimalism, independence, love, etc - experienced through the eyes of a very flawed main character who is just looking to find some peace and happiness in life - all really resonated with me and left a lasting impression. It would be fun to read that book again after so many years and see if it still resonates.