Drinking, Smoking and Screwing: Great Writers on Good Times / Lying, Cheating, and Stealing: Great Writers on Getting What You Want When You Want It

These two books are classics in my lifetime of reading. At the time I was probably participating in five out of the six immoral activities on a regular basis, so I could relate, but anyone would find genius in these stories.

Authors like Dorothy Parker, Kate Chopin, Henry Miller and Mark Twain have incredible, brief stories about hedonism and vice, either whole or excerpts from novels.

In Drinking, Smoking and Screwing, the best story in a list of equals is by a former Editor-In-Chief of Vanity Fair (can’t remember his name) who finds himself drinking way too much, and creating a drinking schedule for himself:

Day 1: None or One Cocktail
Day 2: Up to Two Cocktails
Day 3: Up to Three Cocktails
Day 4: As much as he wants
REPEAT

He last like two weeks before he finds himself at a party on a day 2 drinking way more than two cocktails. While raucously mixing up a batch he over hears friends whispering “Hey, is this a day 4″? Hysterical.

You grow up and move around and things that meant so much get lost, and I am very glad I remembered these today.

Smoking, Drinking and Screwing — Great Writers on Good Times

Lying, Cheating, and Stealing: Great Writers on Getting What You Want When You Want It