Nonpopulist Books: The Dharma Bums

I just finished reading The Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac. Fucking good book. There are Buddhist overtones to everything I have ever read by Kerouac, but I glance over most of those notions and still get a good grasp on his work. He is officially my favorite writer of all time now, with Hemingway being a close second. In the book, Kerouac is the protagonist through his alter ego of Ray. The antagonist is his friend Japhy. The drink, party, and hike through their journey to find "what it is all for" as it intersects in the pages of The Dharma Bums to find that nothing really means anything so they might as well get drunk anyway which is a message I can get behind. Kerouac is such a hero of mine first and foremost because his writing evokes so much emotion. I know what you may be thinking because I have been there. You may say to yourself, "What can a stuffy old book tell me about living?" I do not think I have a sufficient answer to that except to say read one of his books, and we will talk about it.
Or follow me after the jump and watch a video that brings me to tears every time I see it.