I rate them the same way as everyone else: every book gets a 4 unless I really liked it (5), or really hated it (3).

It's crazy to think that it's been so long that Reddit wasn't even around yet. I first read about the news on Fark.

His early stuff was his best work, so definitely check out Hell's Angels and Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72. A collection of his letters was published as The Proud Highway and Fear and Loathing in America, and I'd consider them essential reading.

I remember a scene with him tossing a sledgehammer around. I'd imagine that would freak out a lot of hippies.

The Beats were a generation older than the Boomers. They were more like a shadow of the Greatest Generation. They rebelled against the conformity of their peers, which made them generally unpopular within their own generation but revered by Boomers a generation later. It's interesting to observe the different ways the Beats reacted to this. Ginsberg seemed to relish his role as an elder demigod to the Hippies, while Kerouac rebelled against the rebellion and retreated back to Catholicism and heavy drinking while criticizing "kids these days."