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Cover Title Author Episode(s)
Fightclub Fight Club Chuck Palahniuk Pilot
After Ryan and Seth get in a fight with Luke, Seth suggests that they start a Fight Club. The plot is based around an unnamed protagonist who struggles with his growing discomfort with consumerism and changes in the state of masculinity in American culture. In an attempt to overcome this, he creates an underground boxing club as a radical form of therapy. Palahniuk uses the narrator and Tyler to comment on how people in modern society try to find meaning in their lives through commercial culture. Additionally, much of the novel comments on how many men in modern society have found dissatisfaction with the state of masculinity as it currently exists. They see themselves as being "a generation of men raised by women", being without a male role model in their lives to help shape their masculinity. This can be interpreted as to how Seth feels, with his overprotective life, and Ryan as his Tyler Durden figure, so to speak.
ExcuseMe On the Road Jack Kerouac Pilot
When Ryan is about to leave, Seth says "You know what I've always wanted to do besides sail to Tahiti? I want to do that whole Kerouac thing, hit the road, stop at diner to diner, the pancake tour of North America." Later, while eating pancakes at the diner, Seth suggests that they go on a Pancake Tour of North America. Marissa recognizes the reference and says that it's her favorite book. Seth sheepishly admits that it's also his. It is based on the spontaneous road trips of Kerouac and his friends across mid-century America, and is often considered the defining work of the postwar Beat Generation that was so affected by jazz, poetry, and drugs experiences. Michael McClure describes the time as "locked in the Cold War and the first Asian debacle," in "the gray, chill, militaristic silence,...the intellective void...the spiritual drabness". We become intimately aware of an elusive narrator, but fixated upon the epic hero of the novel, Dean Moriarty.
Encyclopedia Brown - Boy Detective On the Road Jack Kerouac Pilot
When Ryan is about to leave, Seth says "You know what I've always wanted to do besides sail to Tahiti? I want to do that whole Kerouac thing, hit the road, stop at diner to diner, the pancake tour of North America." Later, while eating pancakes at the diner, Seth suggests that they go on a Pancake Tour of North America. Marissa recognizes the reference and says that it's her favorite book. Seth sheepishly admits that it's also his. It is based on the spontaneous road trips of Kerouac and his friends across mid-century America, and is often considered the defining work of the postwar Beat Generation that was so affected by jazz, poetry, and drugs experiences. Michael McClure describes the time as "locked in the Cold War and the first Asian debacle," in "the gray, chill, militaristic silence,...the intellective void...the spiritual drabness". We become intimately aware of an elusive narrator, but fixated upon the epic hero of the novel, Dean Moriarty.
Book great fire The Great Fire Shirley Hazzard The SnO.C.
When Lindsay visits Ryan, he's lounging in his room reading this book. Winner of the 2003 National Book Award, The Great Fire focuses on a writer who arrives in a new place (Japan), meets a girl and falls in love. The story is similar to that of Ryan. Time and place have always been exactly evoked in Hazzard's fiction, and such is the case here. The time is 1947-48, and the place is, primarily, East Asia. This is a locale much altered by the events of World War II and physical destruction and psychological wariness and weariness lay over the land. Our hero is Aldred Leith, who is English and part of the occupation forces in Japan; his particular military task is damage survey. He has an interesting past, including a two-year walk across civil-war-torn China to write a book. He meets the teenage daughter and younger son of a local Australian commander. As Helen is growing headlong into womanhood, this novel of war's aftermath becomes a story of love and of the restoration of the capacity for love once global and personal trauma have been shed.
Mockingbird On the Road Jack Kerouac Pilot
When Ryan is about to leave, Seth says "You know what I've always wanted to do besides sail to Tahiti? I want to do that whole Kerouac thing, hit the road, stop at diner to diner, the pancake tour of North America." Later, while eating pancakes at the diner, Seth suggests that they go on a Pancake Tour of North America. Marissa recognizes the reference and says that it's her favorite book. Seth sheepishly admits that it's also his. It is based on the spontaneous road trips of Kerouac and his friends across mid-century America, and is often considered the defining work of the postwar Beat Generation that was so affected by jazz, poetry, and drugs experiences. Michael McClure describes the time as "locked in the Cold War and the first Asian debacle," in "the gray, chill, militaristic silence,...the intellective void...the spiritual drabness". We become intimately aware of an elusive narrator, but fixated upon the epic hero of the novel, Dean Moriarty.
Ondaroad On the Road Jack Kerouac The Model Home
When Ryan is about to leave, Seth says "You know what I've always wanted to do besides sail to Tahiti? I want to do that whole Kerouac thing, hit the road, stop at diner to diner, the pancake tour of North America." Later, while eating pancakes at the diner, Seth suggests that they go on a Pancake Tour of North America. Marissa recognizes the reference and says that it's her favorite book. Seth sheepishly admits that it's also his. It is based on the spontaneous road trips of Kerouac and his friends across mid-century America, and is often considered the defining work of the postwar Beat Generation that was so affected by jazz, poetry, and drugs experiences. Michael McClure describes the time as "locked in the Cold War and the first Asian debacle," in "the gray, chill, militaristic silence,...the intellective void...the spiritual drabness". We become intimately aware of an elusive narrator, but fixated upon the epic hero of the novel, Dean Moriarty.
Kavalier The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay Michael Chabon The Best Chrismukkah Ever, The Truth, The Accomplice
The book is featured as part of the "Seth Cohen Starter Pack" that Seth gives to both Anna and Summer. He also compares his friendship with Ryan to the friendship between Kavalier and Clay. Later, Summer asks Zach and Seth "What are you guys, like, Kavalier and Gay?" (in the book Sam Clay is in fact gay). There are many similiarities between The O.C. and the book. A major theme in the novel is the prominent role of Jewish writers and artists in not only the comic-book field, but fantasy fiction and American pop culture in general, because comics and pulp fiction were crucibles for a uniquely American mythology that allowed outcasts and immigrants to dream of heroism, much like Seth does. Kavalier also goes to New York to live with Clay when they are both teenagers, much like when Ryan comes to Newport Beach. Kavalier is also shown as a brooding character much like Ryan throughout the book whereas Clay is a feeble, somewhat immature comic book loving kid much like Seth.
Sexdrugscocoapuffs Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs Chuck Klosterman The Dearly Beloved
Seth is seen reading this book after Caleb dies. He muses that not even Chuck Klosterman can cheer him up. The book is a series of essays by Klosterman on pop culture in a humorous and well thought out manner, similar to the humor Seth has. Klosterman touches on many topics, including The Real World, serial killers, postmodern movies, 80's metal bands, and Say Anything's impact on romance and dating.
The Theory of the Leisure Class | Thorstein Veblen | The Best Chrismukkah Ever

Oliver Trask is seen reading this when Marissa meets him in the waiting room of the psychiatrist’s office.

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