Person
Norman Ohler's book recommendations
Norman Ohler’s most recommended books
- Gravity's rainbow by Thomas Pynchon
- The Stranger, The Plague (Coles Notes) by Albert Camus
- Ulysses by James Joyce
- Animal Farm by George Orwell
- Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler
- On the Road by Jack Kerouac
- One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
- Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari
Norman Ohler is a German author, novelist, and screenwriter, best known for his popular history book Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich. During his appearance on the Lex Fridman Podcast, Ohler shared several influential books that shaped his literary and writing journey. He named James Joyce's 'Ulysses' as an impactful read from his early years, noting that it resonates most when someone is in their early twenties living in New York. Ohler also discussed Albert Camus's 'The Stranger' as a major stylistic influence, expressing a primary interest in language rather than plot. Furthermore, he praised Thomas Pynchon's 'Gravity's Rainbow' as an absolute masterpiece and one of the finest novels of the twentieth century, which left a lasting impression when he read it in Berlin in the late nineties. Alongside these recommendations, Ohler discussed other notable literary and historical works, including Jack Kerouac's 'On the Road', Adolf Hitler's 'Mein Kampf', George Orwell's 'Animal Farm', Yuval Noah Harari's 'Sapiens', and Ken Kesey's 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest', relating them to topics such as historical amphetamine use, political allegories, and the MKULTRA program.
Books recommended by Norman Ohler
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Gravity's rainbow
Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon is an epic, complex postmodern novel set near the end of World War II, exploring themes of paranoia, rocketry, entropy, and government conspiracies.
Recommended“So the ones I mentioned, and also then Thomas, Thomas Pynchon. who wrote "Gravity's Rainbow," which I think is one of the best novels of the 20th century. And I read that in Berlin in the late '90s, and it really blew my mind. I thought it... I think it's an absolute masterpiece.”
Where to get it
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The Stranger, The Plague (Coles Notes)
The Stranger by Albert Camus is a foundational philosophical novel that explores themes of existentialism, absurdism, and alienation through the experiences of its protagonist, Meursault.
Recommended“But the most influential book, maybe, is "The Stranger" by Camus. Because I like the language so much, and I'm really mostly interested in language. I don't really care what it's about. I was lying on the beach in Morocco when I was 20 and reading "The Stranger."”
Where to get it
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Ulysses
James Joyce's landmark modernist novel Ulysses chronicles an ordinary day in the life of Leopold Bloom in Dublin, mapping human consciousness and daily existence through a revolutionary stream-of-consciousness technique.
Recommended“Yeah, it's Ulysses by James Joyce. Ulysses is good, but only when you're in your early 20s, living in New York, and you're writing your first book, and you just have taken LSD.”
Where to get it
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Animal Farm
Animal Farm by George Orwell is a classic allegorical novella that uses a farmyard setting to satirize the corruption of socialist ideals and the rise of totalitarianism following the Russian Revolution.
Discussed“It's like in Animal Farm when the pigs discover alcohol. Animal Farm by George Orwell. There's no evidence that they drank.”
Where to get it
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Mein Kampf
Mein Kampf is Adolf Hitler's notorious autobiographical manifesto detailing his political ideology and antisemitic worldview.
Discussed“Also, they were sentenced to prison, and Hitler wrote Mein Kampf in prison.”
Where to get it
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On the Road
On the Road by Jack Kerouac is a seminal autobiographical novel that chronicles the cross-country road trips of its protagonist and captures the restless energy of the Beat Generation.
Discussed“"On the Road" was apparently written in two weeks on amphetamines.”
Where to get it
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One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Ken Kesey's classic novel "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" portrays institutional life and psychiatric practices through the experiences of patients in a mental asylum.
Discussed“So then it spilled out, obviously, because one of the guinea pigs was Ken Kesey. He received 75 US dollars for taking LSD for the CIA, and he was working in Menlo Park in a psychiatric ward. And on LSD, he basically had the idea to write One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.”
Where to get it
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Sapiens
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari is a sweeping narrative that traces the evolutionary and historical development of the human species from prehistoric bands to modern civilizations.
Discussed“Like Sapiens by Harari, which is a great book, he also misses that. Like, when it comes to those moments, he writes like, "We don't understand how the first cognitive revolution and the second cognitive revolution actually happened."”
Where to get it
Books by Norman Ohler
Appearances
| Episode | Podcast | Date | Books |
|---|---|---|---|
| #481 – Norman Ohler: Hitler, Nazis, Drugs, WW2, Blitzkrieg, LSD, MKUltra & CIA | Lex Fridman Podcast | 2025-09-19 | 8 |
Other mentions (14: passing, ad reads, own books)
“He was quite old, but quite ready to be my mentor for this book, "Blitzed."”
“I mean, that's why I wrote the book, The Bohemians, because there were a few people in Berlin that didn't react this way, but they reacted in a different way. They said, "We cannot be part of this."”
“well this had a lot to do with my previous book which is called Blitz drugs in the Third Reich”
“so I thought I save that that psychedelic theme for another book and this other book is now being published as tripped”
“I mean the joke about Blitz is that I was actually the first one to write about this”
“I I write about this in trip like for the first time I feel connected to my human to my to my fellow human being”
“so from that point onward I did the research that is in tripped which was supposed to be called LSD for mom actually that was my working title”
“and these different reasons are explained in trip”
“so that is also what I what I write about in tripped AK LSD for Mom”
“this is also what I examined in tripped”
“and that's what I intend to change with my book Stone sapiens which will be the next book and kind of conclude the trilogy”
“I don't know I I have like there's photos of it in my book blitzed where you see like the young medical officers”
“um uh there is a was a German drug called o codal and um it's quite interesting I write about that musolini meeting”
“in Blitz we find like a new biography in a way of Hitler a more accurate one”