Well, I've read it too, several years ago and I'm 64. Of course I got started 45 years ago with Jack Kerovac and Dharma Bums.
"Pain or love or danger makes you real again...."
— Jack Kerouac (The Dharma Bums)
Also On the Road
"They danced down the streets like dingledodies, and I shambled after as I've been doing all my life after people who interest me, because the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones that never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn..."
- Jack Kerouac, On the Road, Part 1, Ch. 1