Wierd and Wonderful Novels...

Hello bookists, are we having a nice day?

I was wondering if anyone can recommend any lesser known, yet wonderfully warped novels that are definitely worth reading?

Here's what I've enjoyed lately:

The Roaches Have No King, by Daniel Evan Weiss
The Minotaur Takes A Cigarette Break, by Steven Sherrill
Geek Love, by Katherine Dunn

And pretty much everything by Charles Bukowski...

Who knows of anything along these lines?

Peace!

Hmm no bookists, how interestingly boring!

Please don't make me beg..

reply to post by purehughness


I am not familiar with any of the authors or books you mention, so I don't know what you consider weird.

What type of writing are you looking for?

reply to post by tribewilder


Oh Hi there, cheers for the reply!

Hmm lemme see, it's lesser known authors who have a certain je ne sais quoi to them, who aren't on bestseller lists, but write absolutely amazing fiction, usually quite gritty or subversive, or are just real 'thinking man's books'..

I'm all ears and open minded to any suggestions.

~Hughness

[edit on 8/9/2009 by purehughness]

reply to post by purehughness


You may like the books by Kurt Vonnegut and William S Burroughs. They both write very off the wall novels.

reply to post by kidflash2008


Aaah cool. I've had my eye on Vonnegut for a while, never really picked anything up. May well do so, what's Slaughterhouse 5 like?

reply to post by purehughness



You should read some Philip K. Dick.... you probably have already, but read some more.



Re: Slaughterhouse 5.... It's pretty good, read it earlier this year and had no expectations really.
A deceptively simple book and perhaps not what you expect but certainly a worthy read, if not a bit short.

reply to post by purehughness


Geek Love was an insane book. You might like this.

www.sfsite.com...

Since someone else said Vonnegut, i would add some more magical realism authors: try Garcia Marquez, Haruki Murakami or Jose Saramago. Lots of my favourite books are by one of them, Vonnegut included. And you could qualify them as weird

And the book that i always recommend to everbody: Life of Pi by Yann Martel. If you haven't read it already, you should and you should like it, i can't see how anyone wouldn't like it!

I could go on for a while about fantasy and science fiction books, but i don't know if that's what you're looking for.

reply to post by blupblup


I'm planning to start reading Philip K. Dick cause to my shame i never read anything by him yet (saw the movies though ). But it's sooo intimidating cause he wrote so much and all of his books are famous and supposedly good. Any tips on where should i start? Please!

Originally posted by Wallachian
I'm planning to start reading Philip K. Dick cause to my shame i never read anything by him yet (saw the movies though

). But it's sooo intimidating cause he wrote so much and all of his books are famous and supposedly good. Any tips on where should i start? Please!

Awesome, you won't be disappointed.

I first read "do androids dream of electric sheep?" the book that Blade-runner is based on, and loved it.... but didn't read other PKD for a while....not for any other reason than my forgetfulness.


Then read "Valis" and i was just It's honestly one of my favourite books now.
Did the other 2 in the "Valis trilogy" too.... "The Divine invasion" and "the transmigration os Timothy Archer" but strictly speaking they are not a trilogy, only slight thematic similarities exist.

Then went on to read a few more.... still working my way through his entire works


I would say... Hmmmmmm...

Start with "flow my tears, the policeman said" or "Ubik"

Or if you're really adventurous and want to get thrown in at the deep end.... start with "Valis"


But in all fairness, you can't really go wrong.

Even his short stories are fantastic

[edit on 9/9/09 by blupblup]

Any of daniel quinn's books would be worth your while.
Ishmael would be a good start. Be prepared to think.

Great calls guys, getting quite a list! Cheers!

To blupblup, I've got a fair bit of Philip K Dick, really liked The Man in the High Castle, but you've given some I've never heard of, so I'll definitely look into that!

And Wallachian, Murakami is awesome! Have you read any Kazuo Ishiguro?

I am going to suggest The Great and Secret Show by Clive Barker.

reply to post by gmatt911


Oooh now I've heard about that, it's a series right?

Yes, a trilogy in fact, but I've only read the first one and it was phenomenal.

reply to post by blupblup


Thanks a lot, first I'm gonna search for Valis i guess. Yeah yeah, i'm feeling adventurous

reply to post by purehughness


Didn't read any Ishiguro, but he's on my extended 'to read' list.

Hey, we should make like an ats collective 'to read' list!

Oh and Ishmael is a cool book indeed, maybe not so much for the writing style, but i really liked the ideas there.

reply to post by Wallachian


An ATS book group eh? Interesting...