# Strangest Book You've Ever Read



## ScottS (Jul 3, 2012)

I was picking up a bunch of my books that my kids - ages 4 and 8 - "read" and subsequently dumped on the floor. One of the books I picked up was Manifold Origin by Stephen Baxter. I remember how odd the book was. I read and enjoyed it, but it was bizarre. What are some the books you have read and thought, either part of the way through, or when you finished, that it was just a strange journey. Sometimes those can be the most memorable reads.


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## sstroble (Dec 16, 2013)

Had to read One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest for a college sociology class. Thought I had how it would end figured out but author Ken Kesey saved his best sucker punch for the last page.


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

First one to jump to my mind was _Infinite Jest_, and after a few minutes of cogitation, none stranger came to mind.


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## Alexander Mori (Jun 10, 2014)

A Clockwork Orange was the first book to come to mind.  Anthony Burgess wrote it in a made up slang that was completely strange, yet somehow made sense as you get through the book.  And then there is Alice In Wonderland.  That book was too strange for me.  Got bored after awhile.


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## Guest (Jun 20, 2014)

Beyond the Valley of the Apocalypse Donkeys by Jordan Krall

http://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Valley-Apocalypse-Donkeys-Jordan/dp/098715611X

Very, very strange but also very memorable.


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## Nancy Beck (Jul 1, 2011)

The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers. I read it a while ago because it's a time travel story, and I LOVE time travel stories.

This one, though, I found very strange, and very hard to keep straight, because the MC started from the modern world, leapt back to the (IIRC) 16th century, then to ancient Egypt...and I was completely flummoxed by trying to remember where he was, what he was doing, and I'm usually pretty good at keeping it all straight.

It was all just very weird, even for me.   I did manage to finish it, though just barely.


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## lmroth12 (Nov 15, 2012)

Probably *Alice In Wonderland*. It made no sense to me even when I read it as a child, until you find out she was only dreaming. THEN it made sense because dreams _do _ follow a pattern of flowing from one scene into another and sometimes none of them making sense, just as the book did. It would also explain why there were so many violent people trying to harm her; the Mad Hatter wanting to cut her hair, the Queen of Hearts wanting to behead her, etc. The poor kid was having a nightmare!


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## Cuechick (Oct 28, 2008)

Geek Love by Katherine Dunn... for sure. I read it when it first came out about 20 years ago and I remember thinking, this is so weird but so good! It recently became ava for kindle so I want to read it again...! At one point David Lynch was suppose to direct a film version... enough said!


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## Geoffrey (Jun 20, 2009)

ScottS said:


> I was picking up a bunch of my books that my kids - ages 4 and 8 - "read" and subsequently dumped on the floor. One of the books I picked up was Manifold Origin by Stephen Baxter. I remember how odd the book was. I read and enjoyed it, but it was bizarre. What are some the books you have read and thought, either part of the way through, or when you finished, that it was just a strange journey. Sometimes those can be the most memorable reads.


Your 8 year old is reading Baxter? I love precocious kids!!!!

But to stay on topic, I think the strangest book I've read in recent memory is Grey by Jon Armstrong. It's a satire about our fascination with celebrity set in a near future dystopic world. very strange book.


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## Carrie Rubin (Nov 19, 2012)

I read 'The Phantom Tollbooth' for my son's upper elementary book club. He liked it, but I thought it was strange. I also thought 'Animal Farm' was weird. Guess I prefer the concrete over the abstract. That's not to say I didn't enjoy them--I just prefer talking humans to talking animals...


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## LGOULD (Jul 5, 2011)

_Stranger In A Strange Land_. I wrote about it at http://letsplayballbook.wordpress.com/2011/12/26/a-second-look-at-stranger-in-a-strange-land/


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## Cactus Lady (Jun 4, 2014)

The first book and a half of the Gormentghast trilogy. Some people consider it a masterpiece, but I didn't make it all the way through the trilogy because it's just so weird. The characters are really disturbing and unpleasant, as is the setting, and I had no idea what was going on.


Anything I've ever read by John Irving. Again, just weird, disturbing, unpleasant. John Irving is my mother's favorite author; this kind of worries me.

Strangest in a more positive way, The Fan Man by William Kotzwinkle. Weird and strange, but also very entertaining. The main character is such a lovable loser.


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## hs (Feb 15, 2011)

The strangest book I recall reading is Mark Z. Danielewski's _House of Leaves_. Not only was the story strange, but the format of the book was ... um... unconventional. It blew my mind when I read it.


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## proliar (Jun 19, 2013)

hs, I was going to mention House of Leaves. What a beautiful and strange book.

I also found China Meiville's Perdido Street Station to be a lot of fun and incredibly inventive.


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## deckard (Jan 13, 2011)

The first one that comes to mind is S.



Deckard


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## RachelJohn (Jun 24, 2014)

The book that came to mind was, How to Disappear Completely and Never Be Found, by Sara Nickerson. It's a middle grade book. I found it at a yard sale and totally fell in love with it, even though it's for kids. Super strange and fun.


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## inuyashatokikyo (Jul 3, 2014)

I think all of Ryu Murakami's books are very strange, not sure in a good way though. I would not read them twice.


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## Charles Harvey (Dec 29, 2010)

*Hogg* by Samuel Delaney is the strangest and most sexually explicit book I've ever read. It goes beyond explicit. Not for the faint of heart or vanilla erotica lovers.









http://www.amazon.com/Hogg-Samuel-R-Delany/dp/0932511880/ref=sr_1_1?s=textbooks-trade-in&ie=UTF8&qid=1404627715&sr=1-1&keywords=hogg


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## PaulLev (Nov 2, 2012)

The book that most immediately comes to mind is Nicholson Baker's The Fermata (Vintage Contemporaries) - it's also one of the best books I've ever read.


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## mphicks (Jan 29, 2014)

hs said:


> The strangest book I recall reading is Mark Z. Danielewski's _House of Leaves_. Not only was the story strange, but the format of the book was ... um... unconventional. It blew my mind when I read it.


Seconded! I'm just seeing this thread for the first time, and Danielewski's was the title that leapt to my mind, too. Awesome book, but strange and very unconventional in its presentation (pages upside down, story unfolding in the footnotes and margins, articles, newspaper clippings, a section that has to be read backwards, etc.). Haven't read anything quite like it since, except for maybe Night Film. I know that book drew a lot of comparisons to House of Leaves, and it's definitely a strange title, but "Leaves" wins out on all fronts for me.


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

NogDog said:


> First one to jump to my mind was _Infinite Jest_, and after a few minutes of cogitation, none stranger came to mind.


Out of curiosity, I was looking through my highlights for this book, and found this one:



> ...characterized by a stubborn and possibly intentionally irritating refusal of different narrative lines to merge into any kind of meaningful confluence...


I believe he was talking about the movies created by one of the important characters, but by the time that quote appeared, I was beginning to realize it was also a reference to the book I was reading.


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## heidi_g (Nov 14, 2013)

was a very strange, but enjoyable read!


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## Lilpenguin1972 (Aug 9, 2012)

American Gods by Neil Gaiman. I read it six years ago, and I still don't know if I liked it, hated it, or even understood it.


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## Marilyn Peake (Aug 8, 2011)

hs said:


> The strangest book I recall reading is Mark Z. Danielewski's _House of Leaves_. Not only was the story strange, but the format of the book was ... um... unconventional. It blew my mind when I read it.


Yes! I was going to say *House of Leaves*, but saw that you had already mentioned it. I absolutely LOVE that book! I love how the reader's led to _experience_ the actions in the book by the way each page is printed and also that the story in the footnotes reflects the story taking place on the main part of each page. I love the same thing about the PS3 game, *Journey*, in which the game actions force the player to experience the Hero's Journey.


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## HaemishM (Dec 9, 2009)

Without a moment's hesitation, I'd say William Burroughs' Naked Lunch is the strangest book I've ever read. I don't know many people who have finished it. Of course, since the author wrote a ton of snippets, tossed them in the air and the order they fell in is the way the book was put together, it's no wonder it's strange.


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## jeffaaronmiller (Jul 17, 2012)

Oh gosh, Finnegan's Wake. It is essentially unreadable, but I was determined to slog my way through it when I was in college and determined to do difficult things for no good reason. 

"Sir Tristram, violer d’amores, fr’over the short sea, had passen-core rearrived from North Armorica on this side the scraggy isthmus of Europe Minor to wielderfight his penisolate war: nor had topsawyer’s rocks by the stream Oconee exaggerated themselse to Laurens County’s gorgios while they went doublin their mumper all the time: nor avoice from afire bellowsed mishe mishe to tauftauf thuartpeatrick not yet, though venissoon after, had a kidscad buttended a bland old isaac: not yet, though all’s fair in vanessy, were sosie sesthers wroth with twone nathandjoe. Rot a peck of pa’s malt had Jhem or Shen brewed by arclight and rory end to the regginbrow was to be seen ringsome on the aquaface."

Yikes.


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## ScottS (Jul 3, 2012)

jeffaaronmiller said:


> Oh gosh, Finnegan's Wake. It is essentially unreadable, but I was determined to slog my way through it when I was in college and determined to do difficult things for no good reason.
> 
> "Sir Tristram, violer d'amores, fr'over the short sea, had passen-core rearrived from North Armorica on this side the scraggy isthmus of Europe Minor to wielderfight his penisolate war: nor had topsawyer's rocks by the stream Oconee exaggerated themselse to Laurens County's gorgios while they went doublin their mumper all the time: nor avoice from afire bellowsed mishe mishe to tauftauf thuartpeatrick not yet, though venissoon after, had a kidscad buttended a bland old isaac: not yet, though all's fair in vanessy, were sosie sesthers wroth with twone nathandjoe. Rot a peck of pa's malt had Jhem or Shen brewed by arclight and rory end to the regginbrow was to be seen ringsome on the aquaface."
> 
> Yikes.


Yikes, indeed! Attempting to read that just gave me a headache.


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## jeffaaronmiller (Jul 17, 2012)

ScottS said:


> Yikes, indeed! Attempting to read that just gave me a headache.


Yep, and the whole entire book is that way. It's not just rambling either. The man actually concocted some weird pseudo-English language and wrote the whole book in it. I can't imagine why.


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## anguabell (Jan 9, 2011)

Too many - I like strange books. But one of those that were way too weird eve for me was To Your Scattered Bodies Go. I mean... Hermann Goering and Alice in Wonderland...? There was something unhealthy about the whole setup


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## My_Txxxx_a$$_Left_Too (Feb 13, 2014)

Content removed due to TOS Changes in 2018. I do not agree to the terms.


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## A.E. Williams (Jul 13, 2014)

"A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole.

Man, I just did not 'get' that book. I kept waiting for something out of the ordinary to happen. Nicely written, I suppose. 

But, the story seemed wandering. It seemed to me like "Pulp Fiction", but not as much violence and drugs, and no Samuel L. (although Burma Jones was memorable.)

Weird, weird book. 

"MY VALVE ! MY VALVE !!!"

A.E. Williams


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## My_Txxxx_a$$_Left_Too (Feb 13, 2014)

Content removed due to TOS Changes in 2018. I do not agree to the terms.


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## aecardenas (Dec 16, 2011)

We Have Always Lived in the Castle: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition) by Shirley Jackson. Wonderfully weird and creepy.

Consider Merricat's self introduction:
_"My name is Mary Katherine Blackwood. I am eighteen years old, and I live with my sister Constance. I have often thought that with any luck at all, I could have been born a werewolf, because the two middle fingers on both my hands are the same length, but I have had to be content with what I had. I dislike washing myself, and dogs, and noise. I like my sister Constance, and Richard Plantagenet, and Amanita phalloides, the death-cup mushroom. Everyone else in our family is dead."_


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## anguabell (Jan 9, 2011)

AnnChristy said:


> That's an easy one for me. It's Humanoid (In the Year 8007 AM)
> 
> 
> 
> ...


AnnChristy, last night I read a sample of this book, and I must say, this one takes the cake  I am just not brave enough to read it.


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## MissingAlaska (Apr 28, 2014)

I have to second Katherine Dunn's "Geek Love" - what a trip. There are passages of that novel that I still remember almost 20 years after its publication. So many spoilers, otherwise I would describe a few that stick out in my head.

Another one that I remember vividly is a book called "Being Dead" by Jim Crace. Much of the novel centers on what happens to the bodies of two people dead on a beach. As gruesome as the topic sounds, its was a lovely read. ( http://www.amazon.com/Being-Dead-Jim-Crace-ebook/dp/B003G83U8C )


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## BOOK-ie (Jul 28, 2014)

For some reason 1984 and Animal Farm come to mind, but I can't help thinking that I must have read stranger stuff than that. Of course, books that _try_ to be strange somehow fall short.


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## alawston (Jun 3, 2012)

Good luck getting hold of it now, but a battered copy of J.O. Jeppson's The Second Experiment was the oddest thing in the library of my university science-fiction society's library...


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## derekailes2014 (Aug 4, 2014)

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams is one of the strangest I have ever read that wasn't zombie related.


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## PaulLev (Nov 2, 2012)

A.E. Williams said:


> "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole.
> 
> Man, I just did not 'get' that book. I kept waiting for something out of the ordinary to happen. Nicely written, I suppose.
> 
> ...


Two well-known editors didn't get the book, either. The author committed suicide. Years later, his mother brought the novel to the attention of another author, who eventually got the book published by Louisiana State University - it then won a Pulitzer Prize. A tragic lesson in point about the poor judgement of traditional publishers.


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

PaulLev said:


> Two well-known editors didn't get the book, either. The author committed suicide. Years later, his mother brought the novel to the attention of another author, who eventually got the book published by Louisiana State University - it then won a Pulitzer Prize. A tragic lesson in point about the poor judgement of traditional publishers.


Well, to play Devil's advocate, most traditional publishers are more interested in selecting books that will make money for them than that will win Pulitzer Prize. Now, if you somehow can know ahead a time which manuscripts will win it and therefore increase sales from the publicity (and from literature professors making students and libraries buy it) and perhaps even make a profit, then you're a better man than I am, Gunga Din.


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## PaulLev (Nov 2, 2012)

NogDog said:


> Well, to play Devil's advocate, most traditional publishers are more interested in selecting books that will make money for them than that will win Pulitzer Prize. Now, if you somehow can know ahead a time which manuscripts will win it and therefore increase sales from the publicity (and from literature professors making students and libraries buy it) and perhaps even make a profit, then you're a better man than I am, Gunga Din.


Right - but as you correctly say, winning a Pulitzer is usually a good way to increase sales, so the traditional publishers shot themselves in their own pecuniary feet on this one.


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## balaspa (Dec 27, 2009)

Cuckoo's Nest is a good example 2001: A Space Odyssey is another. A Wrinkle In Time is certainly weird, but a great story.


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## PandorasParanormalBox (Aug 10, 2014)

The Bible  Especially genesis and all the begetting going on! Imagine if we wrote books that way today! Not the best delivery, though definitely had some really interesting stories!


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## WDR (Jan 8, 2014)

_Dhalgren_ by Samuel R. Delany.

The story itself is a very disjointed reality. It is a complicated read because of this disjointed nature, but I read it when I was a kid and was able to follow along with it. It struck me as more being a brief look into the protagonist's life rather than his story. It is one of those books that makes you think for a while after you are done reading it.


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## Kas Thomas (Aug 14, 2014)

_Gravity's Rainbow_, Pynchon.


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## DanDillard (Mar 10, 2011)

Somewhere between _American Psycho_ and _John Dies at the End_. Both very strange.


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