What were the most bizarre books you have ever read?

The collected works of Jorge Luis Borges, Italo Calvino, and Philip K Dick.

The Man Who Was Thursday, by GK Chesterton, and ''The Dark Tower' , by CS Lewis, probably deserve a place as well.

The Revolution Will Not Be Tropeable

Personally, only two. One was a poetry book which I choose to forget. The other is a so-called "American Light Novel" named "Please, let me be a Seiyuu" by someone named Olivia D. Knight.

The poetry was crazy and very depressing. The novel was good up until the Gainax Ending

Who saw the Mary Sue walk by, huh? I'll kill the assymetrical bitch!

I don't know 1Q84 maybe (from the same author as Hardboiled Wonderland).

I don't think of Neil Gaiman's books as being that weird probably because of the realism that someone mentioned before.

edited 27th Mar '14 7:18:15 PM by phantom1

I haven't read 1Q84 yet, although I've heard a lot of mixed reviews about the book.

I love animation, TV, movies, YOU NAME IT!

Anything by Minister Faust

Trump delenda est

@Rabbitsearblog Yeah I'm not sure what to think of it, it pushed the romance quite a bit which I didn't really like (but that might just be my general dislike of romance as integral. Being a plot point I have a hard time relating to, well I have a hard time relating to growing up in cults or finding yourself in an alternate universe but I'm not expected to) also there was something creepy about the focus on how attractive the 15 year old girl was.

The Wind On Fire trilogy is pretty weird, although part of it is the writing style. They're good books, but they're really out there.

edited 30th Mar '14 11:26:55 PM by SapphireBlue

Jason X: Death Moon.

Still no idea what the Hell was up with it.

The Bible. I win.

How do you pronounce "1Q84", anyway?

The Revolution Will Not Be Tropeable

One-Q-Eight-Four. It's a pun - "Q" sounds like "kyuu", the Japanese word for "nine". So 1984.

"Doctor Who means never having to say you're kidding." - Bocaj

Wow! 1984, that's an interesting way to look at the title of that book!

I love animation, TV, movies, YOU NAME IT!

Setting aside the aforementioned Drescher books and In the Realms of the Unreal, I would say that Mark Z. Danielewski's Only Revolutions, Burroughs' The Ticket That Exploded and Joyce's Finnegans Wake are up there, as well as anything by the short story writer D.F. Lewis or the novelist John Hawkes.

I'll hide your name inside a word and paint your eyes with false perception.

What was the weirdest Henrik Drescher book you had ever read?

I love animation, TV, movies, YOU NAME IT!

Hermann Broch's Der Tod des Vergil is a stream-of-consciousness mindbender, consisting wholly of the title poet's dying inner monologue. It's often called "the German Ulysses."

I'm gonna say Look-Alikes. That's pretty trippy. Although his illustrations for adults are even odder in some ways, I am less predisposed to children's books of that strangeness level.

Incidentally, I loved it as a kid even though parts of it scared me.

I'll hide your name inside a word and paint your eyes with false perception.

I thought that Look-Alikes was pretty weird also! I think the weirdest book that Henrik Drescher had written was Klutz and some parts of The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship (he did the illustrations for that book.) Klutz was a nice book about a family who were clumsy for most of their lives because of their boots, until they took off their boots. It was a pretty hilarious if not a bit bizarre book to read! What parts in Look-Alikes scared you?

edited 5th Apr '14 12:35:16 PM by Rabbitearsblog

I love animation, TV, movies, YOU NAME IT!

The Alchemasters Apprentice full stop. It's not really the setup (though that's weird enough: a not-cat spending a month with a guy who's feeding him up so he can kill him for his fat), but the stories and food descriptions from the Alchemaster had my head going all topsy turvy.

edited 14th Apr '14 9:33:10 PM by Bur

i. hear. a. sound.

Hmmm...the idea about a not-cat staying with a guy that feeds him while trying to kill him to get his fat is weird enough for me!

I love animation, TV, movies, YOU NAME IT!

I always found Slaughterhouse 5 to be pretty bizarre.

Slaughterhouse-Five is puzzlingly structured, but less "bizarre" than "disconcerting."

I'll hide your name inside a word and paint your eyes with false perception.

I think that Against the Day has superseded Gravity's Rainbow as most bizarre for me.

As I Lay Dying is pretty odd, though from what I've heard it's one of Faulkner's more comprehensible books.

UN JOUR JE SERAI DE RETOUR PRÈS DE TOI

Huh, okay. (I would have guessed "Q-teen eighty-four" or something like that.)

I was reminded the other day that Hexwood was pretty bizarre.

The Revolution Will Not Be Tropeable

Oh yeah, it was pretty weird. Halfway through we discover our viewpoint character doesn't actually exist.

The parts about, what was his name? The assassin guy. The parts about his training horrified me out of proportion as a child.

Be not afraid...