Let’s discuss unique books. What is the first one that comes to your mind? The uniqueness can be about the book’s plot, structure, ideas, themes, topics etc.
For me such a book is Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. It’s been a while since I’ve read it but I remember how mindblowing it was for me. Every time I thought it couldn’t surprise me more, it actually did. There’s a bit of everything there: peculiar characters, a substance called ice-nine that can freeze water on contact (as humans are around 60% water, it can instantly kill them), a fictional religion called Bokononism based on the idea that human life has no absolute truth or meaning, a tiny island nation with its own bizarre world. All of these come together to show us a satire of the absurdity of humanity.
As for a unique book structure, I have to say it’s Cain’s Jawbone by Edward Mathers. It’s a kind of puzzle book where pages are not in order and you need to arrange them in order to guess whodunnit. I haven’t finished this one yet but it’s a cool challenge.
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Structure-wise, probably House of Leaves. It uses appendices and several categories of footnotes extensively, to the point that the footnotes begin to dominate the pages (putting it lightly). There’s so much flipping back and forth that an onlooker would assume you’re reading a choose-your-own-adventure book.
Content-wise, it’s hard to choose. I’ll say The Illuminatus Trilogy, which is a semi-absurdist study of authority and human nature, through the lens of a labyrinthine web of conspiracy theories, jumping between at least a dozen character perspectives.
Opened this thread to submit House of Leaves.
It’s not just the footnotes though. As the characters walk down an increasingly small hallway, the words on the page start lower and lower on the page like you’re hunching down with the characters. And when they sprint, there are fewer and fewer words on each page until you’re flipping as fast as they’re running.
Oh, and the plot is about a house bigger on the inside than the outside and the cover of the book is like a quarter inch shorter than the pages in it.
So many examples like this
I keep hearing about this book. I watched a little bit of a no spoiler video to see what it was about. Something about the unusualness calls to me
Would you recommend hardback or paperback?
Haunted by Poe goes along with the book.
I did a couple searches but I’m not sure what I’m looking for
Wait, I got it:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haunted_(Poe_album)
That sounds really interesting!! Thanks for adding that info
This book is heavy. I had the paperback version and for a fiction read it is massive. I prefer paperbacks to carry around but if you want to keep it to flex take the hardcover
Oh yes, ye old Illuminatis Trilogy. It’s been over 35 years since I read it and it twisted my young brain up, set me up for life of weirdness.
It’s the only book I’ve read more than once, and I’ve read it at least 3 times. Sometimes I’ll flip to a random page as a form of divination
I read twice in my twenties and my copy was completely trashed as I’d loan it to friends often. The last time I loaned it out was not returned before I left town.
I may need to read it again soon, probably buy a copy. I’ve been using the library for my reads the last few years and now I only buy books tht I know for sure I plan a reread.
Just this week got used copies of Embassytown and Lord of Light so I wouldn’t need to check them out again.
I keep an eye out for cheap copies, and then just give them to people. Besides my personal hardcover, I’ve probably bought and given away 10 copies over the years
Hail Eris!
This is a really cool book. I don’t think it’s particularly unique in terms of its structure but the concepts it discusses and the parallels it draws across fields are worth thinking about.
Oh dang. This sits unread on my bookshelf. Maybe this will be the incentive I need!
Blood Meridian (McCarthy) is the only book I finished, turned to the first page and read again immediately because I didn’t feel like I got it the first time.
Confederacy of Dunces (Toole) has some of the most unique characters I’ve ever read. The story of how it got published and won a Pulitzer is almost as crazy as the plot.
There is no Antimemetics division (qntm) is rather derivative of the “SCP Foundation” weblore, but it drills down so hard on the idea of creatures that consume, steal, or are powered by human memory that the plot will bend your mind and delight your imagination. Best science fiction I read in forever.
+1 for There is no Antimemetics Division, awesome book
I’m halfway through Blood Meridian right now and I’ve already decided I need to immediately reread it
Easily house of leaves. I’ve never seen another book play with formatting like that. It has you reading upside down, backwards, all over the place.
“House of Leaves” is also my answer.
Such a weird story in such a good way
House of Leaves
That good ergodic epistolary fiction.
Not a book but a comic. I remember being incredibly down that summer and getting recommended Zot! by Scott McCloud and it up my mood. I think that it’s one of the best comic ever written
Embassytown by China Mieville, absolutely incredible, almost everything about it is unique. He’s become one of my favorite authors and everything I’ve read by him is original in concept. Embassytown takes the cake though. The aliens are so strange, it’s the most alien feeling I’ve ever had. My brain and thinking is still affected by what I read over a year ago.
_Blindsight_by Peter Watts is also great with original concepts and delivery.
The City and the City is very interesting too!
Yeah it’s good for sure. Perdido Street Station is fantastic too. I loved that book and looking forward to the next two in the series.
Reading Kraken rn, it’s pretty good but pacing is kinda slow.
Slaughterhouse Five deserves a mention.
So it goes
I have this disease late at night sometimes, involving alcohol and the telephone.
House or Leaves for the reasons already mentioned by others.
City of Saints and Madmen by Jeff VanderMeer. It’s not exactly a story but a collection of artifacts: some short stories, poems, comics, an encyclopedia full of footnotes etc. that come together to build a world. Some of it is hard to read but the end result is worth it.
Changing Planes by Ursula K. Le Guin. Again a collection instead of a story. In each chapter a different world is described with its people and culture. And Le Guin is great at building worlds. I found this format very relaxing to read.
Discworld series by Terry Pratchett. I haven’t read all books (there’s too many of them) but if you like satire through fiction you’ll find a lot of it here on a variety of topics.
And I think I’ll stop here before this becomes a huge list.
Always Coming Home by Ursula K Le Guin. It is a fictional ethnography written from the far future about a culture in the near future after life after some apocalyptic event in the very near future. Maybe 1/6th of it is like a traditional narrative about a girl who grows up stuck between two cultures. Her mother is a member of the Kesh which is the culture the book studies and her father is of a different culture called the Condor. Their cultures are dramatically different. The Kesh are anarchic, egalitarian, matriarchal and peaceful. The Condor are capitalist, patriarchal and war like. The rest of the book goes into detail about the Kesh. It tells some of their legends, fairy tales. It describes their performance art. It describes their creation myth. It talks about their holidays and their relationships.
Le Guin is my favorite author ever. The Dispossessed and the Left Hand of Darkness are such incredible books. Le Guin is a very strong anarchist and she uses this book and many of her other works to criticize capitalism. But none of them do so in a way as unique and artistic as Always Coming Home. It’s moving, it’s touching. It really takes you to another world and culture and helps you to see some of the assumptions you have just because you live in this world. This book is a work of absolute genius. I don’t think any other work of art I’ve ever read has really conveyed something ideological as so personal and moving.
It’s a slow burn and parts of it will baffle and confuse you. But the totality of it is so incredibly unique and artistic that I think it’s worth suffering through the rougher edges.
Great recommendation thank you, will read
I will say, if you’re unfamiliar with Le Guin’s work, I would recommend reading “The Dispossessed” first. It’s written more traditionally and I think it’s a better entry point for a new Le Guin reader. It also has a lot of the same themes as Always Coming Home.
Cool cool, I have read that one and liked it (though I thought the prose was sometimes dry and the plot very on the nose but maybe that’s just me) but its messages were great and super interesting.
Oh great then yeah I think you’ll enjoy Always Coming Home.
Flowers for Algernon.
This one broke my heart :(
Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams.
You know how usually the first thirdish of a detective novel is all the little clues, the middle thirdish is the adventure + a few more clues then like the last thirdish they have the fight scenes or whatever and solve it?
The first 95% was just gathering random clues. Like in a difficult to follow and almost absurdist way. I had to brute force my attention all the way through but did so because Douglas Adams is one of my favorites.
In the last 5% or so every single one of those random absurdist bullshit clues snapped together perfectly.
I’ve been meaning to check this one out. This will.motivate me to do it. It’s my next book.
I know it’s treason to say, but I liked the Dirk Gently books much more than the Hitchhiker’s Guide books. The Guide relied heavily on the voice of the narrator and cutesy subversions of tropes and expectations, while the Gently books had fuller characters and a tighter narrative arc.
Self-Reference Engine by Toh Enjoe takes the most unique approach to story structure of anything I’ve ever read.
Hou ! I’ll have to add that to the list
I just read the synopsis. I have no idea what it means but it’s now added to my list.
Dictionary of the Khazars by Milorad Pavić.
It’s a novel written in the form of three (Christian, Jewish, and Muslim) interwoven but mutually-contradictory encyclopedias, with events and characters spanning over a thousand years of history.
My standard response is still Ridley Walker, though there are many other contenders ;)
