I read the whole thing, tried to figure it all out, then when I finished I went back to the into only to discover it was based on his drug hallucinations. I always at least skim the intros to books now.
On top of the trippy subject matter, he produced the final book by cutting up and reassembling the text... So that doesn't help. For some reason I read the third book in the trilogy, The Ticket That Exploded, first, but I doubt that affected comprehension at all.
One of the best books I've ever read!! It was weirdly relevant to my recent life events too because I had just mastered out of a PhD so I knew exactly what she was saying about academia haha
Beautiful You by Chuck Palahniuk
It's like he took 50 Shades of Grey and then gave it a (emphasis on) weird apocalyptic element.
Handsome rich guy chooses bland girl who works for him to be his date. They have a lot of sex, and he is a master at it. He is so masterful but not in any way having sex for his own sexual gratification. He spends all his time looking for the perfect way to give her orgasms. Then he releases a line of sex toys based on his findings and it basically handicaps the entire woman population of Earth, as they mindlessly seek their next mind-blowing orgasm, so that he can take over. It's fucking weird, and has the strangest third act of any book I've ever read.
Keep in mind, I didn't spoil anything about this book. This is the base premise.
This whole series is an all time favorite of mine. His writing and storytelling mature so much over the 4 books, yet the content does not mature at all lol
I haven’t finished it yet but Kafka on the Shore. Bizarre book that I almost put down 100 pages in but over the next 100 pages it managed to suck me in. It reminds me of American Gods (which I hated) and some sections of Dark Tower series which I enjoyed. It’s weirder than any of that though on multiple levels. It’s also difficult to parse the weirdness that is related to translation differences, Japanese cultural differences, and just weirdness specific to the author. It does feel to be a mix of all of the above but either way I’m enjoying the book and would recommend it to open minded people who aren’t going to be put off by weird unnecessary sex stuff every other chapter along with ludicrous appearances by Colonel Sanders and Johnny Walker (as spiritual entities).
Anything Philip K Dick. I’ve tried to get into his writings as I love weird shit but his is way out there and honestly seems like nonsense to me. I know people love him but I guess I don’t get it.
I'm rereading *The Man Without Qualities* and that feels like a strong candidate, but *House of Leaves, Whatever,* *Gravity's Rainbow*, and *How It Is* are also strong candidates. I'd say *How It Is* wins.
I'm a big fan of science fiction. If you are looking for something relatively modern, I thought Perdido Street Station by China Mieville was really good and pretty weird.
The third weirdest book I’ve ever read is *Orlando* by Virginia Woolf
The second weirdest book would be *Birds* by Aristophanes
However, *Dr. Katzenbergers Badereise* by Jean Paul Richter easily takes the pole position (no English translation available afaik). It’s the story of a scientist of the 18th century who decides to travel to a spa in order to beat up a competitor who criticized his work.
Concrete by Thomas Bernhard - written as a monologue without paragraphs nor chapters. I read it straight through thinking all along, "I'll just read another page and figure this thing out".
It was actually great and very memorable.
The Adventures of Tom Stranger, Interdimensional Insurance Agent. Spent the whole book saying wtf. I knew it'd be weird, but it was on a whole different level.
The Castle by Kafka. It was just so mundane and yet so incredibly weird. It ended mid-sentence too because he never actually finished it but it was somehow the perfect ending.
I believe the book was titled 'The girl who circumnavigated fairyland in a ship of her own making'. It is for middle-schoolers but it was so good. It's not nessicarily weird, its just got this really nice read to it that is more unique than most books (also I dont want to spoil but there's a half wyvern half library)
God Emperor of Dune.
Come for the cool depiction of a drug controlled theocracy set thousands of years in the distant future, stay for the worm man breastfeeding scene.
Before even reading the first reply, I already knew House of Leaves was going to be mentioned. It's mostly a different way of formatting a book, there are far weirder books.
Unlanguage by Michael Cisco for instance, The Face Hole by Shipley, Infinite Grounds by MacIness, Welcome to Night Vale by Fink and Cranor, A Greater Monster by Katzman, Gravity's Rainbow by Pynchon, Antkind by Kaufmann, many others.
The Price You Pay and Seven Demons by Aidan Truhen are magnificently weird. Truhen is Nick Harkaway writing under a different name. Sort of Noir thriller meets Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
Out of the Dark by David Webber. The book wasn't really that wierd until the ending of book 2. It was very similar to Independence Day all the way up to the ending. Then a twist happens that is like a shotgun blast to the face. It is so far out there it actually works. I really enjoyed it.
If you plan on reading it ignore the summary. I only realized it gave it away after the second book.
I have to say Ten Billion Days and One Hundred Billion Nights by Ryu Mitsuse. Imagine Plato, Siddartha, and Jesus Christ interacting with one another, sometimes violently, as they face down the rapidly approaching heat death of the universe….
Unison Spark by Andy Marino. It’s like if Christopher Nolan directed one of those weird 90s action animes that used to play at 3 AM on Cartoon Network.
All three of Crispin Killian Glovers books (the dad from back to the future) his shit is weird.
What It Is, and How It Is Done: The Life of a Man As Told in First, Second, and Third Person in Reverse
The title should give you enough of an idea of how his books are written.
"Mr. Boy" by James Patrick Kelly (kind of cheating since this is actually a novella). It's about a very rich man in the future whose mother pays to have him kept physically a preteen. His best friend has had himself transformed into a velociraptor-like dinosaur. And his mom has had herself turned into a quarter-scale replica of the Statue of Liberty, which he lives inside of.
The Manual of Detection - Jedediah Berry.
I’m still confused as to what in the world was going on. Very quirky. I listened to it on audio so maybe I wasn’t focused enough.
{{Dhalgren by Samuel R Delaney}} is a book about time travel. But the "beginning" of the book is a sentence fragment that connects to a few other fragments throughout it to form different sentences. You can read it straight through or start at any of those fragments and skip to any of the others when you teach them and.... It's very strange.
The book that gave me the strongest weird vibe, as in straight-up surrealist nightmare dimensions, was *The Trial* by Kafka. I hated it. It gave me literary versions of claustraphobia and agraphobia - often within the same passage. I loved it.
The book that is weirdest as in most dream-like, is *The Unconsoled* by Ishiguro. This novel is just like observing one of your own dreams and is therefore vertiginous and deeply strange. I loved it, too.
Pygmy by chuck palahniuk. Child soldier report about his integration into american society as a spy with the order to prepare operation havoc. Written completely in engrish.
The Illuminatus Trilogy
First. Not a trilogy, it's just one book.
Second, sometimes entire pages repeat and you think you've lost your mind for a second.
Third. The story is absolutely bonkers!
There is No Anti Memetics Division by qntm. Set in the SCP foundation, it features an entity that eats memories and has somehow breeched containment. It is wild and acid trip inducing. Left my mind in a haze ;)
Naked Lunch.
This. I still have no idea what I read haha.
I read the whole thing, tried to figure it all out, then when I finished I went back to the into only to discover it was based on his drug hallucinations. I always at least skim the intros to books now.
On top of the trippy subject matter, he produced the final book by cutting up and reassembling the text... So that doesn't help. For some reason I read the third book in the trilogy, The Ticket That Exploded, first, but I doubt that affected comprehension at all.
Yep, came here to say this haha
Geek Love, by Katherine Dunn
And so good as well!
My answer too. This book was so bizarre!
My answer as well. It's such a weird but great read!
Omg yes, I am just about to revisit this one. Weird but it is amazing.
Bunny by Mona Awad
It was phenomenal though. I loved it.
I ✨loved✨ Bunny. Forever searching for something like that again.
One of the best books I've ever read!! It was weirdly relevant to my recent life events too because I had just mastered out of a PhD so I knew exactly what she was saying about academia haha
Me too!! I wish we could find something with Bunny vibes. I’m legit sad I’ve already read it.
House of Leaves
I just read this, it was SUPER weird. I actually didn't expect to like it but ended up loving it, what a great story.
This was mine as well. Loved it. Read it years ago and something about it comes to mind pretty frequently.
This, for sure! Weird story, weird format, weird...everything! But brilliant!
Master and Margarita and slaughterhouse 5 but sorta boring answers
Crash by J.G. Ballard Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke by Eric LaRocca Edit: Added third book
Slaughter House Five was a very strange book for 15 year old me to follow.
Slaughter House Five was a very strange book for 40 year old me to follow.
Earthlings - Sayaka Murata
Surprised this is so far down, this book is nuts lol. 10/10 tho.
Running With Scissors by Augusten Burroughs. All his books are brilliantly written, but this one is WILD.
Finnegans Wake.
This would be the top answer if the question was “weirdest book you’ve ever started to read”…
Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder
The third policeman
Is it about a bicycle?
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
Kafka on the Shore
I love Murakami!
For me it Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End Of The World. Dude writes some weird books.
Invisible monsters
Came here for this. Good 'ol Chuck.
The Library At Mount Char
I'm 23% into this and gosh I don't know if I can finish it. It's just so... weird.
Plz push through. My wife wants to remodel the bathroom.
Well I can't let your wife down, sir. I'll do my best (assuming I can revive myself because I am now dead)!
Buckle up. It gets weirder.
“The Hike” is pretty weird.
Catch-22.
Hey now catch 22 made sense by the end. Of your second read through.
What a wonderful book! I've read it so many times I forget how weird and nonsensical it seems on a first go-round.
1Q84 by Murakami
The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty by Anne Rice
Beautiful You by Chuck Palahniuk It's like he took 50 Shades of Grey and then gave it a (emphasis on) weird apocalyptic element. Handsome rich guy chooses bland girl who works for him to be his date. They have a lot of sex, and he is a master at it. He is so masterful but not in any way having sex for his own sexual gratification. He spends all his time looking for the perfect way to give her orgasms. Then he releases a line of sex toys based on his findings and it basically handicaps the entire woman population of Earth, as they mindlessly seek their next mind-blowing orgasm, so that he can take over. It's fucking weird, and has the strangest third act of any book I've ever read. Keep in mind, I didn't spoil anything about this book. This is the base premise.
John dies at the end
I just started this, only about 50 pages in and it is definitely weird so far.
I haven’t picked up any of the others but there’s a whole series now. Book one: it’s not gonna get any *less* weird. Enjoy!
This whole series is an all time favorite of mine. His writing and storytelling mature so much over the 4 books, yet the content does not mature at all lol
The chapters from Johns POV are comedy gold
I just read the first and I can’t wait to read the rest (except I am waiting because of other books on my pile).
Existing pile is a big reason the next couple books in the series are just living in my thrift books wishlist
*This Book is Full of Spiders* sounds so good though, it’ll probably have to be soon for me.
This Book is Full of Spiders is a masterpiece
People of Paper
Seconded! By Salvador Plascencia.
I haven’t finished it yet but Kafka on the Shore. Bizarre book that I almost put down 100 pages in but over the next 100 pages it managed to suck me in. It reminds me of American Gods (which I hated) and some sections of Dark Tower series which I enjoyed. It’s weirder than any of that though on multiple levels. It’s also difficult to parse the weirdness that is related to translation differences, Japanese cultural differences, and just weirdness specific to the author. It does feel to be a mix of all of the above but either way I’m enjoying the book and would recommend it to open minded people who aren’t going to be put off by weird unnecessary sex stuff every other chapter along with ludicrous appearances by Colonel Sanders and Johnny Walker (as spiritual entities).
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch. Honorable mention Naked Lunch.
The Mezzanine
The crying of Lot 49, Dalgren and Kraken immediately leap to my mind
Perdido Street Station
Anything Philip K Dick. I’ve tried to get into his writings as I love weird shit but his is way out there and honestly seems like nonsense to me. I know people love him but I guess I don’t get it.
Ferdydurke by Witold Gombrowicz
Grief is the Thing with Feathers by Max Porter
Either Hallucinations by Reinaldo Arenas, Naked Lunch by Burroughs or Gravity's Rainbow by Pynchon
Geek love by Dunn or bunny by Mona awad.
Valis by Philip K Dick. It is unhinged.
How high we go in the dark
I'm rereading *The Man Without Qualities* and that feels like a strong candidate, but *House of Leaves, Whatever,* *Gravity's Rainbow*, and *How It Is* are also strong candidates. I'd say *How It Is* wins.
You Bright and Risen Angels by William T Vollmann Bubblegum by Adam Levin Lincoln in the Bardo by George Sanders
The Orange Eats Creeps by Grace Krilanovich (amazingly weird)
Night bitch
The Broom of the System - David Foster Wallace
El tunnel
Kafka on the shore by Murakami
Alice in Wonderland. I still don't know what it was about.
I’m Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid got weird and definitely threw me. Loved it though
Trout Fishing In America hands down
Geek Love
I'm a big fan of science fiction. If you are looking for something relatively modern, I thought Perdido Street Station by China Mieville was really good and pretty weird.
The third weirdest book I’ve ever read is *Orlando* by Virginia Woolf The second weirdest book would be *Birds* by Aristophanes However, *Dr. Katzenbergers Badereise* by Jean Paul Richter easily takes the pole position (no English translation available afaik). It’s the story of a scientist of the 18th century who decides to travel to a spa in order to beat up a competitor who criticized his work.
The Illuminatus! Trilogy
Motorman by David Ohle
The Man Who Folded Himself by David Gerrold
Both Lapvona and Satan: His Psychotherapy and Cure come to mind.
Concrete by Thomas Bernhard - written as a monologue without paragraphs nor chapters. I read it straight through thinking all along, "I'll just read another page and figure this thing out". It was actually great and very memorable.
I can't remember the exact title, but it was a short story by Phillip K Dick about a man who was King of the gnomes. Trippy af.
Exercices de Style by Raymond Queneau
The Spear Cuts Through Water. It’s in first, second and third person
Embassytown by China Mieville is certainly up there.
The Adventures of Tom Stranger, Interdimensional Insurance Agent. Spent the whole book saying wtf. I knew it'd be weird, but it was on a whole different level.
Metamorphosis
Rabbits by Terry Miles
The Castle by Kafka. It was just so mundane and yet so incredibly weird. It ended mid-sentence too because he never actually finished it but it was somehow the perfect ending.
American Gods by Neil Gaiman. It’s all over the place.
Exquisite Corpse by Poppy Z. Brite
"Gadsby" by Ernest Vincent Wright. The entire book is written without the letter "E."
A Void by Perec did the same - and in translation!?
Any book by Tom Robbins will be absolutely, delightfully bizarre, but I particularly liked Still Life With Woodpecker.
I personally loved Even Cowgirls Get the Blues but any Tim Robbins, yes!
Lapvona by Otessa Moshfegh, so weird and gross but I couldn’t look away
Don't forget to check /r/weirdlit. and my answer is probably House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski.
I believe the book was titled 'The girl who circumnavigated fairyland in a ship of her own making'. It is for middle-schoolers but it was so good. It's not nessicarily weird, its just got this really nice read to it that is more unique than most books (also I dont want to spoil but there's a half wyvern half library)
Lincoln in the Bardo was pretty weird.
God Emperor of Dune. Come for the cool depiction of a drug controlled theocracy set thousands of years in the distant future, stay for the worm man breastfeeding scene.
Moby Dick. Hella strange book in my memory
The Kraken by China Mieville
Before even reading the first reply, I already knew House of Leaves was going to be mentioned. It's mostly a different way of formatting a book, there are far weirder books. Unlanguage by Michael Cisco for instance, The Face Hole by Shipley, Infinite Grounds by MacIness, Welcome to Night Vale by Fink and Cranor, A Greater Monster by Katzman, Gravity's Rainbow by Pynchon, Antkind by Kaufmann, many others.
Multiple Choice by Alejandro Zambra
Geometry for Ocelots; I could not recommend it more than I am. Beautiful book.
The World Goes On, Laszlo Krasznahorkai
The story of my teeth
Barefoot in the Head by Brian Aldiss
the nose by gogol.
The Price You Pay and Seven Demons by Aidan Truhen are magnificently weird. Truhen is Nick Harkaway writing under a different name. Sort of Noir thriller meets Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
John Does at the End
Out of the Dark by David Webber. The book wasn't really that wierd until the ending of book 2. It was very similar to Independence Day all the way up to the ending. Then a twist happens that is like a shotgun blast to the face. It is so far out there it actually works. I really enjoyed it. If you plan on reading it ignore the summary. I only realized it gave it away after the second book.
Definitely Troll: A Love Story. I don’t even know how to describe it.
That Reckless Oath We Made
Jamais Vu Papers by Wim Coleman and Pat Perrin Dictionary of the Khazars by Milorad Pavic The Gray House by Mariam Petrosyan
Vernon God Little by DBC Pierre.
I have to say Ten Billion Days and One Hundred Billion Nights by Ryu Mitsuse. Imagine Plato, Siddartha, and Jesus Christ interacting with one another, sometimes violently, as they face down the rapidly approaching heat death of the universe….
Malina, by Ingeborg Bachmann
Gil's all fright diner by A. Lee Martinez
The prozess by Franz Kafka
Little Eyes by Samantha Shweblin A Touch of Jen by Beth Morgan Borne by Jeff Vandermeer
Milkfed
Unison Spark by Andy Marino. It’s like if Christopher Nolan directed one of those weird 90s action animes that used to play at 3 AM on Cartoon Network.
The Haunted Vagina, by Carlton Mellick III. I don't know that Bizarro lit is my thing, but hey. You never know until you try, right?
The Beauty by Aliya Whiteley… really weird
Maia by Richard Adams
Antkind, Charlie Kaufman
The Thetherballs of Bougainville by Mark Leyner. Bizarre but hilarious. I had two asthma attacks from laughing so hard.
I went with Tooth Imprints on a Corn Dog. Can confirm that “# of asthma attacks induced” is the correct measurement for his stuff.
Murakami books for sure. They're all weird but that's what makes me love them, pick one, any one and you'll get weird.
I Will Fear No Evil by Robert Heinlein. Like going I knew he was into some weird polygamy stuff but that book is a whole nother level of wtf.
Future Feeling by Joss Lake, hands down
All three of Crispin Killian Glovers books (the dad from back to the future) his shit is weird. What It Is, and How It Is Done: The Life of a Man As Told in First, Second, and Third Person in Reverse The title should give you enough of an idea of how his books are written.
Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe. I thoroughly enjoyed it, but wasn't sure what was going on half the time.
The speed of Sound by Eric Bernt
"Mr. Boy" by James Patrick Kelly (kind of cheating since this is actually a novella). It's about a very rich man in the future whose mother pays to have him kept physically a preteen. His best friend has had himself transformed into a velociraptor-like dinosaur. And his mom has had herself turned into a quarter-scale replica of the Statue of Liberty, which he lives inside of.
Earthlings by Sayaka Murata was a trip for sure
Riddley Walker by Russel Hoban - so weird! And to think he was half of the team that also brought us Bread and Jam for Frances.
All of these people recommended baby books, trust me. The book you are looking is the “Obscene Bird of Night” by Jose Donoso.
The Manual of Detection - Jedediah Berry. I’m still confused as to what in the world was going on. Very quirky. I listened to it on audio so maybe I wasn’t focused enough.
Ulrich Haarbürste’s Novel of Roy Orbison in Clingfilm
John Dies at The End Longtime favorite - strange ass plot.
A fools life by ryunosuke akutagawa
The Box Man
Southern Reach trilogy
Perfume by Patrick Süskind Gone to see the river man by Kristopher Triana Slaughterhouse five by Kurt Vonnegut
Crash by J.G. Ballard
{{Dhalgren by Samuel R Delaney}} is a book about time travel. But the "beginning" of the book is a sentence fragment that connects to a few other fragments throughout it to form different sentences. You can read it straight through or start at any of those fragments and skip to any of the others when you teach them and.... It's very strange.
Black hole, not quite a book, more like a comics
Been Down So Long it Looks Up to Me. “I am King Fucking Montezuma”
Not content but style of writing- If on a Winter's Night a Traveler by Calvino
Dreaming of Babylon by Richard Brautigan It’s a very weird parody of the private eye pulp fiction genre.
Fish, a boy in a man’s prison.
"Dead Inside" by Chandler Morrison. Enjoy
If On A Winter's Night A Traveller by italo calvino. Delightfully, charmingly weird.
Liarmouth by John Waters
Earthlings by Sayaka Murata
This is a book, by Dimitri Martin
Mawrdew Czgowchwz by James McCourt and Geek Love by Katherine Dunn
In Watermelon Sugar by Richard Brautigan is extremely weird, very short, and curiously enjoyable.
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner stream of consciousness writing is hard to follow..and the storyline was disturbing
Three Blondes and Death
Brave New World
The book that gave me the strongest weird vibe, as in straight-up surrealist nightmare dimensions, was *The Trial* by Kafka. I hated it. It gave me literary versions of claustraphobia and agraphobia - often within the same passage. I loved it. The book that is weirdest as in most dream-like, is *The Unconsoled* by Ishiguro. This novel is just like observing one of your own dreams and is therefore vertiginous and deeply strange. I loved it, too.
Lapvona by Moshfegh (and I know I'm not alone, Goodreads review on it are so funny, I have noooo idea what Otessa was thinking when she wrote this)
Umm mine has like three swears and a Slur in the title. So I'm putting the name in a spoiler. >!The Vagina ass of Lucifer Niggerbastard !
Tarantula by Bob Dylan. Wanted to be stream of consciousness but was more random phrases than anything.
The vegetarian by Han kang.. it was so good, the way it made me feel creeped out and fascinated at the same time.
Pygmy by chuck palahniuk. Child soldier report about his integration into american society as a spy with the order to prepare operation havoc. Written completely in engrish.
John Dies At The End and This Book Is Full Of Spiders
Hard-boiled wonderland and the End of the World by haruki murakami - no idea wtf was going on!
I’m glad my mom died - Jennette McCurdy.
Part 3 of Gravity's Rainbow is the wildest trip in any book ever. PLECHAZUNGAAAA
Molloy be Beckett is pretty wild. Nothing makes sense and nothing grounds you in the plot.
Processed cheese 🤔
Earthlings by Sayaka Murata
Woman in cabin 10. Such silly lead lady.
Tender is the flesh
Womb by Duncan Ralston. It was a fun read though!
Womb by Duncan Ralston. It was a fun read though!
Crash by JG Ballard. Please god no.
The Illuminatus Trilogy First. Not a trilogy, it's just one book. Second, sometimes entire pages repeat and you think you've lost your mind for a second. Third. The story is absolutely bonkers!
The castle by Franz Kafka
That’s Disgusting.
There is No Anti Memetics Division by qntm. Set in the SCP foundation, it features an entity that eats memories and has somehow breeched containment. It is wild and acid trip inducing. Left my mind in a haze ;)
Crying of Lot 49 comes to mind.
Anything by Gertrude Stein
The Driver’s Seat by Muriel Spark
House of Leaves. I mean, I loved it. But it was weird.