I’m newish to reading but I’d love to delve deeper into the reading world. I’d love to read some ‘bizarre’ books but I’ve had a hard time finding any recommendations through Google. I prefer fiction but I love a good non-fiction book too. I don’t mind if the book is heavy on symbolism or if it’s just weird for the heck of it! I really enjoyed reading The Road byCormac McCarthy as a child, I know it’s not too weird but any recommendations similar to that would also be appreciated. Thank you Reddit reading community!
by TheHermeticSasquatch
7 Comments
Titus Groan by Mervyn Peak. It is English literary fiction with the most amazing prose and weirdest characters I have read. Its classed as a Fantasy book, but there’s no magic or supernatural elements.
The autumn of the patriarch by Gabriel Garcia Marquez was memorably weird. All his books are weird but that one was the strangest of the ones I have read.
Try the Graphic Novel *V for Vendetta*. You can read it as a simple revenge story or take your time and peel away the layers and see a truly nuanced work of political, psychological, and philosophical fiction that touches on many many areas such as power, morality, and personal and institutional responsibility (and culpability).
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke! I won’t tell you anything about it but I think you will enjoy it
If on a winter’s night a traveler by Italo Calvino. You might also enjoy his book Invisible Cities. Both are generally regarded as masterpieces of weird fiction.
Vita Nostra by Marina Dyachenko. It was too weird for me to finish and I didn’t like it, but that seems like exactly what you’re looking for so cheers.
How to be Both by Ali Smith is an amazing book. Her weriting style is really unique and the stories are just a bit odd!
She’s also done a series named for the seasons, it starts with Autumn, then Winter, Spring, Summer and finishes with Companion Piece.
Any short story collection by Jorge Luis Borges; the short stories/novellas of Shirley Jackson, especially “We Have Always Lived in the Castle”; any short story by H.P. Lovecraft; the weirdest books I’ve read are “Le-Bas” and “A Rebours” by Huysmann; for a newer book, “Gods of Want” by K-Ming Chang; a weird scifi classic is “A Canticle for Leibowitz”
You can look for the genre of magical realism.