Read anything unusual lately?

[BookStop]

I mean, written in a strange fashion, or slightly abandoning normal story telling formulas...

Books that don't follow the norm, yet are still most excellent:


The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon is quite unusual being that protag is an austistic teen and the whole thing is written in his voice.

 

[Daisy-Boo]

I read Curious Incident too and enjoyed it very much. I liked being able to look at the world from such an unusual standpoint.

I thought Horse Heaven by Jane Smiley was quite unusual too. The book is set in the world of horseracing in the US and was written from the perspectives of various characters, including two horses and a dog. I enjoyed the book as a whole but was enamoured of the two horses, particularly the one called Just-a-bob.

I'm not a "horse person" but I fell in love with the character of Just-a-bob. I savoured every word written about him and felt an intense longing to meet this extraordinary animal. I'd recommend this book to anyone and everyone.

 

[Culhwch]

I'm currently reading Carrie Ryan's The Forest of Hands and Teeth, and it's certainly unlike anything I have ever read before. It's a young adult novel about zombies, but approached in a very literary, dreamy style, in the first person present tense.

 

[Daisy-Boo]

Culhwch, I just read the Wikipedia entry for the book and it looks very interesting; coupled with your positive comment, it's now an item on my "buy" list.

 

[J-WO]

Just finished The Atrocity Exhibition by JG Ballard. Brilliant and utterly strange. Now I know who the occasional experimental story in SF Magazines are copying. Usually badly.

Motorways as failing nervous systems, celebrity car fatalities as the modern crucifixion: this book plays by its own rules. If you've read too many books recently and are sick of all this obsession with plot, then TAE is the way to go. Its altered my brain for the next few days, I'm certain.

Not for everyone, of course. If you can laugh at a sentence like 'Patients were encouraged to devise the optimum sex death of Ronald Reagan.' then you'll love it. If not... Terry Goodkind's novels are available at most bookshops or online.

 

[GOLLUM]

Quite a bit of the literature I read steers clear of standard tropes or if it does employ them uses them in interesting ways.

 

[Nesacat]

If a re-read counts then I'd like to offer Italo Calvino's If On A Winter's Night A Traveller. It's a Chinese Box of a tale with a story within a story within a story and none really end. Even the chapter titles form a story. It's an addictive and compelling read although I did want to go out and hit people too. I settled in the end for giving as many people a copy as I could. I figured I might as well spread the madness.

 

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

If On A Winter's Night A Traveller is a great choice.

 

[biodroid]

I read a biography on Harrison Ford that was mostly about George Lucas on the whole.

 

[rai]

well as a matter of fact, I did. It would be curious to know if anyone else has read this little book called

"The Book of the Dun Cow" by Walter Wangerin from 1978

which is somewhat like "Animal Farm" + "Watership Down" with a bit of the story of creation good/evil in the mix.

I can't say I liked it that much, it was something I didn't love or hate either way. It was ok to read but I wanted it to be deeper than it was. And overall if you want to read such a story start with Animal Farm or Watership Down if you haven't already.

On the plus side it was a short read, but would have been even better as a novella I guess.

 

[Stephen Palmer]

Most unusual thing I've read recently was City Of Saints & Madmen by Jeff Vandermeer. Recommended but... unusual.

 

[thepaladin]

Just finished Land of Dreams, I'd forgotten how much I like James Blaylock.

 

[gully_foyle]

Just read Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell, which is essentially a set of novellas embedded within each other, with some form of linkage (sometimes tenuous) between them. It moves forwards and backwards along a timeline from the early 1800's pacific to the far and barbaric future. I'm not too sure if there was a single theme linking the stories as well, would be interested in other's opinions. It was a good read, but not sure how well the device worked, it reminded me of a kids book called Charlie Cook's Favourite Book.

 

[Diggler]

J.G. Ballards The Drought. This was just plain odd. The characters included a pyromaniac millionaire homosexual, mentally retarded crazy that wore a swan as a head piece, fishermen that ran around netting people and a vagrant child that pretty much lived off the generosity of the locals.

I have wanted to read Cloud Atlas for a while, but have not been able to track down a copy

 

[Allegra]

The Piano Shop on the Left Bank: Discovering a Forgotten Passion in a Paris Atelier - by Thad Carhart, an American author who lives in Paris. The book is such a pleasant surprise, it's a fascinating,
heart-warming memoir about piano and Paris. If you love piano and Paris you'd find this little book a sheer joy. If you are not familiar with both, you'll still enjoy the pleasant ride and learn something about piano (even the technical parts are not boring) and the common Parisians life.

 

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

J.G. Ballards The Drought. This was just plain odd. ...

Actually, if they ever issue a standard-edition of his complete SF works, they can just use that statement as a blanket blurb for the whole lot.

 

[paranoid marvin]

Just finished reading The Scarlet Plague thanks to a recommendation this website regarding good apocalyptic novels , and I really don't know what to make of it.

 

[Diggler]

Actually, if they ever issue a standard-edition of his complete SF works, they can just use that statement as a blanket blurb for the whole lot.

LOL

So I can assume from your statement that the rest of his novels are just as bizarre?

The man was a living, breathing thesaurus as well!

 

[TheDustyZebra]

Fairly recent re-read of Piers Anthony's Geodessey books--Isle of Woman, Shame of Man, Hope of Earth, although there is a fourth one that I didn't know about and haven't read yet, which I believe is Muse of Art.

I think they are one of the most interestingly-constructed series I have ever seen, and if you aren't familiar with them, very hard to describe as well.

Each book follows a family through about three generations while at the same time following the history of mankind through from cave days to post-apocalypse. Each chapter progresses to a later era of mankind while keeping the family story reasonably intact in the new circumstances. It is really quite fascinating. I need to get the fourth book (and there may have been a fifth as well, I forget).

 

[Diggler]

Just looked it up Zebra. There is a fifth called Climate of Change which is an on again - off again state.