Read anything unusual lately?

[Stephen Palmer]

I'm skeptical.

 

[Lobolover]

I read How Like a God by Stout recently . An intoxicating read . Very little happens as 90 % of the book are unchronological internal reminescenses of the main character narrated in the unusual second person narration ("You are timid and vengeless") , with brief third person chapters inbetween .

 

[Allegra]

A wonderful wonderful story I'd recommend to any animal lovers especialy cat people!

 

[CyBeR]

I've read some Romanian literature from 1916, one that has no context anywhere outside of this country. It was called, literal translation: 'From the land of donkeys. Notes', by Stefan Zeletin. Scathing work addressed to the Romanian society of 1908-1915, this caught my eye in a magazine a few weeks ago and I finally got to track it down. Although the book spans 200 pages, the actual work is about 65 of those, the rest being literary criticism and commentary.
Quite engaging, and fun to read. Though I may imagine how offended my fellow countrymen of 1916 had been.

 

[Vladd67]

House of Leaves by Mark Z Danielewski, A book which is two stories in one First you have the story about a house which is ever expanding internally but stays the same side on the outside, and then you have the footnotes written by the person who found the manuscript, which is a story in its self. On top of this the way the book is printed is unusual.

 

[shevdon]

I read Changing Planes by Ursula Le Guin, the premise of which is that if you are in transit in an airport lounge you can, by a trick of the mind 'change planes' and be somewhere else for a short while. Like an art form for seasoned travellers it sparks a set of short stories linked by a common theme.

Very interesting quirky stuff.

 

[Stephen Palmer]

Seeing that great word "quirky" reminds me of the extremely unusual work of R.A. Lafferty. An author of strange, strange books...

 

[GOLLUM]

As a heads up to this thread and the one initiated by Fried Egg covering fantasy outside of the mainstream, I'll be creating a new thread over this long weekend holiday that will periodically feature reviews of stories in World literature that primarily have a fantastic element, a number of which employ unusual literary techniques or ideas to achieve their goal.

For anyone who had been watching out for this thread before now I'm sorry it took so long for me to begin to address this but for personal reasons I've been forced to focus on other issues that have taken up a lot of my spare time.

 

[Duchessprozac]

I'm currently reading Voice of the Fire by Alan Moore. It's his first)and only, I think) proper novel and whilst the majority of the novel is written normally, the first chapter, Hob's Hog, is written in the first person of a mentally challenged Neanderthal boy who cannot differentiate between his dreams and reality.

It's a hard slog, especially trying to figure out what it all means, but it's fascinating reading none the less.

 

[clovis-man]

Lullaby by Chuck Palahniuk. Very strange tale about an ancient verse that accidently kills children and can be used as an assasination tool. Very quirky and sometimes quite funny. He also wrote Fight Club.

 

[Daisy-Boo]

Lullaby by Chuck Palahniuk. Very strange tale about an ancient verse that accidently kills children and can be used as an assasination tool. Very quirky and sometimes quite funny. He also wrote Fight Club.

I read part of Lullaby and got about halfway before I abandoned it. Not because I thought it was a bad book, but rather because it felt so very bleak. I felt quite depressed after reading that far.

 

[KatieJames]

I've read one but not lately. The title is Loverboy written by a Filipino author. Been looking for it but I can't find it even on the net.

 

[Zakalwe]

Lanark by Alasdair Grey is a rather unusual read. It's set in Glasgow and Unthank and follows the lives of Duncan Thaw and Lanark, the former is gritty, real and harsh while the latter is menacing, fantastic and...harsh. It has a brilliant and completely bonkers plot device towards the end.

 

[J Riff]

Try the John Lennon books for a larf

 

[Allegra]

Dvorak (Life & Times) by Kurt Honolka, not much of insight music wise but an honest and brief biography with some nice illustrations.

 

[Stephen Palmer]

Lanark by Alasdair Grey is a rather unusual read. It's set in Glasgow and Unthank and follows the lives of Duncan Thaw and Lanark, the former is gritty, real and harsh while the latter is menacing, fantastic and...harsh. It has a brilliant and completely bonkers plot device towards the end.

His 1982, Janine is similarly bonkers.

 

[El Dirko]

"Memoirs of a Sword Swallower" by Dan Mannix. Great story about the author's life as a sword and flame swallower in small town carnivals.

Best wishes,
Dirk

 

[digs]

I recently read The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami. It's a dreamlike, surreal book with lots of interwoven threads that I only half understood (I think/hope that's the author's intention), but it was also beautiful and moving and I really enjoyed it. Recommended!

 

[wintermute]

Vurt by Jeff Noon. A vaguely cyberpunky tale set in future Manchester where people trip in alternate realities by sucking on feathers.

 

[dask]

"The Picture In The House" by H.P. Lovecraft. Beautifully written, extremely disturbing, delightfully nauseating. Save this for a stormy night in late October.