please recommend an unusual/weird fiction book for someone who usually reads non-fict

dello1234

I am looking for a recommendation for an unusual./weird book. I usually read non-fiction books, authors like james gleick, Richard Dawkins, bill bryson. I am looking to get into a well written non fiction book that will make me think. I have an interest in the unusual/disturbing/weird so anything along those lines would be great.

Thanks in advice for the recommendations

Rosy Posy

Douglas Coupland and Haruki Murakami are both pretty offbeat. Will Self is amazing but his prose is fairly dense. Might be best to start with his short stories. I really enjoyed A Fraction of the Whole by Steve Toltz.

sydthebeat

can I suggest russell hoban?

Either ' the lion of jakem boaz'
Or 'amarylis night and day'

Not too huge reads, but a good introduction and progression to metaphysical stories from a physical base.

Carawaystick

I'd suggest I'd suggest something by Iain Banks, either non-science-fiction or science fiction as Iain M Banks

Some Isaac Azimov stories are good, the I robot stories or novels are recommended

+1 for Asimov's I Robot stories, they'd be a great introduction to sci-fi but for an unusual non-fiction book I recommend Spook - Science Tackles the Afterlife by Mary Roache. It's very humorously written and an offbeat read.

Rosy Posy

Hi op, can you just clarify are you looking for fiction or non-fiction? There's a discrepancy between the thread title and your post. Thanks

cloudatlas

dello1234 wrote: »

I have an interest in the unusual/disturbing/weird so anything along those lines would be great.

Thanks in advice for the recommendations

Umberto Eco, 'A clockwork orange', most sci fi books are weird http://scifilists.sffjazz.com/lists_books_rank1.html

Thargor

Jonathon Strange and Mr Norell is great, save it for winter though, I read it during that major cold snap a while back where all the waterpipes froze and there were power cuts, really enhanced it.

MagicMarker

Infinite Jest

alchemist33

Perdido Street Station by China Mieville. You can't get much weirder than a man having a relationship with someone who has a beetle for a head

dots03

The Diceman by Luke Rhinehart would definitely meet your criteria of an unusual/disturbing/weird read.

also + 1 for Haruki Murakami (Kafka on the Shore would be a good starting point).

Oryx & Crake by Margaret Atwood is also excellent.

Thargor

alchemist33 wrote: »

Perdido Street Station by China Mieville. You can't get much weirder than a man having a relationship with someone who has a beetle for a head

Brilliant book, so many good ideas in it, the ambassador from hell

mikhail

On the sci-fi theme, Neal Stephenson writes intricate, well-researched books. Rather long, but you might try his Cryptonomicon, which is about information and its value, encryption and secrecy, all wrapped up in a story that jumps between WWII and the present. A lighter read is his Zodiac, a thriller with an ecological theme.

Someone mentioned Iain Banks. His The Wasp Factory remains the most disturbing book I've read.

Honey-ec

Ian Harkaway's The Gone Away World. It will totally fcuk with your head.

As will House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski, but in a totally different way.

salacious crumb

Cormac McCarthy. Try "The Outer Dark".

Pretzill

salacious crumb wrote: »

Cormac McCarthy. Try "The Outer Dark".

+1 for anything by Cormac McCarthy his fiction often has an underlying realism.

Toby Take a Bow

Some of David Mitchell's stuff might interest you, OP, particularly Ghostwritten and Cloud Atlas. Second Margaret Atwood's Oryx & Crake. The follow up, The Year of The Flood was also very good and the third is due out at the end of the month.

daithi1970

I second the Iain Banks recommendation- both The Wasp Factory and Complicity,and his last book The Quarry are all excellent-I'm reading Transition by him at the moment, and its mightily weird, but very good, as well.

daithi

Lorenzo the Magnificent

The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolano.

Monkeybonkers

Filth by Irvine Welsh.

It's certainly unusual/weird

marsn

Fight Club or Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk.

salacious crumb

Monkeybonkers wrote: »

Filth by Irvine Welsh.

It's certainly unusual/weird

If we're talking Irvine Welsh, try Marabou Stork Nightmares while you're at it