Whats the strangest book you've ever read?

[Hellion25]

A book called the Hippopotamus by Stephen Fry. In summary:

Its about a teenage boy who thinks that he can cure all disease by screwing whoever has disease due to his sperm having curative properties. Cue horse shagging, homosexuality and an awkward blowjob from a teenager. The main crux of the story revolves around a cynical old poet trying to figure out the true mystery of whats going on at the guy's estate

I enjoyed it, but it was damned weird.

 

[el_emmens]

I've not read any particularly odd books but the book suicide notes (which I highly reccomend) had the most left field guided plot twist I ever read, I mean the original plot at first is difficult to comprehend but then they threw the plot twist and then I'm like "oh crap! thats crazy" so yeah I don't read many odd books but I've read a few with crazy plot twists

 

[TheLivingDaylights]

This is a comic book, but the "Bone" series. How the hell can creatures that apparently come from a modern society "stumble" upon a backwards community? Unless they found the cooler version of the Amish...

 

[Mozared]

For me it'd have to be a book named "Momo" by the Dutch writer Hafid Bouazza. It isn't really about anything. It's a story about a kid which gets smothered by his mothers overzealous carefulness while his father's too afraid to stand up to her. One day the kid goes on a school trip and that's where the book ends. That's really it; as far as I know there isn't a deeper meaning or anything to it, it's just that random (short)story.

 

[Baby Tea]

I'll say 'A Wrinkle in Time'.
I was, like, 8 or 9 when I read it, so I'd probably find it less odd now (Nearly 25).
But, as far as memory goes, it was odd.

 

[Kayevcee]

The Hitchhiker's Guide series is nicely off-the-wall and high-concept, which also neatly describes a lot of Grant Morrisson's work (Seaguy, Doom Patrol... not to mention his long runs on Justice League and X-men that redefined their respective series in the best possible way).

As for the outright strangest book I've ever read... could be The Boy Who Kicked Pigs, a comedy/horror novella by Tom "Doctor Who" Baker. His autobiography is pretty mad as well- before he got into acting he spent two years in a monastery, and the thoughts running through his head as he knelt in the prayer room had me laughing so hard I nearly passed out.

Speaking of laughter, Terry Pratchett's early Discworld books are pretty crazy. The later Ankh-Morpork-based stories are still damn good yarns but the early books that gave us The Luggage and Cohen the Octogenarian Barbarian are 100% nuts.

I might have to give House of Leaves a go from the sound of things.

-Nick

 

[space_oddity]

John Dies at the End.

 

[SG Xibalba]

The Third Policeman by Flann O'Brien - absolutely bizarre in the most unexpected of ways. If oyu want surreal, this pretty much caps it.

 

[ThaBenMan]

I have House of Leaves and plan on reading it sometime soon... I'm both excited and scared ...

Hmmm, probably the weirdest book I've read is Neverwhere [http://www.amazon.com/Neverwhere-Novel-Neil-Gaiman/dp/0060557818/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239232156&sr=1-1] by Neil Gaiman. None of it is disturbing or anything, just odd. But neat! I'd recommend it.

 

[TUNNEL_SNAKES_RULE]

At Booksamillion,I saw a book titled,"Exceptions to the Ten Commandments,"Intrigued,I picked it up...It was about fifty blank pages...And it was for five bucks...I've only just got the joke.

 

[Lord Beautiful]

The Qur'an.

*ba dum tish*

EDIT:

The Transall Saga

That was a rather wierd novel for me as well, expecially considering that I had just read "Hatchet" before reading that. It was a tad different than I was expecting from Paulsen.

 

[kmg90]

the bible....

I knew that was coming!

 

[TheWritenator]

the kingdom seris by chuck black just one long bible thumbing gay inuendo

 

[MrSnugglesworth]

Twilight. I was like "Why do people like this?" It was pretty strange.

 

[andyandy]

the bible....

Win. I'd have to say Lord of The Flies. It was a decent book and all, but what the hell was the point of this novel?

 

[MagnetoHydroDynamics]

Aaaand the prize for the most fucked up timeline goes to:
Use of Weapons - Iain M. Banks.

seriously though, the story follows a guy with a name i can't even pronounce properly... In two storylines, labeled 1, 2, 3... and XIV, XIII, XII... respectively. One is about the actual plot (in it self quite a nice story) and the other is backstory consisting mostly of assasinations and references to his childhood... It all wids up in a great twist wich is kind of 'OMGWTF?', kind of 'Aaah, now I get it' and kind of 'I expected this'.

As for manga: BLAME!, NOiSE, Abara and Biomega all by Tsutomu Nihei are some of the best dystopic storylines you'll ever come by... And I still don't really get the plot of at least two of them.

 

[Pyro Ghost]

John Dies at the End.

Yeah, that's about as weird as it gets.

 

[ersatzcure]

Thanks to this thread I've just spent something like $50.

:< Thanks people, thanks.

(No really though, I am always looking for more strange things to read. xD)

I would venture to add Choke by Chuck Palahniuk. Probably not near as insane as some of th others, but definitely an interesting read.

Oh, and Party Monster (originally Disco Bloodbath) by James St. James. Love this book.

 

[darkless]

Divergence by...that author...TO GOOGLE!, Tony ballantyne. Yeah, it was a fairly strange book.

 

[chefassassin2]

the house of leaves. i'd never had to hold up my book to a mirror to read it before that one. the author's next book, only revolutions, is pretty fucked as well, but i haven't actually finished that one yet.

Agreed wholeheatedly!!!! never in my lifee have I had to put a book down due to discomfort, but I had to with house of Leaves. Complete and utter mind*&^%.