12 Odd Books I Read

Usually, when people hear about ‘strange books’, they think they’re bad or simply too complicated to be enjoyed. However, that’s not true and I can prove it. For a long time, I refused to read out of my comfort zone declining every book that sounded the least bit weird. Now it’s the total opposite: I welcome the weird! The more unconventional a book is, the more I want to experience it (yes, because some books can’t just be read in the traditional way). So here is a list of twelve of the strangest books I’ve read (by strange, read unusually formatted or books that aren’t just words on a page). They vary in genre and degree of weirdness. Some I liked more than others but they are, overall, interesting and different.

1. House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski

The famous House of Leaves, that everyone talks about… Well, it’s for a reason. This is one of the first odd books I read and it made me fall in love with this genre. Scary, challenging and unlike any book you’ve seen before.

Summary:

Years ago, when House of Leaves was first being passed around, it was nothing more than a badly bundled heap of paper, parts of which would occasionally surface on the Internet. No one could have anticipated the small but devoted following this terrifying story would soon command. Starting with an odd assortment of marginalized youth—musicians, tattoo artists, programmers, strippers, environmentalists, and adrenaline junkies—the book eventually made its way into the hands of older generations, who not only found themselves in those strangely arranged pages but also discovered a way back into the lives of their estranged children.

Now, for the first time, this astonishing novel is made available in book form, complete with the original coloured words, vertical footnotes, and newly added second and third appendices.

The story remains unchanged, focusing on a young family that moves into a small home on Ash Tree Lane where they discover something is terribly wrong: their house is bigger on the inside than it is on the outside.

Of course, neither Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Will Navidson nor his companion Karen Green was prepared to face the consequences of that impossibility, until the day their two little children wandered off and their voices eerily began to return another story—of creature darkness, of an ever-growing abyss behind a closet door, and of that unholy growl which soon enough would tear through their walls and consume all their dreams.

2. If On a Winter’s Night a Traveller by Italo Calvino

If you like a solid conclusion to your stories then this book is not for you. However, if you love new beginnings and starting fresh, then this book is perfect. Each chapter introduces new characters and stories without seemingly connecting to the previous section.

Summary:

If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler is a marvel of ingenuity, an experimental text that looks longingly back to the great age of narration—”when time no longer seemed stopped and did not yet seem to have exploded.” Italo Calvino’s novel is in one sense a comedy in which the two protagonists, the Reader and the Other Reader, ultimately end up married, having almost finished If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler. In another, it is a tragedy, a reflection on the difficulties of writing and the solitary nature of reading. The Reader buys a fashionable new book, which opens with an exhortation: “Relax. Concentrate. Dispel every other thought. Let the world around you fade.” Alas, after 30 or so pages, he discovers that his copy is corrupted, and consists of nothing but the first section, over and over. Returning to the bookshop, he discovers the volume, which he thought was by Calvino, is actually by the Polish writer Bazakbal. Given the choice between the two, he goes for the Pole, as does the Other Reader, Ludmilla. But this copy turns out to be by yet another writer, as does the next, and the next.
The real Calvino intersperses 10 different pastiches—stories of menace, spies, mystery, premonition—with explorations of how and why we choose to read, make meanings, and get our bearings or fail to. Meanwhile, the Reader and Ludmilla try to reach, and read, each other. If on a Winter’s Night is dazzling, vertiginous, and deeply romantic. “What makes lovemaking and reading resemble each other most is that within both of them times and spaces open, different from measurable time and space.”

3. Wreck This Journal by Keri Smith

This one if for the crafters out there. If you love arts and crafts, this is for you. However, if you like keeping your books in a pristine condition, this book is a challenge because I promise you: once you’re finished with Wreck This Journal, you won’t even recognise your copy. This is the perfect book for creative people and for all those who can’t stand to fold a page to mark their place.

Summary: 

For anyone who’s ever wished to, but had trouble starting, keeping, or finishing a journal or sketchbook comes Wreck This Journal, an illustrated book that features a subversive collection of prompts, asking readers to muster up their best mistake- and mess-making abilities to fill the pages of the book (and destroy them). Acclaimed illustrator Keri Smith encourages journalers to engage in “destructive” acts-poking holes through pages, adding photos and defacing them, painting with coffee, and more-in order to experience the true creative process. Readers discover a new way of art and journal making-and new ways to escape the fear of the blank page and fully engage in the creative process.

4. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer

Oh, this one… So emotional and clever. If you’re a younger reader (or know of one), here’s a recommendation. Follow Oskar as he searches New York for a lock to fit the key he found in his late father’s closet. Be aware that Oskar is autist and adorable and you won’t want to stop reading until you find out if he does find that lock, or something else even bigger.

Summary:

Adult/High School-Oskar Schell is not your average nine-year-old. A budding inventor, he spends his time imagining wonderful creations. He also collects random photographs for his scrapbook and sends letters to scientists. When his father dies in the World Trade Center collapse, Oskar shifts his boundless energy to a quest for answers. He finds a key hidden in his father’s things that doesn’t fit any lock in their New York City apartment; its container is labeled “Black.” Using flawless kid logic, Oskar sets out to speak to everyone in New York City with the last name of Black. A retired journalist who keeps a card catalog with entries for everyone he’s ever met is just one of the colorful characters the boy meets. 

As in Everything Is Illuminated (Houghton, 2002), Foer takes a dark subject and works in offbeat humor with puns and wordplay. But Extremely Loud pushes further with the inclusion of photographs, illustrations, and mild experiments in typography reminiscent of Kurt Vonnegut’s Breakfast of Champions (Dell, 1973). The humor works as a deceptive, glitzy cover for a fairly serious tale about loss and recovery. For balance, Foer includes the subplot of Oskar’s grandfather, who survived the World War II bombing of Dresden. Although this story is not quite as evocative as Oskar’s, it does carry forward and connect firmly to the rest of the novel. The two stories finally intersect in a powerful conclusion that will make even the most jaded hearts fall.

5. Night Film by Marisha Pessl

Night Film is for all the cult and horror film lovers out there. It’s about a horror film director and the investigation of his daughter’s supposed suicide. You get snippets of interviews and pictures and, believe it or not, you even go to the dark web.

Summary:

On a damp October night, 24-year-old Ashley Cordova is found dead in an abandoned warehouse in lower Manhattan. Though her death is ruled a suicide, veteran investigative journalist Scott McGrath suspects otherwise. As he probes the strange circumstances surrounding Ashley’s life and death, McGrath comes face-to-face with the legacy of her father: the legendary, reclusive cult-horror film director Stanislaus Cordova–a man who hasn’t been seen in public for more than thirty years.

For McGrath, another death connected to this seemingly cursed family dynasty seems more than just a coincidence. Though much has been written about Cordova’s dark and unsettling films, very little is known about the man himself.

Driven by revenge, curiosity, and a need for the truth, McGrath, with the aid of two strangers, is drawn deeper and deeper into Cordova’s eerie, hypnotic world. The last time he got close to exposing the director, McGrath lost his marriage and his career. This time he might lose even more.

6. Griffin & Sabine: An Extraordinary Correspondence by Nick Bantock 

Griffin & Sabine has a lighter subject. It’s about, you guessed it, Griffin and Sabine’s correspondence with each other. You get to read postcards and letters that they send each other from across the world. There is a big mystery at the end but it’s a good thing this is the first book in the series.

Summary:

It all started with a mysterious and seemingly innocent postcard, but from that point, nothing was to remain the same in the life of Griffin Moss, a quiet, solitary artist living in London. His logical, methodical world was suddenly turned upside down by a strangely exotic woman living on a tropical island thousands of miles away. Who is Sabine? How can she “see” what Griffin is painting when they have never met? Is she a long-lost twin? A clairvoyant? Or a malevolent angel? Are we witnessing the flowering of a magical relationship or a descent into madness?

This stunning visual novel unfolds in a series of postcards and letters, all brilliantly illustrated with whimsical designs, bizarre creatures, and darkly imagined landscapes. Inside the book, Griffin and Sabine’s letters are to be found nestling in their envelopes, permitting the reader to examine the intimate correspondence of these inexplicably linked strangers. This truly innovative novel combines a strangely fascinating story with lush artwork in an altogether original format.

7. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

This is already a modern classic and I’m sure you’ve heard of it. This book features a boy with Asperger’s Syndrome (the second protagonist on this list with a mental illness. A theme?) who runs away from home and explores the world around him. He has a very analytical mind and reading from his point of view is something else altogether.

Summary:

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is a murder mystery novel like no other. The detective, and narrator, is Christopher Boone. Christopher is fifteen and has Asperger’s Syndrome. He knows a very great deal about maths and very little about human beings. He loves lists, patterns and the truth. He hates the colours yellow and brown and being touched. He has never gone further than the end of the road on his own, but when he finds a neighbour’s dog murdered he sets out on a terrifying journey that will turn his whole world upside down.

8. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

The first time I picked up The Book Thief, the drawings caught my attention. Upon finding out this book is narrated by DEATH herself, I couldn’t leave it in the store. Set in World War II, this tells the story of Liesel, a young girl in Nazi Germany living with a foster family with a penchant for stealing books. In them, she finds an escape from the problems of her world and they provide her with a whole different view. Then, her foster family hides a Jew in the basement… Prepare the tissues.

Summary:

It is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier and will be busier still.

By her brother’s graveside, Liesel’s life is changed when she picks up a single object, partially hidden in the snow. It is The Gravedigger’s Handbook, left behind there by accident, and it is her first act of book thievery. So begins a love affair with books and words, as Liesel, with the help of her accordion-playing foster father, learns to read. Soon she is stealing books from Nazi book-burnings, the mayor’s wife’s library, wherever there are books to be found.

But these are dangerous times. When Liesel’s foster family hides a Jew in their basement, Liesel’s world is both opened up and closed down.

In superbly crafted writing that burns with intensity, award-winning author Markus Zusak has given us one of the most enduring stories of our time.

9. The Selected Works of T. S. Spivet by Reif Larsen

A coming of age story like I’ve never seen one. T.S. Spivet is a young prodigy who loves to draw maps and when he receives an award from the Smithsonian museum, he travels across the country to go and receive it. Unforgettable.

Summary:

A brilliant, boundary-leaping debut novel tracing twelve-year-old genius map maker T.S. Spivet’s attempts to understand the ways of the world

When twelve-year-old genius cartographer T.S. Spivet receives an unexpected phone call from the Smithsonian announcing he has won the prestigious Baird Award, life as normal-if you consider mapping family dinner table conversation normal-is interrupted and a wild cross-country adventure begins, taking T.S. from his family ranch just north of Divide, Montana, to the museum’s hallowed halls.

T.S. sets out alone, leaving before dawn with a plan to hop a freight train and hobo east. Once aboard, his adventures step into high gear and he meticulously maps, charts, and illustrates his exploits, documenting mythical wormholes in the Midwest, the urban phenomenon of “rims,” and the pleasures of McDonald’s, among other things. We come to see the world through T.S.’s eyes and in his thorough investigation of the outside world he also reveals himself.

As he travels away from the ranch and his family we learn how the journey also brings him closer to home. A secret family history found within his luggage tells the story of T.S.’s ancestors and their long-ago passage west, offering profound insight into the family he left behind and his role within it. As T.S. reads he discovers the sometimes shadowy boundary between fact and fiction and realizes that, for all his analytical rigor, the world around him is a mystery.

All that he has learned is tested when he arrives at the capital to claim his prize and is welcomed into science’s inner circle. For all its shine, fame seems more highly valued than ideas in this new world and friends are hard to find.

T.S.’s trip begins at the Copper Top Ranch and the last known place he stands is Washington, D.C., but his journey’s movement is far harder to track: How do you map the delicate lessons learned about family and self? How do you depict how it feels to first venture out on your own? Is there a definitive way to communicate the ebbs and tides of heartbreak, loss, loneliness, love? These are the questions that strike at the core of this very special debut.

10. Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn

One of my favourites on this list. A simple concept: as more and more letters fall from a memorial statue of Nevin Nollop, the population of this island is forbidden to use them in their lives. Chaos ensues. Or does it? Mark Dunn does an exceptional job writing this book because, he too, stops using each letter as he writes. Here’s a quote: “Lately, I haph startet painting my torso in pretty, motley hews. I sit in phront oph the mirror in the sleepy-room. I atmire my hantyworg. I am a hooman apstrat paining.” 

Summary: 

Ella Minnow Pea is a girl living happily on the fictional island of Nollop off the coast of South Carolina. Nollop was named after Nevin Nollop, author of the immortal pangram,* “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.” Now Ella finds herself acting to save her friends, family, and fellow citizens from the encroaching totalitarianism of the island’s Council, which has banned the use of certain letters of the alphabet as they fall from a memorial statue of Nevin Nollop.

As the letters progressively drop from the statue they also disappear from the novel. The result is both a hilarious and moving story of one girl’s fight for freedom of expression, as well as a linguistic tour de force sure to delight word lovers everywhere.

*pangram: a sentence or phrase that includes all the letters of the alphabet

11. The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick

Half text, half pictures, this book is a delight to the eyes. You follow Hugo, a clock keeper who lives in secret within the walls of a Paris train station. His life changes and his secret is discovered. Aimed at a middle-grade audience, this book is perfect for everyone, though.

Summary:

Orphan, clock keeper, and thief, Hugo lives in the walls of a busy Paris train station, where his survival depends on secrets and anonymity. But when his world suddenly interlocks with an eccentric, bookish girl and a bitter old man who runs a toy booth in the station, Hugo’s undercover life, and his most precious secret, are put in jeopardy. A cryptic drawing, a treasured notebook, a stolen key, a mechanical man, and a hidden message from Hugo’s dead father form the backbone of this intricate, tender, and spellbinding mystery.

12. The Strange Library by Haruki Murakami

The cover of this book is very interesting: two flaps that you open up and then immediately the story starts. No copyright page in the beginning, no title page, no page numbers. You literally open the book and start reading. There aren't any pull-outs or documents but there are images and boy, oh boy are they strange. The story itself is very whimsical, as is usual with Murakami and it almost feels like reading a modern fairytale.

Summary:

From internationally acclaimed author Haruki Murakami—a fantastical illustrated short novel about a boy imprisoned in a nightmarish library.

Opening the flaps on this unique little book, readers will find themselves immersed in the strange world of best-selling Haruki Murakami's wild imagination. The story of a lonely boy, a mysterious girl, and a tormented sheep man plotting their escape from a nightmarish library, the book is like nothing else Murakami has written. Designed by Chip Kidd and fully illustrated, in full color, throughout, this small format, 96 page volume is a treat for book lovers of all ages.