Best Experimental Books Ever
Innovative, unorthodox, unique, creative, odd, but still awesome books!
1 A Clockwork Orange
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3.93 of 5 stars 3.93 avg rating — 216,037 ratings
2 Fight Club
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4.17 of 5 stars 4.17 avg rating — 172,252 ratings
3 The Catcher in the Rye
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3.76 of 5 stars 3.76 avg rating — 1,098,644 ratings
4 Slaughterhouse-Five
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3.97 of 5 stars 3.97 avg rating — 472,150 ratings
5 The Curious Incident of the...
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3.8 of 5 stars 3.80 avg rating — 426,341 ratings
6 1984
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4.06 of 5 stars 4.06 avg rating — 915,754 ratings
7 House of Leaves
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4.14 of 5 stars 4.14 avg rating — 38,578 ratings
8 Watchmen
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4.31 of 5 stars 4.31 avg rating — 194,871 ratings
9 Alice's Adventures in Wonde...
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4.04 of 5 stars 4.04 avg rating — 196,045 ratings
10 Brave New World
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3.9 of 5 stars 3.90 avg rating — 550,215 ratings
11 Ulysses
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3.72 of 5 stars 3.72 avg rating — 44,225 ratings
12 If on a Winter's Night a Tr...
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4.1 of 5 stars 4.10 avg rating — 25,356 ratings
13 Animal Farm
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3.75 of 5 stars 3.75 avg rating — 991,380 ratings
14 Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
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4.09 of 5 stars 4.09 avg rating — 118,145 ratings
15 Naked Lunch
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3.47 of 5 stars 3.47 avg rating — 32,556 ratings
16 The Master and Margarita
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4.32 of 5 stars 4.32 avg rating — 60,741 ratings
17 Pale Fire
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4.21 of 5 stars 4.21 avg rating — 15,896 ratings
18 Mrs. Dalloway
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3.76 of 5 stars 3.76 avg rating — 74,442 ratings
19 The Trial
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3.98 of 5 stars 3.98 avg rating — 65,164 ratings
20 The Sound and the Fury
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3.84 of 5 stars 3.84 avg rating — 75,909 ratings
21 On the Road
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3.66 of 5 stars 3.66 avg rating — 140,727 ratings
22 Cloud Atlas
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4.07 of 5 stars 4.07 avg rating — 69,400 ratings
23 Moby-Dick
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3.36 of 5 stars 3.36 avg rating — 258,257 ratings
24 American Psycho
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3.78 of 5 stars 3.78 avg rating — 79,918 ratings
25 Infinite Jest
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4.35 of 5 stars 4.35 avg rating — 23,493 ratings
26 One Hundred Years of Solitude
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3.94 of 5 stars 3.94 avg rating — 325,011 ratings
27 Heart of Darkness
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3.36 of 5 stars 3.36 avg rating — 143,399 ratings
28 Carnal: Somewhere Over 40 W...
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3.83 of 5 stars 3.83 avg rating — 69 ratings
29 Gravity's Rainbow
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4.03 of 5 stars 4.03 avg rating — 14,798 ratings
30 Kafka on the Shore
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4.09 of 5 stars 4.09 avg rating — 72,501 ratings
31 Invisible Cities
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4.22 of 5 stars 4.22 avg rating — 16,444 ratings
32 Catch-22
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3.95 of 5 stars 3.95 avg rating — 273,569 ratings
33 The Book Thief
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4.35 of 5 stars 4.35 avg rating — 304,521 ratings
34 Finnegans Wake
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3.65 of 5 stars 3.65 avg rating — 5,705 ratings
35 Life of Pi
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3.84 of 5 stars 3.84 avg rating — 483,634 ratings
36 The Life and Opinions of Tr...
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3.8 of 5 stars 3.80 avg rating — 7,168 ratings
37 Labyrinths
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4.47 of 5 stars 4.47 avg rating — 12,316 ratings
38 Battle Royale
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4.22 of 5 stars 4.22 avg rating — 17,041 ratings
39 Breakfast of Champions
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4.08 of 5 stars 4.08 avg rating — 101,820 ratings
40 Never Let Me Go
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3.76 of 5 stars 3.76 avg rating — 144,926 ratings
41 The Zombie Room
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3.75 of 5 stars 3.75 avg rating — 2,448 ratings
42 Notes from Underground
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4.12 of 5 stars 4.12 avg rating — 39,975 ratings
43 Cat's Cradle
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4.18 of 5 stars 4.18 avg rating — 129,583 ratings
44 The Things They Carried
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4.09 of 5 stars 4.09 avg rating — 78,227 ratings
45 Everything is Illuminated
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3.89 of 5 stars 3.89 avg rating — 82,120 ratings
46 The Elephant Tree
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3.75 of 5 stars 3.75 avg rating — 2,314 ratings
47 Midnight's Children
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4.02 of 5 stars 4.02 avg rating — 44,010 ratings
48 Waiting for Godot
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3.78 of 5 stars 3.78 avg rating — 51,383 ratings
49 A Portrait of the Artist as...
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3.55 of 5 stars 3.55 avg rating — 55,697 ratings
50 Trainspotting
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4.01 of 5 stars 4.01 avg rating — 55,980 ratings
51 Z213: EXIT
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4.76 of 5 stars 4.76 avg rating — 21 ratings
52 The Meaning Of Theft
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3.85 of 5 stars 3.85 avg rating — 39 ratings
53 Things Fall Apart
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3.52 of 5 stars 3.52 avg rating — 106,553 ratings
54 Tales from a New Amsterdam:...
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4.5 of 5 stars 4.50 avg rating — 12 ratings
55 Miss Lonelyhearts & The Day...
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3.95 of 5 stars 3.95 avg rating — 4,473 ratings
56 Ada, or Ardor: A Family Chr...
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4.18 of 5 stars 4.18 avg rating — 4,152 ratings
57 Blood and Guts in High School
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3.53 of 5 stars 3.53 avg rating — 1,283 ratings
58 The Third Policeman
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4.04 of 5 stars 4.04 avg rating — 5,706 ratings
59 Moore's Mythopoeia
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4.38 of 5 stars 4.38 avg rating — 13 ratings
60 Atlas Shrugged
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3.67 of 5 stars 3.67 avg rating — 149,364 ratings
61 Howl and Other Poems
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4.17 of 5 stars 4.17 avg rating — 34,132 ratings
62 Zen and the Art of Motorcyc...
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3.69 of 5 stars 3.69 avg rating — 75,383 ratings
63 Wake the Wicked
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4.4 of 5 stars 4.40 avg rating — 30 ratings
64 My Name is Red
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3.77 of 5 stars 3.77 avg rating — 14,782 ratings
65 The Unwords
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4.32 of 5 stars 4.32 avg rating — 91 ratings
66 Journey to the End of the N...
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4.27 of 5 stars 4.27 avg rating — 8,970 ratings
67 The Chocolate War (Chocolat...
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3.46 of 5 stars 3.46 avg rating — 19,455 ratings
68 The Road
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3.93 of 5 stars 3.93 avg rating — 275,144 ratings
69 At Swim-Two-Birds
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3.97 of 5 stars 3.97 avg rating — 4,369 ratings
70 The Picture of Dorian Gray
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3.99 of 5 stars 3.99 avg rating — 254,535 ratings
71 The White Hotel
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3.83 of 5 stars 3.83 avg rating — 1,932 ratings
72 Journals
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3.89 of 5 stars 3.89 avg rating — 5,316 ratings
73 Maus
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4.49 of 5 stars 4.49 avg rating — 29,707 ratings
74 Molloy, Malone Dies, The Un...
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4.29 of 5 stars 4.29 avg rating — 3,730 ratings
75 A Void
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3.83 of 5 stars 3.83 avg rating — 942 ratings
76 The Raw Shark Texts
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3.87 of 5 stars 3.87 avg rating — 7,574 ratings
77 The Mezzanine
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3.94 of 5 stars 3.94 avg rating — 2,868 ratings
78 The Bone People
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4.06 of 5 stars 4.06 avg rating — 9,082 ratings
79 Steppenwolf
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4.05 of 5 stars 4.05 avg rating — 41,230 ratings
80 VALIS
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3.98 of 5 stars 3.98 avg rating — 9,608 ratings
81 Lost in the Funhouse
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3.74 of 5 stars 3.74 avg rating — 2,277 ratings
82 CivilWarLand in Bad Decline
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4.25 of 5 stars 4.25 avg rating — 5,282 ratings
83 The Fountainhead
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3.8 of 5 stars 3.80 avg rating — 145,389 ratings
84 Neuromancer (Sprawl, #1)
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3.79 of 5 stars 3.79 avg rating — 114,141 ratings
85 Last Exit To Brooklyn
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3.96 of 5 stars 3.96 avg rating — 8,191 ratings
86 Huey Lambert's Walking Nucl...
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4.21 of 5 stars 4.21 avg rating — 14 ratings
87 A Son of the Circus
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3.53 of 5 stars 3.53 avg rating — 10,546 ratings
88 American Gods
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4.1 of 5 stars 4.10 avg rating — 189,309 ratings
89 Watt
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4.04 of 5 stars 4.04 avg rating — 1,110 ratings
90 Only Revolutions
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3.19 of 5 stars 3.19 avg rating — 2,829 ratings
90 Hopscotch
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4.27 of 5 stars 4.27 avg rating — 7,927 ratings
92 Dubliners
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3.86 of 5 stars 3.86 avg rating — 43,887 ratings
93 Exercises in Style
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4.09 of 5 stars 4.09 avg rating — 2,319 ratings
94 The Sandman, Vol. 1: Prelud...
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4.34 of 5 stars 4.34 avg rating — 63,294 ratings
95 Nira/Sussa
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3.81 of 5 stars 3.81 avg rating — 62 ratings
96 I am an Island
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4.33 of 5 stars 4.33 avg rating — 15 ratings
97 Houdini Heart
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4.41 of 5 stars 4.41 avg rating — 584 ratings
98 The Recognitions
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4.26 of 5 stars 4.26 avg rating — 1,617 ratings
99 The Journal of Albion Moonl...
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4.31 of 5 stars 4.31 avg rating — 311 ratings
99 Io Deceneus - Journal of a ...
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4.3 of 5 stars 4.30 avg rating — 33 ratings
396 books · 718 voters · list created February 18th, 2010 by deleted user.
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Comments (showing 1-7 of 7) (7 new)

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message 1: by Bookman (new)

Bookman Which of these are "children's"? I was quite surprised to see the list when I looked under "children's" because there are some books there that are very much NOT for children.


message 2: by Alix (new)

Alix Epstein some people are playing a little fast and loose with the word "experimental" here.


message 3: by Enrique (new)

Enrique I agree with message 2. Part of the problem with a list like this (a list I still like overall, btw) is that there's no definitional parameters for what even constitutes an "experimental novel". What does that even mean? Aren't all novels "experiments" of a sort, in storytelling?

I prefer the term "innovative" over "experimental" in conjunction with novels. Some novels, for instance, like Only Revolutions and Finnegans Wake are obviously experimental because their narration is so radically unorthodox they really can't be called anything other than "experiments". However, I don't think either of those novels move the form forward. They're experimental, but they're not innovative. They're experiments that haven't been repeated, though I could argue that Only Revolutions was an attempt to repeat the radicalism of FW. Some experiments in fiction just don't work, regardless of their cult followings, and while I realize I could be making furious both Joyce and Danielewski aficionados (writers both whose previous work I admire, whether The Portrait... or House of Leaves) I'm willing to take that risk in saying so because I really think it's true.

Novels that are innovative -- innately experimental -- on the other hand, like The Recognitions, influence a whole 'nother generation of writers, moving the novel forward in such a way that the previous experiment is, in a limited sense, somewhat repeatable, and not a dead end. Read Pynchon's V and tell me he wasn't influenced by Gaddis' Recognitions. Read DFWs The Broom of the System and tell me he wasn't influenced by V & Gravity's Rainbow. Read White Teeth and tell me Zadie Smith wasn't influenced by Infinite Jest, et cetera et cetera, ad infinitum ...

Now, besides Only Revolutions, try naming another novel that was influenced by Finnegans Wake and demonstrated such in its style and structure.

Good luck!


message 4: by Jacob (new)

Jacob G The only thing that J.D. was experimenting with when he wrote Catcher in The Rye, was new ways to make high school students waste their time.


message 5: by Jeff (new)

Jeff "Ulysses" obviously deserves the number 1 spot


message 6: by Leslie (new)

Leslie This is my favorite category of books. It's hard to define, but I'll take anyone's suggestions- because that's just more ideas for my 'to read' list!


message 7: by Book (new)

Book Worm I couldn't finish #1 because I couldn't get past the rape scene of minors. I even tried watching a midnight showing of the movie but fell asleep, although mostly because of the booze I'd consumed prior. What little I did read of Burgess' "experimental" vocabulary & his premise of "experimenting" bad behavior out was "interesting", to say the least.


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