What makes a book weird? Is it subject matter, writing style, or viewpoint? Is a book weird if it is created in an unconventional style? What's a gimmick and does a gimmick make a book weird? Is the ultimate decider of weirdness the book or the affect the book has?

Have you read a book that you couldn't say you loved, liked, disliked or hated because you couldn't figure it out for weirdness? How consistently weird are some authors? Is weirdness a quality of the book, a quality imbued by a reader, some combination, or really just a matter of Not Understanding?

Tell us all about your Weird Book experiences.

From Paul

Hah - I must cheekily quote my own review of "Amok Journal sensurround Edition" edited by Stuart Swezey:

"Now you know how when you see the first section of the book is called "Autoerotic Fatalities" you just have to read it, and then when you've finished, including the sub-section called "Conversation with an Asphyxiophiliac" (they obviously got to him in time) you find that your complexion is now an unappealing seagreen and you rather wish you hadn't bothered, and you look upon the simplest domestic items with new insight - the curtain rail, the ironing board and the humble carrot will never be so innocent again - but at least now you can regale your friends and relatives with descriptions of photos captioned "view of the body showing chain harness attached to car bumper" and "the deceased slumped over a vacuum cleaner on a dining room table" which could be useful in bringing to a sudden halt otherwise tedious conversations, as for instance when the vicar comes to tea.
The next section is called Trepanation and I'm thinking I must have been trepanned already since some years ago I actually paid money for this book. I'd sell it on Amazon but I'm afraid the police would come round and arrest me"

So that's my weirdest book.

King Dinosaur stole the summaries from GR listings:

"Blackburn" by Bradley Benton
lackburn is a serial killer. But, like the rest of us, he confronts the same hypocrisies and frustrations of the world and, unable to help himself, or at the mercy of circumstance, he crosses a dangerous threshold--and he kills. In this novel, we meet many of his twenty-one victims: law enforcers, writers, adulterers, auto mechanics, and other liars. And each crime reveals another side of his psyche . . . and his disturbing rationale for murder.

"The House on the Borderland" by William Hope Hodgson
This novel of the supernatural, first published in 1908, was an important influence on H. P. Lovecraft. In the ruins of an ancient stone house in Ireland is found the diary of an elderly man who lived alone with his sister and their pets, and who longed for his lost love. The diary tells of how the man explores a cyclopean cavern beneath the house and fights off swarms of white pig-like monsters pouring up from below. Then, in a visionary sequence, he breaks through to an alternate space-time dimension and sees a doppelganger of his house on a vast desolate plain.

"Vathek" by William Beckford
Witches, demons, human sacrifices and other spectral horrors: all intercept Vathek as he journeys to the underworld in this weird and wonderful gothic masterpiece.

This classic of 18th century Gothic literature, was highly acclaimed by such eminent writers as Byron and H P Lovecraft and remains the most extreme example of this genre.

"Zod Wallop" by William Browning Spencer
There are two versions of Harry Gainesborough's bestselling children's book Zod Wallop: the published version, written second, and the original version, stolen by Harry's zealous fan, Raymond Story, while Harry and Raymond were both patients in a mental hospital. The published version has a happy ending; the private version was Harry's confrontation with the death of his child. And the private version, emotionally true and infused with the power of a group hallucination, ending with the destruction of the world, is becoming real.

It's inevitable that Zod Wallop will be compared to The Land of Laughs by Jonathan Carroll; both are about authors of Oz-like children's books whose literary creations leak over into our world. Both are dark in tone, and in both death and denial are key elements, but Spencer's poignant story owes as much to Philip K. Dick as to Carroll.

"The Wrestler's Cruel Study" by Stephen Dobyns
This is a challenging book. Wrestling, kidnapping, subplots from the Brothers Grimm, and a young man's search for his missing fiancee are only some of the elements of Stephen Dobyns's novel.

"Stirs together Nietzschean philosophy, professional wrestling, fairy-tale scenarios and Gnostic speculation to produce what is at once a darkly humorous and gravely unsettling work of imagination." —Sven Birkerts, New York Times Book Review

Well worth it if you can wade through the crazy metaphors...

"Geek Love" by Katherine Dunn
A wild, often horrifying, novel about freaks, geeks and other aberrancies of the human condition who travel together (a whole family of them) as a circus. It's a solipsistic funhouse world that makes "normal" people seem bland and pitiful. Arturo the Aqua-Boy, who has flippers and an enormous need to be loved. A museum of sacred monsters that didn't make it. An endearing "little beetle" of a heroine. Sort of like Tod Browning's Freaks crossed with David Lynch and John Irving and perhaps George Eliot -- the latter for the power of the emotions evoked.

"The Dream Life of Balso Snell" by Nathanael West
In this 1931 Dada-inspired work, the first novel of the author of Miss Lonelyhearts and The Day of the Locust, the eponymous anti-hero stumbles across the Trojan Horse and climbs inside. His journey takes him through a mental jungle, offering an unforgettable look at the dark side of the American dream.

"The Circus of Dr. Lao" by Charles Finney
Abalone, Arizona, is a sleepy southwestern town whose chief concerns are boredom and surviving the Great Depression. That is, until the circus of Dr. Lao arrives and immensely and irrevocably changes the lives of everyone drawn to its tents. Expecting a sideshow spectacle, the citizens of Abalone instead confront and learn profound lessons from the mythical made real--a chimera, a Medusa, a talking sphinx, a sea serpent, witches, the Hound of the Hedges, a werewolf, a mermaid, an ancient god, and the elusive, ever-changing Dr. Lao. The circus unfolds, spinning magical, dark strands that ensnare the town's populace: the sea serpent's tale shatters love's illusions; the fortune-teller's shocking pronouncements toll the tedium and secret dread of every person's life; sensual undercurrents pour forth for men and women alike; and the dead walk again. Dazzling and macabre, literary and philosophical, The Circus of Dr. Lao has been acclaimed as a masterpiece of speculative fiction and influenced such writers as Ray Bradbury.

"Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass" by Lewis Carroll
The Mad Hatter, the Ugly Duchess, the Mock Turtle, the Queen of Hearts, the Cheshire Cat-characters each more eccentric than the last, and that could only have come from Lewis Carroll, the master of sublime nonsense. In these two brilliant burlesques he created two of the most famous and fantastic novels of all time that not only stirred our imagination but revolutionized literature.

"The Master and Margarita" by Mikhail Bulgakov
Surely no stranger work exists in the annals of protest literature than The Master and Margarita. Written during the Soviet crackdown of the 1930s, when Mikhail Bulgakov's works were effectively banned, it wraps its anti-Stalinist message in a complex allegory of good and evil. Or would that be the other way around? The book's chief character is Satan, who appears in the guise of a foreigner and self-proclaimed black magician named Woland. Accompanied by a talking black tomcat and a "translator" wearing a jockey's cap and cracked pince-nez, Woland wreaks havoc throughout literary Moscow. First he predicts that the head of noted editor Berlioz will be cut off; when it is, he appropriates Berlioz's apartment. (A puzzled relative receives the following telegram: "Have just been run over by streetcar at Patriarch's Ponds funeral Friday three afternoon come Berlioz.") Woland and his minions transport one bureaucrat to Yalta, make another one disappear entirely except for his suit, and frighten several others so badly that they end up in a psychiatric hospital. In fact, it seems half of Moscow shows up in the bin, demanding to be placed in a locked cell for protection.

Meanwhile, a few doors down in the hospital lives the true object of Woland's visit: the author of an unpublished novel about Pontius Pilate. This Master--as he calls himself--has been driven mad by rejection, broken not only by editors' harsh criticism of his novel but, Bulgakov suggests, by political persecution as well. Yet Pilate's story becomes a kind of parallel narrative, appearing in different forms throughout Bulgakov's novel: as a manuscript read by the Master's indefatigable love, Margarita, as a scene dreamed by the poet--and fellow lunatic--Ivan Homeless, and even as a story told by Woland himself. Since we see this narrative from so many different points of view, who is truly its author? Given that the Master's novel and this one end the same way, are they in fact the same book? These are only a few of the many questions Bulgakov provokes, in a novel that reads like a set of infinitely nested Russian dolls: inside one narrative there is another, and then another, and yet another. His devil is not only entertaining, he is necessary: "What would your good be doing if there were no evil, and what would the earth look like if shadows disappeared from it?"

My weirds so far are mostly "huh, I don't know about that" but one of my FAVORITE books, House of Leaves is weird in a wonderfully good way. It's about a house that's bigger on the inside than it is on the outside, and it's a story-in-a-story-in-a-story with one of the storytellers being a blind guy who's critiquing a documentary film that doesn't exist. The word "house" is always in blue and the writing goes upside down and backwards and sometimes there is only one word on each page. It's madly wonderful.

The other weird books I've listed so far are by Philip K. Dick (Three Stigmata, Bret Easton Ellis Lunar Park, and Haruki Murakami ( Wild Sheep Chase). The problem is determining WHICH book by each of those authors to list, since they're all very bizarre. I'm thisclose to switching Lunar Park for Glamorama.

Oh, crap! How could I leave out Philip K. Dick?!!! Oh, man...now my list sucks.

You can amend, KD, or repost.

I'm trying to think what books I've read that are weird. I don't think I'm a weird book aficionado.

Of course, most anything by Edward Gorey counts...

I've been browsing through my lists (and filling in a review here and there, as some of you have noticed), and I've realized that kids' books are lousy with weirdness!

Why, all of Dr. Seuss' oeuvre is weird (green eggs and ham, trespassing cats, and what in the heck is a Grinch, anyway?), Mary Poppins floating in carried by her umbrella, and then there's Roald Dahl...

The hard part is going to be narrowing my list down to ten!

I would say the weirdest book I've ever read is Flan by Stephen Tunney. He is a great artist and musician as well, with his own act called Dogbowl. (Visit his site Dogbowl.com for a free CD download and to check out his art.) He was an original member of King Missile, who were also quite weird and wonderful. You may recall their one hit song "Detachable Penis." Ring a bell? Hit close to home for me.

Anywho, Flan is about as disturbing as a post-apocalyptic surrealist beach party can get. It's so raw your neuron's will feel dirty after reading it. A good bracing pudding that tastes like showering in lava.

After that, I go to Extraterrestrial Sex Fetish as a close second. It is the imagining of the most bizarre, disturbing sex practices that might be practiced by aliens told from the perspective of a an extreme human-pervert obsessed with having sex with aliens. Allow me to reassure you, if you had any doubts, aliens can party like nobody's bidness. It's written by someone or some media group that calls itself Supervert Avant-garde to the extreme--I admire the writer's or writers' willingness to not bend to any common moral sensibility.

After that, the next weirdest book I've ever read would be Come Before Christ and Murder Love by Stewart Home. A real family novel that i quite enjoyed. It's quite odd and hard to describe but roughly: man who thinks he's a magician (the Robert Anton Wilson type) is trapped in some kind of infinite loop like the movie Groundhog Day. He keeps trying to perform sex magic with various women but it never works out. The book almost casts a spell in the reading.

Finally, I'll throw in a classic that i would put head-to-head against any weird challenger: Naked Lunch, one of my favorites. You can't beat it for raw intensity, bizarre absurd descriptions and general weirdness.

Sweet Dream Pie is one weird kid's book, it's like everyone goes on an acid trip, haha! When Jake was a toddler, he asked my Mom to read it to him and she absolutely hated it, much to my glee. Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs is pretty odd, as well.

Re: House of Leaves, several people whose opinion I respect (and now you too Brooke!) have like House of Leaves, and much as I'd like to read it, I've heard it's pretty scary. My overactive imagination may not be able to take it!

House of Leaves is an excellent book.

[MINOR SPOILING WARNING:]

Imagine Rolande Barthe wrote a creepy horror novel. There is no monster or villain...the "evil" is actually the "empty space" in a house...the signifier "evil" is missing its signified...and so are several characters...perfect for a grad school thesis or beach reading.

Hey I just listed some REAL examples of WEIRD books-I have not scratched the surface of my book list yet darlings.

Just finished Bad Monkeys--Bad mind trip that was.

there seems to be no real definition of weird here.

These are just the first I pulled out. i hated Geek love, BUT it is a great example of what kind of books belong here.

the Princess Bride is a walk in the park with a picnic basket .

Well, each to their own, but i was hope for some real coolness when i heard about this today. Going to be Beige i guess.

Lori, I think it's one of the scariest books I've ever read, but it's scary in a WEIRD (how appropriate!) way, very psychological-horrorish. It definitely takes an overactive imagination to appreciate it!

Amok Journal Sensurround Edition-getting me a copy off amazon.com. Now that is the definition of this topic and bookshelf! Please keep this ball rolling, for i want 49 more new titles to shop for please! :)

Noran, weird is in the eye of the beholder. Why don't you give us your definitions of weird instead of making claims that others are, in your words "Beige"? You know, discuss and all that :)

As with the discussion when we did the Junk Reading shelf, sometimes talking about how we define junk, or weird, or...? is every bit as interesting as the lists.

I think my three "weird" authors (Murakami, PKD, Bret Easton Ellis) are weird because their books have dream-like qualities. You know how in dreams things can shift in illogical ways, although within the dream they make sense.

B.E.E.'s Glamorama has characters jumping into the storyline suddenly with direction about how the characters are supposed to act - it reminded me of dreams I have where I'm IN a video game, and then suddenly the dream shifts to where I'm sitting behind the TV PLAYING the video game, but it all makes sense until I wake up and say, 'huh?'

Murakami's Wild Sheep Chase has some guy just accepting that he has to go search for a sheep with a star on it after being threatened that his life will be ruined if he doesn't.

PKD's books are more drug-tripping sort of weird in that reality is all buggered and you're always asking, "What is real?" (I think some of B.E.E.'s books have this quality, too)

Extraterrestrial Sex Fetish

*flying to google!*

Here's a question: is shocking the same as weird? I think weirdness can BE shocking, but doesn't necessarily have to be. It could be funny, or incongruous, or beautiful, too.

And what about quality? Even if a book is incredibly weird, it might not be great, or even worth reading.

Weird in iambic pentameter! Heee. Yeah, I think weird can be otherworldly, or eerie, or it can do odd and disorienting things with narrative structure, or it can set up expectations and then pull them out from under your feet, lots of room for different kinds of weird.

There is no Absolute Zero Kelvin of weird. I agree with Sherri that weird is a very personal judgment. For example, i thought House of Leaves and Geek Love were both fantastical and fantastic, but not excessively weird. If you grew up reading fantasy fiction, then I think neither strikes as way out there. But i can see why some might see them as weird. House of Leaves borders on weird for me not so much because it's creepy but because it's experimental, having 3 stories running in parallel one of which is in footnotes. Defining weird... it's all about the freak-syndrome, one of the very things Geek Love is about. Who gets to decide who is a freak and why? Enigma the tattooed man may seem weird to many people (horns implanted under your skin, anyone?), but to his wife Katzen, he's just wonderful. Maybe the real freaks are the people who are so normal they can't embrace being different. But i digress.

I personally judge weird in literature to mean any potpourri of the following:
- Avant-garde/experimental in structure and/or narrative--enough to mess with your concept of fiction. How pomo does it have to be? That depends on your opinion. I think Naked Lunch is very weird in structure--Burroughs pushed the boundaries of what was possible. But it wasn't really post-modern in the way self-referential literature is. Pomo can be odd but still not avant-garde.
- Pushing/breaking the boundaries of social acceptability (Was it so extreme in some fashion that it will offend or disturb--and to me violence doesn't fit comfortably here because violence/horror is very commonplace. Friday the 13th is not weird, it's just gross and available at Blockbuster). Does it challenge typical sensibilities and expectations? Will it shock the jury?

Weird, of course, doesn't have to be good either. It just have to be really different and rule breaking. I did list 4 books i felt were both weird and good. I'll throw out a challenge: i'd be really surprised if anyone could read Extraterrestrial Sex Fetish or Flan and not think they were weird.

I like Brooke's definition of weird being similar to dreams, in that while there they make total sense but upon awakening they have broken logic. So psychologically and even spritually they are completely sensible, but not so much in our space/time continuum. Heee. I got the s/t stuff in!

I do hope we don't get into a competition about weirdness.

Master and Margarita was an excellent weird book, loved it, and I'll be reading it again. In spite of all the weirdness, it's written in such a realistic style that one says while reading, well why not? Now if that isn't weird stuff being done to our brain, what is?

I am moving this comment from the list thread:

That sounds like the plot to the movie Basket Case, and the X-Files episode "Humbug", Lori.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humbug_(The_X-Files)

Here's what I can come up with in the way of elaboration on my choices.

1. The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters is weird in many ways and fits none of my usual genres so far as I can see -- and yet it was a book which pulled one along to the end with little time to think -- do I want to finish or not? I have found very few people thus far who have read it and I cannot frame guidelines for choosing anyone to recommend this one to -- so I'm doomed to pondering this on my own, it would seem.

2. Under the Skin was a substitute for a Faber which I was supposed to get my hands on and read with a group. I did pick up the other one and get it read as well but this one was a real departure for me -- and well-done but while it may get a decent rating, I still waiver on whether I can actually say I liked it.

3. The Mask of Sanity was a long , slow, slog full of case studies and dry as a bone writing but the information was fascinating and enlightening.

4. The Piano Teacher was weird and voyeuristic reading and left an afterhaze of blue. I don't think it's a book one can say one liked but I suppose it could be said it was powerful.

5. The Metamorphosis and/or The Trial either one could be labeled weird -- I mean you wake up and you're a cockroach? or you are on trial and have no idea why? I think the latter was the most disturbing for the strangeness of the shifting convolutions of place and setting.

6. Enduring Love as I said three attempts before i could finish it -- had help and hand-holding figuratively speaking to do so. And I GOT it, finally really did -- but did I like it? Yes. No. I don't know. Well, yes, I like it. Let's say it seriously continues to unsettle me. Weird, weird, weird -- seemed to me the perfect beginning to the review and still does. Do I think it's a good book? Now THAT I can answer -- YES.

7. Justine, Philosophy in the Bedroom and
Other Writings was somewhat like watching films filled with foul language -- after a while it becomes static. This book is so filled with sexual depravities from the mildest to most extreme that it isn't all that shocking after the first little while. and the language -- is rather exquisite which tends to mask the topics from time to time. Read this sort of on a dare -- just to say I'd done so.

8. Beautiful Losers seems now a bit like a modern version of Justine -- foul and sex laced and disjointed. I really don't GET Cohen. Well, not exactly so but I'm not sure I need to spend any more time with him.

9. A Blessing on the Moon blew me away. The strangeness was out of my normal reading range but it simple didn't matter because the story was what i was engulfed in and the strangeness simply didn't take away from the strength of that. Highly recommend this but yes, I believe weird fits it.

10. The Devils of Loudon was fascinatingly weird and it was Aldous Huxley -- who knew? Another weird but highly recommended reading experience.

Dottie, I read The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters! Nice to meet you, you are the first person I know who has even heard of it, yes I wouldn't begin to know how to describe it and haven't recommended it to anyone for that reason.

"There's nowt as weird as folks"!!
That is why I think The Guinness Book of Records is one of the weirdest books I have ever seen.

I had The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters checked out from the library for a long time but didn't manage to get to it before someone requested it and I couldn't renew it any longer. I've always meant to go back to it.

My selections fall into two categories:

1. Books that are weird because of their content:
The Master and Margarita
White Noise
Breakfast of Champions
The Intuitionist
The Space Merchants
The Trial
Towing Jehovah

2. Books that are weird because of the way they are written:
Trout Fishing in America
Pale Fire
The Book of Laughter and Forgetting

I think I'm using the word weird here as a synonym for "unusual" or "idiosyncratic". Although content is a wider category, because there are only so many forms a book can take and still be intelligible.

So Dave, what's weird about WHITE NOISE?

Somebody challenged me on The Princess Bride. I added that because at the time I read it, in 7th or 8th grade, I found the book to be strangely structured. The author inserts himself into the novel in a way I hadn't encountered before, claiming that it was an abridgement of a previous work, and adding all sorts of footnotes and references to the previous work. I had never read a book that had both a plot and a commentary on itself contained within the same text -- actually, I can't think of another off the top of my head, although I'm sure someone would be happy to supply a couple. I haven't read it in years, so it may be that it isn't all that strange, but I think it merits a mention.

As far as I'm concerned everybody gets to add whatever seems weird to them but I am especially interested in your reason Sarah. I added Pale Fire for similar reasons it is also one in which the narrator inserts himself into the process in odd ways. In Pale Fire there are also good reasons to suspect that the narrator is not very reliable and you can't trust what he says. Then again how else do you get the information, he's the narrator you have to see it through his eyes so then you start comparing notes oh wait a minute he said this but then four pages later he says the opposite... it puts you in an odd relationship to the narrative. Which Goldman uses to great comic effect in Bride, and Nabokov uses to mess with my head in Pale Fire. I would never have thought to connect those two books in that way if you hadn't commented. Interesting.

Oh oh oh I just remembered "My Elvis Blackout" by Simon Crump. For example :

"When he was a foetus, Elvis used to wait till his Mom was asleep, carefully remove his umbilical cord, sneak out of her insides and head off into town. He usually wore the little tartan coat which Alfredo, their disgusting toy poodle, wore for his walks with Momsy on cold winter mornings. Elvis looked like a complete tosser in this outfit, what with the blood and the dog hairs, but what the fuck did he care? He was the unborn King of Rock 'n' Roll and if he wanted to go out naked except for a ridiculous tartan dog coat, he bastard well would. He'd steal cans of Delmonte pineapple chunks from the Magic Market on Centenary Road, Goole, England.
'Now's the time to rip stuff off,' he figured. 'Before I get any goddamn fingerprints.'
One time when he got home he tried to crawl back inside Alfredo by mistake, but as any fool knows, you can't get to heaven in a biscuit tin (coz a biscuit tin's got biscuits in) and you can't fit an embryo up a dog's arse."

Sarah, I totally agree with you on that. If you had any idea how long I actually wondered if there really WAS an unabridged version... :D

Sherri--out of the mainstream. unique, very odd, bizarre. strange. not normal.

Sarah--based on your age at the princess bride, I can see how you may view things, I as an adult seeing it as a film first , then a book-found it a glorious romp of humor and joy!

I was brought up strange and odd myself!

My hubby asked where is De sade in all of this-never read his myself i said. I sighted the fist to come off my list at random-most favs-with fun illustrations yet! Trying for the mood of the month.
i guess i am asking for a definition for the shelf set by the beings in power, to know how weird they want it i guess.

Sarah, I just view Bride as a cherished classic that all should experience in print and film-i see it as fun, not weird at all-modern fairy tales. sorry if i upset you in anyway-sincerely.
I saw another's list of children's books and it paused me completely--i have a listing for strange children books and none of them are there-most of those are under child or classic for me. See--viewpoints vary so dramatically with life experiences. I was raised with dark humor-mother might die every day-so you hide it from the kids of you make it part of every day life. Mother made it far past her five year sentence, and i am well adjusted and well rounded for it. Family humor was unique in our home!

So someone else can define weird for this thread. i will just sit back and keep my comments to myself, and only applaud.
Again-sorry Sarah--great insight you shared with me!

Why would we need or want to have a definition that excludes either Sarah or Noran's choices? I don't think that makes things more interesting for anybody. Lets all just be weird however we want to be weird eh?

Thanks bunny! NoW that is cool with me! Weird in the eye of the beholder!

by the way, i am getting me some:Flan by Stephen Tunney--looking mighty fine!

Yes, weird is relative, but there's no debating that Paul's Elvis fetus is definitely weird. Jeezus, where did you find that?!

Oh Sarah--I did extensive checking, just in case, there are on other works the Princess bride is based on or abridged from, there is none. I so hoped I was going to to find something, just like my search for legends of Totoro-nothing there either.

Now there is one for WEIRD Child child movie of the year-yet wholesome!

Loooove My Neighbor Totoro, Noran! Especially the cat bus with, what, 8 legs?

Noran -- I have Justine - de Sade on my list -- so there he is. Of course I don't know if my elaboration concerning its weirdness satisfies but it stands.

Okay, here are some of my choices with my reasons:

Under the Skin - Michael Faber
Although I have since read reviews that helped me understand this is satire regarding the meat consuption in our country - and I buy that - I still found it an odd book. I enjoyed it, but it was weird (by my definition of weird...I'll get into that later :)

Running with Scissors – Augusten Burroughs
This one was weird because of allllll the stuff this man went through (it's a memoir). Some of it painful to read about, some hilarious, some...unbelievable and disturbing.

Weetzie Bat – Francesca Lia Block
Love this book! I always recommend it to my students who...march to the beat of a different drum. It's kind of like Stargirl, but with more beautiful imagery - a kiss is compared to cotton candy (yum!). I guess this one is weird to me because of the eclectic main character.

Godbody – Theodore Sturgeon
Again, I love this book! The idea of love expressed in the story is different from society's norm...hence "weird." Perhaps the world would be a better place...

Misty, I almost put Weetzie Bat on my list. Definitely weird, in a fever dream/L.A. way.

Tom, re: White Noise. Are you asking because you haven't read it? If you did read it, what elements of the story did you find normal?

I was thinking that I haven't really read anything "weird" until I read Koe's description of "repulsive-necrophiliac-thinly-veiled-celebrity-weirdo weird."

"Snow, Glass, Apples" by Neil Gaiman definitely fits that list. And it's creepy, too.

"Coraline," on the other hand, tries to be weird but is yawnsome.

My mom thinks all of my fantasy books are "weird," but she has no problems reading "Piggy Pie" to my nieces and nephews.

Yawnsome is a GREAT word!!!!

Coraline isn't what I'd class as really weird but I wouldn't call it yawnsome -- though I DO love that word! I actually liked Coraline (my only Gaiman so far) very much -- which is odd since the fantasy/sci-fi/magical realism etc genre is not my usual cuppa at all.

Okay, back to the weirdness.

Dave, I have read WHITE NOISE.

I asked you because I found the book to be pretty much, how shall I say this, not-weird. The style was clear, the story was clear with a couple of unusual elements, like the airborne toxic event and the drug, but nothing particularly "weird." I found nothing about the book to be weird at all.

What did you find to be weird about WHITE NOISE?

Noran - No offense taken. I thought it was worth explaining.

If the thread is meant for "weird" as in "quirky", the list is probably endless, since there are entire genres that might fall under that category. If it includes books that are not themselves inherently weird, but contain quirky characters. Isn't it every writer's goal to make the characters quirky enough to be memorable?

The various definitions of the category and the explanations of people's choices are what make this thread interesting to me.

Since Neil Gaiman's books have already been brought up, I'll explain why I chose "A Walking Tour of the Shambles" out of all of his books. Most of what he's written could easily be classified as "weird", as backed up by a thesaurus. His themes are weird before you get to his characters, many of whom are also weird.
A Walking Tour of the Shambles is a faux travel guide of a faux neighborhood in a real city. As such, it has no characters or plot in the traditional sense. I'd argue that in lieu of characters, the sites become characters, and the descriptions of the various destinations are stories in themselves. It also purports to be only one part of a larger series - I wish it was. I'd love to read the rest.

Dottie, Mindy, thank you for the compliment. *pets my cute word*

Dottie, I don't think "Coraline" is weird either, but I think that's what Gaiman was going for. It didn't work for me because he didn't overcome the clichéd plot or make the characters more than two-dimensional.

I think I'd know weird if I met it, but I also haven't really gone out to try and meet it.

Are you guys talking about the same "White Noise"? Because if you're talking about the Rudy Rucker book, yeah that sucker is weird. It's actually the one Rucker book I don't like much.

It also reminds me of a Damon Knight book called "Humpty Dumpty", which I also didn't like much - although I am pretty much a fan of Knight's stuff.

Also, I don't remember who mentioned it but I almost put Michael Faber's "Under the Skin" on my list.

See and I actually liked the flatness of Coraline because I felt it had the quality of a folk tale, where people don't demonstrate the motives and character behind their behavior, they just do stuff and leave us to figure it out. Why does a troll live under a bridge and grab people? Because that's what trolls do. Why do mice sing odd whispery songs in the garden? Because they are mice. Isn't it fun how different people can see very different things in the same work?