Big Books of 2026

Listopia > Experimental Book Lists

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony BurgessFight Club by Chuck Palahniuk1984 by George OrwellThe Catcher in the Rye by J.D. SalingerSlaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Best Experimental Books Ever
1,107 books — 1,719 voters
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. SalingerFight Club by Chuck PalahniukThe Great Gatsby by F. Scott FitzgeraldAmerican Psycho by Bret Easton EllisThe Beasts of Success by Jasun Ether
Cult fiction
538 books — 466 voters

If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler by Italo CalvinoHouse of Leaves by Mark Z. DanielewskiCloud Atlas by David MitchellPale Fire by Vladimir NabokovInvisible Cities by Italo Calvino
Oulipo,etc.
254 books — 250 voters
No Urgency To Be Home by Neha R. KrishnaLullaby of Love by Rebecca WinningThe Princess Saves Herself in This One by Amanda LovelaceThe Collected Poems by Sylvia PlathThe Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson by Emily Dickinson
Poetry by Women
452 books — 178 voters

Cloud Atlas by David MitchellHouse of Leaves by Mark Z. DanielewskiIf on a Winter’s Night a Traveler by Italo CalvinoSophie’s World by Jostein GaarderThe Unfortunates by B.S. Johnson
Uniquely Structured Books
105 books — 77 voters
Middlemarch by George EliotWolf Hall by Hilary MantelThe Golden Notebook by Doris LessingBring Up the Bodies by Hilary MantelMiss MacIntosh, My Darling by Marguerite Young
Large Experimental Books by Women
87 books — 71 voters

Beloved by Toni MorrisonThe Bluest Eye by Toni MorrisonCitizen by Claudia RankineCane by Jean ToomerJazz by Toni Morrison
WHERE IS OUR BLACK AVANT GARDE?
30 books — 29 voters
Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead by Barbara ComynsEvent Factory by Renee GladmanThe Complete Stories of Leonora Carrington by Leonora CarringtonCreature by Amina CainSuite for Barbara Loden by Nathalie Léger
Dorothy, A Publishing Project
33 books — 28 voters

Bluets by Maggie NelsonCitizen by Claudia RankineDon’t Let Me Be Lonely by Claudia RankineAutobiography of Red by Anne CarsonThe Argonauts by Maggie Nelson
Lyric Essay and Hybrid Genre
59 books — 25 voters
Citizen by Claudia RankineThe Hearing Trumpet by Leonora CarringtonHer Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria MachadoDon't Call Us Dead by Danez SmithAutobiography of Red by Anne Carson
experimental writing by women, non-binary writers & men of colour
122 books — 24 voters

Infinite Jest by David Foster WallaceZ213 by Dimitris LyacosPOENA DAMNI by Dimitris LyacosTHE FIRST DEATH by Dimitris LyacosWith the People from the Bridge by Dimitris Lyacos
Alternative and Experimental Literature
44 books — 22 voters
Mumbo Jumbo by Ishmael ReedBeloved by Toni MorrisonErasure by Percival EverettOreo by Fran RossNegrophobia by Darius James
African-American Post–Civil Rights Experimental Literature
24 books — 14 voters

The Complete Tales and Poems by Edgar Allan PoeAnxiety by Danny WinterWeaving Wyrd by Elle MortI Am Schizophrenic by Kerenza RyanThe Timeline Pervert by Alvin Tung
Dark Poetry
33 books — 11 voters
The Craziest Book Ever Written by Mr. WFear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. ThompsonAnimal Farm by George OrwellRebecca by Daphne du MaurierMy Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier
Books With the Best First Chapter
38 books — 11 voters

Exercises in Style by Raymond QueneauThe Art of Asking Your Boss for a Raise by Georges PerecCosmicomics by Italo CalvinoIf on a Winter's Night a Traveler by Italo CalvinoInvisible Cities by Italo Calvino
...nothing but Oulipo
39 books — 8 voters
Naked Lunch by William S. BurroughsThe Illuminatus! Trilogy by Robert SheaIn Heaven, Everything is Fine by Cameron PierceFear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. ThompsonVALIS by Philip K. Dick
Stoner Lit
38 books — 8 voters

Fun Home by Alison BechdelSphinx by Anne GarrétaMan Struggling With Umbrella by P.J. MacNamaraNights by H.D.Gut Symmetries by Jeanette Winterson
Experimental Novels, Memoirs, Essays, Hybrid, and Other Prose
39 books — 7 voters
Tell Your Children by Alex BerensonStrappado by Karl JirgensThe Sentimental Song Book by Julia A. MooreHow to Survive Being Committed to a Mental Hospital by Doug CameronHow to Shit in the Woods by Kathleen Meyer
Orna'mental' Illnesses
208 books — 7 voters

The Craziest Book Ever Written by Mr. WThe Metamorphosis by Franz KafkaFear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. ThompsonFight Club by Chuck PalahniukLong Live Hoes by Mr. W.
Crazy First Paragraph Books
7 books — 6 voters
House of Leaves by Mark Z. DanielewskiCrossings by Alex LandraginThe Timeline Pervert by Alvin TungS. by J.J. AbramsTree of Codes by Jonathan Safran Foer
Formally Experimental Print Books
12 books — 3 voters

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott FitzgeraldThe War of the Worlds by H.G. WellsThe Metamorphosis by Franz KafkaFahrenheit 451 by Ray BradburyMoby-Dick; or, the Whale by Herman Melville
Books in 'Bernard-jou Iwaku'
89 books — 3 voters
White Noise by Don DeLilloThere Is No Antimemetics Division by qntmPersephone in the Late Anthropocene by Megan GrumblingHigh-Rise by J.G. BallardThe Book of Lies by Aleister Crowley
Existential Horror
23 books — 2 voters

The Great Camouflage by Suzanne CesaireNotebook of a Return to the Native Land by Aimé CésaireThe Flagellants by Carlene Hatcher PoliteRhinestone Sharecropping by Bill GunnMore Brilliant Than the Sun by Kodwo Eshun
Black is a synonym for the Avant-Garde
31 books — 1 voter
It Then by Danielle CollobertRoutines, Expanded Edition by Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Horror-Poetry
2 books — 1 voter

Nadja by André BretonThe Complete Stories of Leonora Carrington by Leonora CarringtonThe Hearing Trumpet by Leonora CarringtonManifestoes of Surrealism by André BretonThe Automatic Message by André Breton
Surrealist & Experimental Book List
12 books — 1 voter
The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth GrahameStranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. HeinleinThe Ark Sakura by Kōbō AbeGrendel by John GardnerThe Passion of New Eve by Angela Carter
Books That Would Make Great Concept Albums
15 books — 1 voter

Girlbeast by Cecilie LindBook of Mutter by Kate ZambrenoPrototype Grimoire of Grimalkin. by Sascha Aurora AkhtarDialogue with a Somnambulist by Chloe AridjisPleasure Beach by Helen Palmer
Prototype Publishing
11 books — 1 voter
Jurassic Park by Michael CrichtonFlashforward by Robert J. SawyerThe Island of Doctor Moreau by H.G. WellsThe Daughter of Doctor Moreau by Silvia Moreno-GarciaFrankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
Weird Science, Mad Science and Bad Science in Fiction Part I
100 books — 1 voter

Promethean Horrors by Xavier Aldana ReyesThe EC Archives by Al FeldsteinWeird Tales Presents by VariousMad Science! by Dave FreerThe EC Archives by Al Feldstein
Weird Science, Mad Science and Bad Science in Fiction Part II
78 books — 1 voter
Bad Science by Ben GoldacreThe Skeptic Encyclopedia of Pseudoscience by Michael ShermerWeird Weapons of World War II by Christopher MiddletonScreams of Reason by David J. SkalThe Book of the Damned by Charles Fort
Weird Science, Mad Science and Bad Science in Non-Fiction
100 books — 1 voter

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