Any good weird, interesting, off-the-wall books?

Question

I'm looking for some non-fiction books to check out. I usually eat and sleep odd books for long periods of time to inspire my own writing, but I've come short of them lately. Any suggestions, titles or authors? Preferably non-fiction.

Answer 1

Little Women, Good Wives, Little Men & Joe’s Boys by L. M. Alcott
Harry Potter by J. K Rowling
Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Wuthering Heights by Charlotte Bronte
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
The Overcoat, The Nose and Other Short Stories by Nikolai Gogol
1984 and Animal Farm by George Orwell
Catch 22 by Joseph Heller
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
Atonement by Ian McEwan
The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahaeme
Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson
Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D Salinger
Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom
Lemony Snicket’s series of Unfortunate Events
The Catcher in The Rye
A Clockwork Orange
The Lord of The Flies
Brave New World
The Handmaid's Tale
The Old Man and The Sea

p.s: there are some none- fiction books amoung them!!

Answer 2

Try Morals and Dogma by Albert Pike, the Golden Bough by James George Frazer, the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Gibbon, The Greek Myths by Robert Graves, or the Secret Hand by Paul Proctor.

Answer 3

I've read (or in the case of the Codex, pored over) all of these and I'd say they meet all four criteria and then some. Butler and Pavic are technically fiction, but still.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dictionary_of_the_Khazars -- Milorad Pavic
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laws_of_Form -- G. Spenser Brown
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Thousand_Plateaus -- Deleuze & Guattari
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codex_Seraphinianus -- Luigi Serafina
Sighs in Disguise & Irresistible Observations, Herbert Brün
ALLOS: Other Writing -- Kenneth Gaburo, ed.
The Story that Teaches You How to Write It -- William Gillespie
Pictures of Patriarchy -- Batya Weinbaum
Rousing the Rubble -- David Hammons
Bloodchild -- Octavia Butler

Answer 4

POOH UNPLUGGED by Karen Finley
"is a cutting parody that dissects hypocrisy and hypercommercialism by taking Pooh and Christopher Robin, Tigger and Eeyore out of their fairy tale and into real life. The Hundred Acre Wood is alive with ennui, secret sexual fantasies, and greed. Pooh has an eating disorder, Piglet suffers from low self-esteem, Owl has delusions of grandeur, Eeyore is just plain depressed, and Christopher Robin is an enabler in Finley's deftly drawn cartoon world. Through the eyes of one of America's most potent social observers, the lure of big bucks, syndication, and movie deals infects Pooh Corner, and the changes wrought by the "Disneyfic-ation" of these lovely woodland creatures is both hilarious and horrifying."

Answer 5

Two of the greatest, most interesting, weird non-fiction books I've read - both of them funny and mind-blowing (and bear in mind that my summaries don't do them justice):

Cod: a Biography of the Fish that Changed the World, by Mark Kurlansky
- the history of this amazing fish, and how it fueled Europeans' discovery of the Americas, slavery, and U.S. independence, among other things, as well as the current state of cod farming and fishing.

The Botany of Desire, by Michael Pollan
- the author examines the histories of 4 plants - potatoes, tulips, marijuana, and apples - and their relationships with humans, including how humans have changed them through cultivation, and how the plants have successfully propagated themselves by evolving into objects of desire. The book discusses, among other things, industrial agribusiness, the effects of cannibis, the truth behind Johnny Appleseed, and Holland's tulip craze of the 17th century. Amazing.

Answer 6

My Husband Betty, by Helen Boyd ;)

really lovely book about the tranvestite, transgender and everything in between community.

I own it and Im being completely serious here. It totally interesting.

Answer 7

Leopold's Dream By Fransisco Melendez
I do not know if it is non-fiction the back says
"Leopold's Dream, believe it or not, tells of the invention of the airplane. . . "
It is very off-the-wall in both design and illustration.
I kind of liked it. If you do read it answer my question is it real?

Answer 8

Stiff: The Curious Life of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach - check it out here http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/2323141

Answer 9

ISHMAEL by Daniel Quinn
Anything by Silvia Browne

If you feel like being enlightened. You have to read Ishmael though.

Answer 10

Not sure if this is what you're after, but it's something that interests me. Try 'First Person Plural' by Cameron West.