Looking for Uniqueness

[LOG]

If we already have a LFB thread somehwere and I missed it, sorry, just move this there.

I'm looking for any recommendations for really unique books. The type of stories that truly are different, or contain something really different, from what you expect in those sort of novels.

(There's a mini-rant below, and was the tipping point that pushed me to stop trying to wade through all the crappy books to find the jewels. I hid it because I find it whiny, cause I'm a whiny person, but I didn't want to delete if after going to the trouble of actually typing it.)

You know those books we've probably all read? They go like this, 'really bitter bad-ass guy,' meets 'really compassionate female,' 'female and male will then somehow get into each other's pants by the 5th chapter usually,' 'story ends all happily,' usually with some more sex along the way. The characters really haven't changed in any way(like they're made of rubber or something) the only difference in their life being they've found each other...yay.
(Yes I'm a picky, picky person, didn't use to be, but I've found myself being really picky with my reading material lately.)

[alleycat]

Maybe A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole. You get not only the book, but also the weird story about Toole himself.

[mister_lister]

I usually pick from the best sellers. Something was lacking there and I decided to follow some prediliction in my film taste. A movie that had a profound effect on me was "Fight Club". The movie was actually based upon a book by the same name, by the author Chuck Palahniuk. He has written many novels and I recently purchased and I am reading, "Survivor".

All the novels from Chuck are far from mainstream fiction, although I am sure they are categorized as such, because he is not an easily identifiable story teller. Fringe, dark, some what nihalistic. Just the sort of spice I need on my steak. Even goes good with vegetables.

Try out some Chuck Palahniuk novels. Pick any one, there are quite a few to choose from. Nothing like you have ever read before.

[Matera the Mad]

All I know is I don't write that formula stuff :tongue

[bettielee]

Hey! I got one for you! The Iowa Baseball Confederacy by WP Kinsella (writer of Shoeless Joe Comes to Iowa which became Field of Dreams). Weird and basebally and fun and different!

I also enjoyed Atonement (movie sucked)

And what is LFB?

[LOG]

LFB(Looking for Book)

[Bubastes]

Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn.

[Kitty Pryde]

Gateway, Fred Pohl
anything by Philip K. Dick
anything by Italo Calvino
Basketball Jones, E. Lynn Harris
The Power of One, Bryce Courtenay
The Stars My Destination, Alfred Bester
Kafka on the Shore, Haruki Murakami