Anyone have any recommendations for books that will fuck with your head for a person that doesn't read all that often?
I read American Psycho, Lolita, A Clockwork Orange, and A Scanner Darkly (Most particularly enjoyed Lolita). Are there any books in that general sense?
Much appreciated.
Name:
Anonymous2009-04-08 7:50
I'd definitely recommend more Philip K. Dick. While it isn't his best work, try Lies, Inc. It's an easy read with a pretty cool premise, and the majority of the book consists of the protagonist's adventure while on LSD.
And while I haven't read it, I hear the Illuminatus Trilogy is quite a mindfuck. It's a fictional story that somehow incorporates numerous conspiracy theories into one.
Everyone suggests it constantly, but House of Leaves is a good one. It's the only book I ever stopped reading out of fear.
Name:
Anonymous2009-04-08 21:08
most of shakespeare's tragedies
Name:
Anonymous2009-04-09 1:18
>>5
I couldn't get into it at all, to be honest. If you want a book that's like House of Leaves without the pretentiousness, Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon is awesome. It's a REALLY heavy read, though. An easier book is The Crying of Lot 49--also wonderful.
Player Piano by Vonnegut and Oryx and Crake by Atwood are also good.
I just realized Romeo and Juliet is a satire of 14th century Petrarchan poetry and anyone taking it as serious romance is missing the point.
Name:
Anonymous2009-04-22 6:31
The Wasp Factory, by Iain Banks
Name:
Anonymous2009-04-22 15:54
Ubik
Name:
Anonymous2009-04-22 17:06
Ayn Rand. Will fuck with the head of an illiterate. Will cause a literate to facepalm.
Name:
Anonymous2009-04-22 23:44
THE DICE MAN
Name:
Anonymous2009-04-29 21:46
the metamorphosis my brotha
Name:
Anonymous2009-04-30 7:58
Hate to throw another PKD novel in here, but this thread can't end without someone having mentioned his masterpiece The Man In The High Castle.
Sticking with the sci fi guys, I'll add There Are Doors by Gene Wolfe. Not that anyone will read it. But it's a beautiful book. I'll add his short story "The Island Of Doctor Death, And Other Stories" which is equally as haunting.
I could mention anything by Salinger (those who know, know.) but try his short story "A Perfect Day For Banana Fish" or maybe "For Esme With Love and Squalor".
"Ishmael" by Daniel Quinn
"Mapping the Mind" by Rita Carter
"Godel, Escher, & Bach" by Douglas Hofstatder
"The Holographic Universe" (A Big hunk of crap, but still contains ideas that are fun to think about)
"The Invisibles" a series of graphic novels by Morrison.
"Merde"
Name:
Anonymous2009-05-02 12:43
Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs. Reading it for extended periods of time (50 pages+) gave me headaches.
Name:
Anonymous2009-05-02 21:33
The Stranger by Albert Camus
Name:
Anonymous2009-05-03 15:05
I really like Stephen King's Duma Key. King's books are generally really fucking your mind up.
Name:
Anonymous2009-05-07 6:38
Don't wanna be an American idiot
Don't want a nation under the new mania
And can you hear the sound of hysteria?
The subliminal mindfuck America.
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles or A Hard-Boiled Wonderland or Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami.
Let's see ... recently, I thought Blood Music by Greg Bear was a really good mindfuck.
I tried Iain Banks' Wasp Factory but I got bored about 1/4th in, spoiled by the twist already. :(
Name:
Anonymous2009-08-23 3:00
A few years ago in a GameFAQs thread on the Silent Hill 2 board (Listing various mindfuck and creepy books) someone recommended "Under the Overtree," and it was a REALLY hard book to find. Nobody could find it except one guy. I don't remember his review. I think he said it was lackluster, but it's worth a try if you can find it.
The title is really cool sounding.
Name:
Anonymous2009-08-25 20:13
Given the literary bent of OP's list, I'd certainly add Jeanette Winterson's recent novel The Stone Gods.
Name:
Anonymous2009-08-27 13:15
Flann O'Brien's The Third Policeman is an excellent mindfuck. It's about a murderer who gets trapped in a strange world which involves fat policemen and bicycles, and includes very funny footnotes about a fictional, mad philosopher called De Selby. Lost was apparently inspired by it, but I never got into it so I wouldn't know too much about that. Bottom line is if you're after a mindfuck book that is also a really entertaining bit of black comedy, get it.
>>38
That list is total BS. Real literature like Dune, Fight Club, and Snowcrash mixed in with lots of pretentious shit. Wow, just wow. At least he puts the best as A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn. That almost saves that God-forsaken list.